Pingüinos, street cleaners, jumbled thoughts and photographs

I have mentioned how Valparaíso me encanta in the morning when I am all fuzzy in the head and the city seems to match. Today I was running late (on midterm day....I never realized that teachers have the same slumps as their students) and didn't get out of my door until 7:30. As such, the street cleaner from the original post, who I see every morning, had made his way from the bottom of the stairs to the landing to which my door opens. So I stepped out to find him at my morning lookout spot, holding onto the iron railing looking out at the port as I do every morning. I feel rather more attached to this street cleaner now.

So, yesterday I woke up rather late after inexplicably deciding that Sunday morning, 3am, is the perfect time to drink a beer and listen to music for the next, oh, 3 hours. I am not sure if I have mentioned, but the family computer is directly outside my door. This leads to all kinds of interesting things, but in this case it lead to me being awakened to a Spanish language version of Frank Sinatra's "My Way." On repeat mode. At full volume so as to be heard in the kitchen at the other end of the house.

I don't think I've ever left the house so quickly after waking up on a weekend.

Anyhow so I went for a bit of a wander. I photographed a few things I've been meaning to, and explored some new streets. So to begin, allow me to introduce you to the Big Tree:

In Pennsylvania we had a Big Tree that was a frequent destination, at Woodcock park (please, no jokes). It was excellent for climbing, close to a very nice little river where I saw all kinds of animals that were new to my suburban-reared self, and to top it off had picnic tables and those little public grills that I would like to see in more places. So, now I have a new Big Tree. It is far Bigger than its Big predecessor. However as of yet I have not tried to climb it. It is in the middle of the Plaza Victoria, that is, it's quite public, and so far no one has expressed interest in climbing it with me. My threshold for embarassment has gone up quite a bit lately, but I'm not quite ready to be climbing Big Trees in public plazas, solo.

Here is another view of the Plaza, with the Cathedral visible in the background.


And here is a random photo of one of the many gorgeous buildings within the plan:

From there, I climbed up Cerro Bellavista and wandered a bit in the Museo a Cielo Abierto, a series of streets bearing murals from a number of artists (notably Matta). In general though they were not nearly as interesting as many of the murals I've seen throughout the city. I did like this random scribble, though:

One of those statements that inspires the thought, "Oh, that's poetic," which is shortly thereafter followed by "Well, no, actually, I guess it's not, particularly." But somehow I still like it. It might be the little bird-fish.

I did also like this plaza, the name of the artist escapes me but it was actually part of the official art:

There is a statue on top of Cerro Bellavista that can be seen from Plaza Victoria. It is some religious figure, arms out to the city. I was frusturated to find that from the hill you can only see the back of the statue, because it's gated off. So I'm not clear yet on who exactly is watching over the Big Tree.

I was also interested by a number of sheets hanging out of windows with the slogan "Cerro Bellavista--Sin vista?" I am going to try to find out what proposed or actual development this is in response to.....said the girl detective.

On the way back this fellow invited me into the Natural History Museum:

It was a national holiday dedicated to cultural affairs, so the museum was free. Despite the promising beginning, however, the museum was generally odd.

Why?:

Why?:

Well, ok, this is cool:

`God save thee, ancient Mariner !
From the fiends, that plague thee thus !
--Why look'st thou so ?'--With my cross-bow
I shot the ALBATROSS. :

And then I settled into something quite my style:

Excellent. To finish off this completely rambling post about nothing in particular, I present you with a photo from last Wednesday's military parade:

Aren't they dashing and.....armed....

Til the next time, when I will attempt to keep a steady line of thought going.