Adventures in South America: Valparaiso, Chile

We fly back to North America late tonight, but had the whole day to still enjoy Chile. Having experienced much of Santiago yesterday, today we decided to visit the lovely seaside city of Valparaiso. Pretty much everyone we met over the last couple of months before coming here who has been to Chile asked if we are going to Valparaiso, and we had not necessarily planned on it, but it worked out nicely to visit on our last day here. There are frequent intercity buses traveling the route and it is very affordable and takes about two hours. We were able to leave our luggage at the bus station in Santiago, too, which was very convenient since it will allow us to go straight from there to the airport later on. 

The Valparaiso bus station is across from the Congress building, which is pretty unique and on the site of Pinochet's childhood home.  

From the bus station we hopped on a city bus to take us further south to the Plaza Sotomayor. Valparaiso is Chile's main port, and where the Chilean navy is based. This building is (or at least was) the naval headquarters.

A short walk from the square . . .

. . . takes you to Ascensor Cordillera, one of what was once many funiculars that transport people from sea level up the cliff. I believe there are only something like sixteen of these left, but they remain a famous Valparaiso feature. 

You can ride them for about 25 cents. I was a big fan, and we rode four of them. 

Here are a couple photos of their inner workings. 

Valparaiso is also famous for its painted stairs and walls and such; it is super colourful and beautiful! 

Besides riding ascensores and enjoying the streetscapes, we had a lovely seafood lunch with a great view up on this patio.

This was our view as we dined.

Later, we enjoyed coffees with another lovely view.

We really enjoyed our afternoon in Valparaiso and we were happy we came; really, it deserves more than a full afternoon, and there seem to be many lovely places to stay along its colourful streets. Like this hotel, for example!

But, not only did we have to leave Valpo (as the locals call it) but it was time to leave Chile and South America altogether, so we took the bus back to Santiago and onward to the Santiago airport to begin our journey home. 

Adventures in South America: Santiago, Chile

We are back in Santiago for a couple of days before returning home tomorrow, arriving late last night. Unlike our last two stop overs in Santiago, we are not staying out by the airport, but much more centrally. In fact, in ten minutes we can walk to the Plaza de Armas.

(and, along the way, we pass the former Palacio del ex Congreso Nacional de Chile [the Congress is now located in Valparaiso])

We began our Saturday morning at the Plaza de Armas, enjoying coffee and watching Santiago come to life. 

For some reason, we especially found the living statue Buddha's set up routine of interest.

From Plaza de Armas we took the metro to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. 

Despite the name which implies a more universal topic, this museum is dedicated to covering the Pinochet regime and its human rights violations. On this wall are photos of all the people "disappeared" under Pinochet. It is a very powerful museum.

During the coup in which Pinochet came to power the Chilean military attacked the presidential palace in which President Allende was governing at the time--the Chilean Air Force even bombed the palace with the President in it! After visiting the museum I was curious to see the palace, so we went over there next.

It was interesting to see the palace and there was a lot of life going on over here, too (more so on the other side of the palace than in the photo above), and there was also a MASSIVE Chilean flag.

We continued on into Paseo Bulnes, where we ate some lunch and got another coffee.

Having spent some time in the older part of Santiago, we were curious to check out the more modern Costanera Center, home to South America's tallest building, Gran Torre Santiago.

I was considering going up to the top of the tower where there is a bar, but the price (and perhaps the wait) deterred me. We did walk around the mall below the tower for a bit, but it was really crowded and we headed back outside pretty quickly.

From Costanera Center we walked to San Cristobal Hill. For about $7 Canadian you can buy a ticket to take the cable car up the mountain and the funicular down, which sounded like a great way to spend an hour and would give me even better views than Gran Torre Santiago!

I found it challenging to take good photos from the cable car, but I did my best! The views were excellent!

There is a statue of Mary at the top of the mountain, and from the cable car stop we walked up to see her.

There is a really great view of the city from up here. I could even see the massive Chilean flag over by the presidential palace. 

After enjoying the top of San Cristobal for a bit we queued to go down the funicular.

The funicular drops you off in the Barrio Bellavista, which is full of bars and restaurants, and was a great place to stop for a bit and enjoy a glass of wine. We found a seat on the top of a bar with a view back to San Cristobal Hill.

I enjoyed a Chilean white.

After our glasses of wine, we took the metro back to Costanera Centre to finish our evening having dinner nearby.

In guidebooks and blogs folks typically do not have a lot of great things to say about Santiago, at least compared to other parts of Chile. Fair enough--Santiago is not Patagonia, or Rapa Nui, etc.; but I have to say I really did enjoy a full Saturday in the Chilean capital!