Valparaiso and Santiago are a couple hours apart in the middle of Chile. We wanted to see both and spent about five days in Valpo and a week in Santiago (we hadn't planned on quite that long but the Semana Santa holiday had flights all booked). Interesting how two cities so close to each other could be so different.
Valpo used to be a major port and the wealthiest city in Chile. The grand, ornate buildings are still there but looking pretty rough these days. The city is built over a few very steep hills, and is unique for its furniculars taking passengers up and down. They are over a hundred years old and usually only about half are in service. UNESCO money is helping to increase these numbers and fix up some of the more historic areas. Valpo is the hip and liberal city with lots of artists in residence and left wing statements scrawled on walls including vegan propaganda (Jen, you read this?). My favorite thing about Valpo was the murals. It was already well known for these, but last November, the government invited street artists from all over Chile to go nuts on a run down neighborhood that could use the tourism dollars. The word must still not be out among the tourists because Alex and I seemed to be the only ones exploring this neighborhood. There was so much variety and creativity and it beat the pretension and stuffiness of a gallery any day. I also loved the element of discovery as there was something new around every corner. I shot dozens but could only include a handful of favorites at the bottom of this post. Apologies for the load time.
Santiago immediately feels different. It is modern, wealthy, and businessy. It has an excellent metro system, some nice parks, and lots of pedestrian malls (I always thought the US needed more of those). Apart from a few mediocre museums and historic buildings, there isn't really much for a tourist, but I could see it being a nice city to live in. Like every city, it has a few of its own oddities.
About a hundred years ago, a businessman who recognized the mediocrity of Chilean coffee had the idea of giving his coffee shops another attraction, waitresses in short miniskirts. "Cafe con Piernas" (coffee with legs) was born. Now in most of the Santiago coffee shops you see the waitresses dressed this way, walking on catwalks behind the counter for a better view. Some shops take the idea a step further with the waitresses in bikinis. We even saw some shops with blacked out windows and decided not to find out what goes on in there. If you think this is contradictory to the conservative Catholic mindset you'd expect, you should see the sex toy shops.
My next post will be about Patagonia.
2 comments:
LOVE all the murals, but especially the steps-as-landscapes one ... BRILLIANT!
yes, i do! Thanks for the shout out!
jen
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