Sunday, August 24, 2008

Touristing Valparaiso (with a cameo by Santiago)

I have my first visitors here in Chile....my lovely parents. On Friday night I pulled an accidental all-nighter and was on the first bus out of Valpo to pick them up at the airport at 7:30. We spent the day in Santiago, where we watched the changing of the guard at La Moneda, which seems to be based off the British ceremony with the addition of as much fanfare as possible (something that can be said for many things in Chile)

We also went to the Museo de Arte Precolumbino, wandered around the Plaza de Armas and the Mercado Central, and had a very nice lunch in Bellavista. At this point neither my parents, who had been on a plane all night, nor myself, who had been drinking tea and not planning ahead all night, were the least bit coherent. We grabbed their luggage out of storage and were back in Valpo by 6.

Today we set out to explore the city. They are staying in the very luxe Zero Hotel on Cerro Alegre, which I can say is a dream to freeload in (as I sit in an easy chair looking out across the bay). So to get started I decided we should take a look at the city from another angle.

We started out at the Sunday feria in Plaza O'Higgins, which is part flea market, part antique fair.



We poked through the spin-wheel sewing machines, cabinet record-players, brass doorknockers and ancient magazines until my father looked like he was going to fall asleep on his feet from boredom. We livened things up with a puppet show.



Afterwards we took a walk that merged on body-surfing through the Sunday feria on Avenida Argentina. This fair is approximately five blocks long and four stalls deep. Here you can buy just about everything imaginable: shaving cream, underwear, t-shirts, baseball caps (NY Yankees, but no Red Sox--unpardonable), masking tape, bolts, valentines, empanadas, chapstick, furniture, and pretty much anything else that someone managed to buy in bulk and lay out on a blanket. The place is thronged from mid-morning to mid-afternoon.



From there it was a very quick walk to the Ascensor Polanco, which opened in 1916. It is the only ascensor in Valparaiso that runs entirely vertically. It is accessed through a long stone tunnel, and it takes you to the top of a wooden tower with gorgeous views of the city.





You walk from the tower to Cerro Polanco by means of a long walkway, which is also an excellent place for flying kites, as a group of kids demonstrate below (not pictured: kite, as it was about a kilometer above us).





My parents brightening up the scenery.





Then we walked around the hill. Cerro Polanco is not in your guide book (if its any guidebook I've come across), but it should be. It is a quiet hill with small, colorful houses, corner markets, and great views. It's Valpo, in other words, but a particularly nice example of it that comes without the touristy feel of Cerros Alegre and Concepcion. Don't mistake me; I live on Cerro Alegre and I love the area. However I think the common practice of restricting tours of Valparaiso to those two hills, or even starting with them, is not the best way to see the city. Those hills should be loved for what they are, which is a great artistic enclave with some of the nicest (and most expensive) houses in town. They shouldn't, though, be taken as representative of, or the only interesting part of, the city. Every neighborhood has its own character and you don't need the mansions of shipping barons to enjoy a walk in Valparaiso. On Cerro Polanco, you'll find a very tranquilo jumble of color, parks, and stairways.



In the words of my mother, "It feels like a neighborhood. It feels like the kind of place where you could just walk down the street, knock on the door to see if anybody is home, and spend some time chatting on the stoop. There's sort of a peace to it, I guess, not frenetic. I loved all the kids running around just enjoying themselves, playing games, flying kites. Some places you go don't feel like a neighborhood--but on Cerro Polanco you see people walking around, beating rugs, just going about their business. It felt very villagy even though it wasn't that scale, because villages to me feel very community-focused in a way that the word 'town' or 'city' doesn't get across."









From Cerro Polanco we headed to the neighboring Cerro Baron, which can share in most of the descriptions of the former. The view from the top has great views back over the basin of the city, and down onto the plan. The houses opposite the Universidad Catolica reminded my mother of Dr. Seuss houses with trufula trees (reference: the Lorax).



On Cerro Baron we also found the alternative to Jumbo (a gigantic supermarket that might be compared to Wal-Mart, although it only sells food):



Just paces away: Jumbito!

3 comments:

Allison Azersky said...

What??? You found chapstick?!!? I can't believe I missed it. I went out the other day specifically to find chapstick, no luck.

I agree with your Mama on the Dr. Seuss comment. Valpo is the closest thing I've seen in real life to an actual Dr. Seuss world. Maybe thats why I like it so much.

Anonymous said...

hi meredith,

good to meet you the other day. i was perusing your blog and came across this post. in case you don't know about/have this little gem i highly!!! recommend it. it's all free on the internet or you can buy the book (in spanish or english) at the gato tuerto...anyway, polanco and baron hill do exist in guidebooks...at least in a guidebook...check it out, there are 15 walking ours in all...

http://www.senderobicentenario.cl/docs/tramo_09_eng.pdf

all tours...

http://www.senderobicentenario.cl/index.html

have a great day,

amanda

Meredith said...

Hey Amanda,

Nice to meet you too, and thanks for the tip! I've checked out the website before and it's very cool...my only disappointment was that the walking tours only seem to have routes, no further information. Maybe there's more in the book? In any event you're right, it's a very cool site nonetheless.