Arriving in Valparaiso

On Wednesday March 19, we managed to get from the apartment in Santiago to our B&B in Valparaiso (Valpo) with no problems.  We hailed a cab across the river from our apartment and got to the bus terminal in less than 15 minutes.  We bought our bus tickets and boarded the bus five minutes later-- ah, the joys of bus travel. The 1 1/2 hour bus ride took us back through the Casablanca Valley as we headed to the coast.  At the bus terminal in Valpo we caught a cab (a bit more pricey here) to our B&B called El Mirador (the viewpoint).

The B&B is very cottage-like, with an amazing view of the port.  The owner wasn't there, but a very nice woman (speaking only Spanish) welcomed us.  Luckily, there seem to be a few people staying here for longer periods of time.  A student from Brazil helped translate.  The weather is lovely here, around 7 or 8 degrees cooler than Santiago (21C instead of 28C) during the day and cooler at night.  It's going to be a totally different experience staying here than in Santiago.

Valpo has a population of around 280,000 (compared to six million in Santiago).  It has been the legislative capital since 1990.  Pinochet started the move of Congress to Valpo in 1987, but it was only completed in 1990, when democracy returned to Chile.  Valpo was declared "Chile's cultural capital" by the Chilean Congress in 2003.  It was made a UNESCO World Heritage site in the same year, due to its unique architecture.  Valpo also has 12 functioning funiculars.

Both Salvador Allende  (b. 1908) and Pinochet (b. 1915) were born in Valparaiso.

Hallway in main building

Patio area that we walk through to our room

Kitchen

Bedroom

We decided to go out and check out the neighbourhood.  No big supermercado's around, just a few tiny stores.  We got some empanadas and vegetables for dinner and then stopped at a neighbourhood coffee shop called Cafe Republica.

                                                          Bakery where we got the empanadas

Cafe Republica was a very small place and at first we were the only customers. We talked to the owner, Luis, who spoke a bit of English.  There were a number of old photos on the wall and Luis was playing jazz on his computer.   He said he was a graphic artist who had just been in the cafe business for the last seven months.  Luis took our picture for his Facebook page.  Another local guy came into the cafe and he turned out to have lived in Washington, D.C. for 10 years and spoke excellent English.  He gave us a bit of orientation to the neighbourhood and told us a good street to walk down nearby, which has interesting houses.  

                                                                           At the Cafe Republica

                                                      Luis making our espresso and cortado

We continued our walk in the 'hood past some interesting brightly-coloured houses.

Coloured facade

View of the port

                                                                 More interesting buildings

View from Gran Bretana Street

                                                                            View of container ports

We returned to the B&B for dinner.  Afterwards, we went for a short walk.  It's very quiet where we are staying.  We talked to the owner later in the evening.  She told us that she is renting a few rooms to students from Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina for six months.  It is very quiet up in the hills.

This afternoon, we are going to take the Free Tour of Valpo.