As mentioned numerous times, I am not a fan of big cities so they aren’t normally my focus when I travel, especially since a majority of the riots were happening in Santiago, Chile’s largest city. When I am a fan of is finding unique things in a country that aren’t common elsewhere. Valparaíso is one of these places.
Located 75 miles from Santiago, Valparaíso is the second largest city in Chile and is a UNESCO world heritage. Valparaíso played an important geopolitical role in the second half of the 19th century when the city served as a major stopover for ships traveling between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by crossing the Straits of Magellan. Valparaíso experienced rapid growth during its golden age, as a magnet for European immigrants, when the city was known by international sailors as "Little San Francisco" and "The Jewel of the Pacific." Today, it is a fairly popular tourist destination for its colorful streets, cobblestone allies, funiculars, and (what drew me to the city), its graffiti.
The graffiti, or street art, began as a sort of protest against military dictatorship in the 1970’s as one of the only ways to express beliefs. Since a lot of the alleys are hidden away, Valparaíso provided a perfect secret place to do so. An underground network of artists formed in the city, painting powerful messages on the walls its back streets. When doing so, they risked torture and death, and their murals were painted over when discovered by military police. But the groups persisted and proliferated, and played an important role in returning democracy to Chile in 1990. Their work preserved hope, and emboldened activist groups to organize.
Today, the street art is celebrated and is the most beautiful and vibrant graffiti that I’ve seen. There are estimated to be more than 1400 murals in Valparaíso, covering walls and buildings and spread out among the 43 different hills and neighborhoods. The funiculars take you up to different neighborhoods that are covered with the artwork.
Driving around Valparaíso is pretty tough and so is parking. We were able to park in a garage that was a bit difficult to find. The funiculars were tucked away as well. But the square was cute, with a flea market set up.
There were still a lot of places we could have explored (I’ll add other options when I post my Chile itinerary), but we wanted to go see Vina del Mar, which was 15 minutes from Valparaíso. I wasn’t dead set on visiting Vina del Mar, but when I asked my hotel owner about it, he said he thought it was one of the prettiest places in Chile. On the way there, we did get a flat tire (and maybe even caught Covid), but I was really glad we decided to go. Vina del Mar gave me Miami vibes, as its known for its beaches and high rise buildings. It was definitely too cold in my opinion to swim there in January, but there were a lot of people enjoying themselves in the water. I took in the views and sat at a hotel bar, staring out into the Pacific Ocean.
I really loved seeing all the art at Valparaíso and the views in Vina del Mar. I was still staying at my hotel in wine country, but if not, I probably would have picked Vina del Mar to stay instead of Valparaíso since it was a lot more laid back.
After this day, I finished exploring some wineries as I mentioned in my last blog post before continuing north to the desert, which I will write about next time.
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