...something new everyday: Ode to Valpo

Over the months I've showed you all multiple glimpses of the clusterf*@# that is the city of Valparaíso. I use the term lovingly to denote the insane lack of planning, logic, and regard for landslides immediately apparent upon entering the city. It's like nowhere else. And if you can get yourselves to South America one day I highly recommend it.

Once upon a globalizing time, Valparaíso (or Valpo, for short) was the leading port city in South America as it was a vital stop on the trade routes up the Pacific Coast. The Panama Canal stole Valpo's thunder in 1914 though upon its completion, and the city has been struggling ever since. You can see it in the hillside houses that appear slapped together with whatever mismatched materials were available. The city is not financially rich anymore but boy, does it have personality! Graffiti (if you can even call the amazing street art that) is legal and abundant. The streets are laden with curves and blind corners, and are almost vertical in many places to the point that they make Lombard Street in San Francisco look like a windy road on a gentle incline.

The hills there are no joke. One of the most famed and legitimately used forms of transportation in Valpo are the funiculares (pictured above in the 3rd photo), the small train-like cars that ascend like elevators up the steep hillsides to deliver passengers onto the next rung of the cityscape.

Geologically speaking, there is no possible justification for building the city up such steep hillsides, especially in a zone that is so seismically unsound. But when globalization hits everybody wants a piece of the merchant port pie, and in the case of Valparaíso the only place to build was up.

Nowadays the poorest people live up at the top of the hills with the best views, because in the tale of a port city's past all the rich people wanted to be down by the harbor where the action was.

Some must-see graffiti outside the Hostal Bellavista.

The majestic and ever-in-mind Salvador Allende.

As I hope you can tell, I'm quite the fan of this funny little hill conglomerate. The vibe here seems easier to me than Santiago. When I'm in Valparaíso I always feel that I am in a city of artists.