City of Graffiti

Valparaiso was a very interesting city and different than anything we have seen before. It's a bit like Hvar, Croatia meets Cinque Terra, Italy in that it's a port city with a lot of hills but that's the closest comparison I can think of. It is made up of 45 hills or Cerros and some of the hills have funiculars or small gondolas that take you up to the hills and of course, long staircases that you can use to get up as well. It is a UNESCO world heritage site now as well. 

When we first arrived and the taxi driver was taking us to where we were staying up in the hills, I wondered why I didn't do more research and just book something by the port but when we got to our place, the view from our room of the Bay Area was unreal and even better at night! We stayed at a B&B called Costal Azul run by the nicest Slovanian couple and can see why they have #1 rating on trip advisor in the B&B category in Valpareiso. It's definitely a change from a hotel but goes back a bit more to the backpacking days! Breakfast was super fresh included home made granola and yummy fresh fruits/smoothies, etc. 

Valpareiso is much more of what I was expecting from Chile in terms of its randomness. It's an extremely artsy place with a Bohemian feel. There is a combination of graffiti and intentionally painted murals on most of the streets of the city. People commission certain painters to paint the facades of there houses.  

The city is apparently the place to be for new years as the city has a population of only 300,000 but usually gets close to 2 million people on New Years with the grandest fireworks festival in all of Latin America. To get around here there are a million buses but they have "collectivo" system which is basically a shared taxi that has a sign above it to let you know the normal route it takes and if there is space, you can jump in. It's quite a good system. Of course they have normal taxis as well, but they are few and far between as the collectivos are abundant and much cheaper.

Back to Santiago for New Year's Eve!