Valparaíso

In Chile, one of the best cities to see is Valparaíso, on the coast, a little over an hour west of the capital, Santiago. Valparaíso is a working class harbor town that is somewhat overshadowed by its next-door neighbor, Viña del Mar, which is a holiday town. Karen and I much preferred Valpo, though. Valpo is built up on the hills that almost go directly into the sea. There are about 42 hills in town, many of them reached by cute ascensores, or funiculars, that were built in the late 1800s through the early 1900s. We stayed one night on one of the hills where there was an effective boycott going on against the ascensor, as they had recently raised their one-way price (up or down) from 200 pesos (40 cents) to 500 pesos (about 1 dollar), which is pretty stupid, especially considering a taxi will drive you up the hill to your doorstep for 300 pesos.



Many of the buildings in Valpo are painted bright colors, which really livens up the city. It´s a very charming place all around. It is also the home of the Chilean national legislature.







This is NOT the hotel we stayed at: