Valparaiso

From Santiago, we headed to the port city of Valparaiso, which is only about 2 hours away. Beforehand, we heard a variety of opinions about the city, ranging from wonderful to terrible.

The city is a collection of colorful houses built chaotically on about 40 hills without any recognizable order, adorned with many graffiti and naive paintings, with stairs and funiculars (Ascensores) winding between them. One can feel the splendor and wealth of past days while also clearly seeing the signs of neglect, renovation backlog, earthquakes, and fires (which can consume entire neighborhoods when they break out here).

Historically, what's interesting about Valparaiso is that it, along with San Francisco, was one of the most important ports on the Pacific Coast of America and one of the first ports reached after rounding Cape Horn. The harbor lost significance after the opening of the Panama Canal. Today, the city houses the Chilean Congress and the Navy.

A city that actually invites you to wander through the endlessly winding streets that go up and down the hills and get lost in this sea of houses. Unfortunately, in recent years, violence has increased greatly and appears to be out of control. When we inquired, we were told that it's best to stay on just two small tourist hills and only during the day, as large parts of the UNESCO World Heritage old town are not safe for visiting. Initially, we thought that was an exaggeration and walked through the harbor area and parts of the old town without issues (though poverty and increased drug use were noticeably present).

However, when we accidentally took the wrong elevator to the wrong hill, we were firmly asked by residents from their well-locked homes to quickly seek safety, as otherwise, things wouldn’t end well for us. This advice was given to us multiple times, and people were serious. We then heard increasingly chilling stories from tourists (and locals) who were brutally attacked in broad daylight. And whenever we strayed slightly away from the main tourist spot, we were urgently warned. This dampened our spirits a bit because the two 'allowed' hills just had a very small area, and here, too, the sidewalks were rolled up by 9 PM, and no one was out anymore. We felt trapped! Nevertheless, we tried to make the best of it and enjoyed the really nice old cafes with great city views during the day, had some really good pizza, and pondered what led to such terrible conditions for people in this city and how the city administration seems to have given up on large parts of it, leaving it to fend for itself.

Nonetheless, we dared to spend a day in the neighboring Vina del Mar (where we were immediately adopted by a grandma on the bus who ensured we got the right change, kept our bags securely closed, and arrived safely), to stroll along the beach and visit the archaeological museum. It had a really great section on the Rapa Nui (people of Easter Island).

That was Valparaiso, both wonderful and terrible at the same time.