Valparaiso, June 7 and 8.

Another early morning arrival. Valparaiso was impressive in the dark, with the lights all over the on the mountain.  It’s a two-level city, the smaller part on a plane along the sea, the rest up on a steep mountain.  The upper and lower parts are connected with stairs and 13 cable-car lines (like the one to the Budapest Castle, or in Quebec City between the upper lower town).  They were built at the beginning of the last century, and still function…  Unfortunately, I only had time to try 3 of them. 

This hotel was an angel too; let me check in at 7 am.  I spent for nights on the bus, thus arrived early four times, and out of four times, it happened three times that they allowed me to check-in.  Once not, guess what, in Salta…

That first day I walked to Pablo Neruda’s house in Valparaiso.  It was a very spectacular walk, as it is quite high on the mountain, almost at the top, and there are several miradors along the way.  I could see it at the “retired” rate – which was nice and sort of controversial.  Some places charge higher rates to foreigners, and others honor retired discount, when it would be OK to say that it only applies to Chileans.  Although that might be perceived as unfair as well.  In Guanajuato (Mexico), where the discount only applies to Mexicans, I had a large group of locals arguing on my behalf…to no avail.

Pablo Neruda’s house reveals that he wasn’t a starving poet, had good taste, and knew how to live.  I regretted that I had no time to visit his other houses (one in Santiago, the other in Isla Negra, further out on the coast).  The way down was adventurous.  I thought that just following gravitation would lead me back to the center of town.  It sort of did, but when I was almost there, I always arrived at stairs that looked uninviting, to put it mildly.  I had to climb back quite a stretch, and take a busier street down.  I bought empanadas an ischler-like cookie for lunch, then an apple at a different store.  The girl there washed the apple for me without even asking. 

In the afternoon I took another cable car up to the Naval Museum, where I found the building and the view more interesting than the museum itself – although I increased my knowledge about the Pacific War (Chile vs. Peru and Bolivia).  By then I was falling asleep on my feet, thus I went back to the hotel.

The last day I only had a few hours before having to take off for the airport, thus I only walked in another part of the town (at the top of another cable-car).  This was an elegant part of the town – most building well maintained and beautiful.  Plus, good views on the sea all the time.  I even found the port spectacular, with the cranes, the colorful containers and the large ships…  It’s smelly though; I tried to walk along the coastline, but didn’t last long.  Regardless, I would like to return there.