Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Valparaiso

Got on the bus to Valpairiso around 7am so got there not long after nine. Walked to the far end of town and began to work my way back. First impressions were not good, the town is fairly scabby and packs of stray dogs roam the streets. Where there are stray dogs there is also lots of stray dogshit. Some areas also seemed dodgy, and there were tramps and passed out drunks. I was beginning to wonder why people say it is so nice. The town is also covered in graffiti, including some amazing surreal murals and lots of really crappy destructive tagging.

After some wandering the first sight was the Lord Cochrane Museum (he was a Scotsman who led the Chilean navy in their war of independence!). The museum turned out to have barely anything in it, but was in a lovely old house with great views over the ramshackle houses that sprawl over the hills of Valparaiso. More wandering around followed, including a trip up on one of the Ascendors, basically short steep funicular trams to get around the town, and then through an open-air museum of graffiti murals. I then went to a second Neruda house, which I again enjoyed- it'd be nice to have a house like that some day, and he seems a very interesting guy. Each house had at least one bar in it and this one told you the secret recipe for his 'Coquetilon': equal parts champagne and cognac, with a few drops cointreau and orange juice - sounds nice!

Unfortunately the art museum here was closed for renovation, so as the Santiago post says I got back there in mid-afternoon. Valparaiso did grow on me, but it's not as beautiful as many say!

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