The Very Edge

Being on the balcony was like being at the edge of the earth—the city below and the sea beyond. I found it when I was taking pictures of art on the steep climb up Cerro Alegre. A blue balcony perched above the city of colors. To get there I climbed past the store selling painted underwear and the street art asking Donde Esta Tu Mama? past the street leading off to the sea-green church and the orange hotel on Cerro Concepcion, and left at Café con Letras, the breakfast place I went on my first trip up the hill, then on down the street until I came to an alley. I followed a stray cat and the pointed finger of an old man sweeping his front step to a modern wooden structure with a sign, “hotel fauna.” The restaurant had opened recently as an add-on to this chic hotel. The few tables inside were intimate and the perfect setting for a late-night date. A low coffee table surrounded by a couch and chairs would serve as an ideal environment for friendly gatherings over wine and small plates. The back wall of the restaurant had been replaced by sliding glass doors and the balcony at the edge of the world.
I came back for the first time in early spring for dinner with two friends. We sat by the window and sipped dark, rich Carmenere from enormous wine glasses meant for swirling and swishing. Looking out from the window you could see the heart of Valparaiso below, the pulsating nightlife and twinkling lights of the container ships far enough from port to avoid taxes. During the day, the scene is dazzling. The painted roofs and clear view of the greatest port in Chile complete one of the most remarkable restaurant panoramas in a hill city full of overlooks. The romance of this singular place is enough to make you fall in love with the entire city. One home of Pablo Neruda, the great Chilean poet, is not far from the Fauna. Neruda was obsessed with the sea and every time I sat on the balcony at the edge of the world I remembered his poem: “Here I came to the very edge where nothing at all needs saying, everything is absorbed through the weather and the sea, and the moon swam back, its rays all silvered, and time and again the darkness would be broken by the crash of a wave, and everyday on the balcony of the sea, wings open, fire is born, and everything is blue again like morning.”