Tiny
multicolored houses dot the hillsides of this seaside town of
Valparaíso, west of Santiago. The city feels a bit like a tiny San
Francisco to us, a marine layer hangs over the coast, and steep hills
give way to busy commercial streets below, where trolly cars still run
up and down competing with busses, taxis, colectivos and the train
line. It has a cool artsy vibe; artistic graffiti abounds, the city is
painted in it. We walk for hours, weaving our way through the narrow
streets, past hillside shanties constructed of thin aluminum sheets
barely held together. Creaky, rickety asensores (mechanical
escalators) climb up rusty tracks to scale steep slope sides - in fact
15 of these things still exist here, and we ride the oldest remaining
one, Ascensor Conception, built back in 1883 and originally powered by
steam. One of the most unique museums we've seen is here in Valpo, El
Museo a Cielo Abierto (Open Air Museum), completed in 1973 after four
years of work by local University Art Institute students. We delve
further into the depths of the city streets and hills, mulling over
brightly colored murals and bizarre paintings. We settle for a break
at a street-side cafe, along side of one of the city plazas, listening
to the school children's choir perform live Christmas carols. Hard to
believe Christmas is only a week away.
In
a country where fast pace of development and consumerism have left
behind many traditional ways of life of the indigenous people, it's
refreshing to see this small city and the local arts and handicraft
scene still alive and thriving. If we can't experience a local
indigenous intact village, at least can appreciate the colorful lives
and expression of culture through the locals here in Valparaíso.
