Valparaiso – Seaside City of Chile                                                          24^th April 2019

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After the most incredible sleep with the assistance of luxury beds and thick curtains to the windows we further enjoy perfect hot showers .. 4star luxury this is, at The Crowne Plaza. We checked out so easily having hardly unpacked our backpacks and announcing “Buenos Di’as” (Good Morning) to Reception where we find Norman again at the desk. He provides a very detailed folded city map and explains the best method on a budget to get to Valparaiso some 140klms/ 2.5hrs away travelling Nth West. He also provides a penned note explaining the steps to take (walk, train, bus, taxi in that order).

Firstly, we must walk 150m West to the nearest subway to board the train towards San Pablo (outer region suburb) but alighting from the Pajaritos station to arrive at the main bus terminal adjacent and secure a tour bus from the number of suppliers. The subway entrances are marked with a sign indicating 3 red joined triangles (photo).

After finding a satisfying brekky menu at the adjoining Starbucks and waving ciao to Norman, we head off down the street dodging a myriad of people that basically have the intent of ‘walking through you’. The congestion of people I saw yesterday (previous blog) is where we see the 3 red triangle sign; with a stairway leading under the 6-lane road for the subway. No wonder there was a lot of people about when you also have the 2 nearby universities.

The subway station was so busy and I gamble on seeing a kiosk in the centre, above the two lower train platforms. Not many English signs about, so here goes. With the young lady’s broken English & my nil Spanish I obtain a card for two passengers (1,500pesos/$3AUD per person one-way) to Pajaritos station & she points to the left platform. Using the card in the scanner I proceed through; then hand the card back to Scott who scans & then proceeds through .. so far .. so good. The trains run at such frequency and there’s no mucking about getting on & off. Such precision. Boarding the train with 2 backpacks each there is very little space left near the doors so it is a bit of a squeeze. We are comforted by the train network sign above the doors in bright colours and every station marked. We are going the right way & we will also have enough warning when to alight, marking off each station as we go.

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After about 6 stations we arrive at Pajaritos Station & heading up the long stairs to ground level we open up to numerous shops and eateries. We walk past them as per Norman’s note and find about 6 booths of bus companies under the enormous train/ bus terminal building. Here, the signs are simpler to understand and we can’t believe how many buses are in action going to various locations mainly Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar. Some leave every 15minutes to these locations. It seems the best offer is from Turbus and the lady in the booth does not speak much English … eventually, I secure two tickets @ 3,000 pesos ($6AUD) each which is not bad for 2 hrs of bus travel one-way. The ticket provides the bus #, seats and platform #s and time it arrives.

Right on time our bus enters and some 10minutes later we secure our bags in the bus and climb into our seats on the lower level. Very comfy seats that recline and with phone charges, etc fitted. Best bus I’ve travelled in. The journey takes us down the major highway (modern) and at varying times we pick up indigenous families and workers at certain locations. We also pick up a vendor selling snacks, souvenirs, etc and then he alights at another stop. The highway views remain basically the same with large hills and mountains on both sides with small under developed villages at intervals. Not much to rave about really, even though the brochures spruik about the views.

Finally, we get into some population and a city feel and eventually we click its Valparaiso … tourism signage could be entertained at the city’s boundary for an obvious suggestion. Winding through the streets, it is quite congested with vehicles and pedestrians and after a while we enter a driveway off a small street into a large carpark. We are at the Eastern end of the city. Here is the bus terminal and numerous taxis and some men making out they are taxi drivers. Not wasting any time, we alight from the bus and walk outside the terminal towards the official taxi rank. There is nothing to see around this neighbourhood so we gather at the taxi rank until we gain the driver’s attention (all smoking in a group). We show the address to one driver and a huge smile and a nod confirms he knows where to go for 1,500pesos/ $3AUD.

The taxi winds through the city towards the West, along the Pacific Ocean seaside, although can’t see the ocean as yet and then turns a hard left and proceeds to escalate rapidly into very narrow streets on a steep incline with hairpin bends and the like. Winding our way to virtually the top we notice all the art works on the sides and facades of buildings and very bright colours. Suddenly the taxi stops and the driver looks back to us and without warning he reverses at speed for about 70m and again stops suddenly. We have arrived at our hotel in a dead-end street. We alight and look around and see a row of brightly coloured buildings but no obvious hotel structure. The driver, after being paid, shows us the alley way at the dead-end to the right and from there we will see the hotel’s entrance after walking through. He waves, smiles and he’s back into his car & off.

The alley way opens up to a paved walkway overlooking the Pacific Ocean harbour in rich blue with large ships anchored off the shoreline, including navy ships and all within bright sunshine. Certainly, didn’t expect this type of expansive view. After looking out to sea for a few minutes enjoying the view, we now look behind us and there is a small board sign stating our hotel ‘Gran Hotel’ and a timber framed glass door. We are warmly greeted by a young lady from England at Reception. She provides the rules of the house, restaurant location for brekky, etc and proceeds to show us our room. The hotel is a restored family mansion of a boarding school type with corridors and timber staircases and numerous rooms proceeding down the slope of the land to about 4 levels. The hotel also goes under another name ‘Hotel Gervasoni’ and is predominately all heavily polished timber throughout so it would have cost a pretty penny in its day. Our room is large enough to be comfortable with French doors/ windows opening out to a non-entry balcony (tiny in size) & facing west to the ocean. We can also see into numerous offices and apartments in adjacent buildings … privacy is certainly not a pre-requisite here by the looks of things.

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When the lady leaves, we decide to use the toilet and head off on a walk around the neighbourhood as it is around 2pm. Scott needs food. Opening the door outwards to the bathroom I’m aghast at the smallest bathroom known to man. It contains an 800×800 shower, a toilet & a basin all within a floor space of 1400×1200. One small space to stand in .. yes, in front of the toilet … LOL!!!! Look at the photo for proof. So tiny.

Now over the shock and laughter of the bathroom we hand our room key in and proceed along the paved walkway to do our reconnaissance walk around the city neighbourhood, not venturing too far of course.  Wandering past some market tables along the walkway we find large concrete stairs leading down to the street some 60m below. At the bottom of the stairs we notice a lot of young people (university students I believe) all sitting on the steps and heavily engaged in smoking weed. The sweet smell was so strong. Looks like it is a regular haunt to avoid the parks and streets and stay out of view. The other ugly side was the amount of dog facies present and a few dogs hanging around. Not impressed on Valparaiso at the moment.

Opening out onto the street we are greeted with very heavy congested traffic in a rather tight two-way street called Esmeralda St. Looks like turning right to the East is the best option and just a little way up the street becomes one-way and joins into a roundabout of obvious landmark recognition with a statue in the centre. Here at Plaza Anibal Pinto, we have people all trying to cross the roadway, large volumes of buses are blocking the road trying to pick up people at bus stops. Police blowing whistles to force cars, buses to move but what can they do when its piled up solid. Scott & I cross the road and settle inside the roundabout under this statue called ‘Fuente de Neptuneo’ (Fountain of Neptune, erected 1892). From there we can see a row of cafes with outside eating areas facing the street and the roundabout. Looks like we are on a winner finally by selecting Restaurant Cinzano. We order a late lunch with coffee and spend a few hours taking in the day’s action and views. We notice this is the main meeting point for many tour operators, mostly undertaking the ‘Walking Tours’ of artistic buildings and graffiti art close by. Totally forgot about photos … der!!!!

Our neighbourhood is perched on the Western end of the flat land and backs up onto the high headland called Cerro Concepcion (Cerro = Hill), all covered with buildings, built into the slopes & cliffs of the headland, no space is wasted. It seems to be the historic centre of Valparaiso but you wouldn’t really know it for sure at first glance. One must question how do they paint such buildings perched on sharp slopes/ cliff faces. Painting them in ultra-bright colours must lift their courage, I guess.

With darkness nearing we walk back to the large stairs and notice it is not a nice area in the dark but we proceed with confidence, just the same. Finding our hotel easily we proceed into the alley way to the high side of the street where the taxi dropped us off (Papudo St). From here we walk the short well-lit cobblestone street to find one restaurant, ‘La Concepcion’ with a great menu amongst many other restaurants. Upstairs we are greeted so warmly and with the waiters dressed in an immaculate fashion. Very high-end look and excellent service, yet so very affordable. The tables are converted door frames and clear polyurethane coating with inset square clear glass. Very unique and quirky. Scott & I can’t go past the Vegetarian Lasagne. ’Molto bene’ (very good). Our Mango juice is also divine … should have ordered doubles. What a surprise this place is and the view at night is superb with the far lights shining and flickering on the ocean from a nearby (joined) ritzy city of Vina Del Mar & further on Renaca, known for its laidback beach. We find out later La Concepcion is a highly regarded restaurant so that confirms my opinion and recommendation. Again, forgot about photos … double der!!!!

We head back to our room to navigate having a shower. Very squeezy and a bit of a challenge. Scott first .. but he comes out several minutes later saying  .. ‘no hot water’. Reception has now closed so will have to wait till morning. Yay!!!

Morning comes .. first thing after our personal care is to report our hot water issue to Reception. We are assured it will be addressed while we have our free brekky. To shorten this section of my story our complaints were ongoing for two more days, even after the Maintenance Man assured us, as well as Reception that all was OK. “It has been tested”. Coldish showers are not our thing so my complaints were getting stronger but Sth Americans don’t seem to grasp negative comments and how to properly respond to such major complaints. My booking was pre-paid with points through my Wyndham Resorts so no compensation of course or other compensation. Very frustrating. To end this section, upon checking out days later, Reception tells us the hot water works, but you must run the taps for a minimum of 15mins first before it comes through. What!!!! Such water wastage and terrible plumbing. Good to know …. NOW!!!

We must applaud the great breakfast each morning .. really enjoyed the buffet and the room with the morning sunshine which gives us the motivation needed to step out into the city. Scott & I walked the entire length of Valparaiso (say 3-4klms one way) but saw nothing that really stood out apart from busy footpaths, traffic and plenty of small street shops. The occasional sitting areas outside the main universities. Much later we find most of the sites to see are at the start of the hill climbs where most of the colourful and art buildings are located. We did stumble at the Eastern end, near the headland a shopping mall much like a miniature Cosco where you can buy just about anything, even car tyres.

Walking back to our neighbourhood, I notice some markings on our city map showing a few Funicular lifts (Ascensors locally called) with one not far from our hotel so will do that tomorrow. We partake in our comfortable café at the roundabout again to ensure we get good food and outlook to the street before heading back to our hotel where Scott spies a bright yellow house up on the cliff face of Cerro Concepcion that is an outdoor restaurant and suggests we give that a go. Of course, the weather changes to quite cold and windy and the outdoor restaurant is copping the full brunt of it. OK .. where now?

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Our last full day we can confirm we are sighted within the art section of the city which is the most publicised tourism attraction. It includes fashionable and trendy shops, very brightly painted buildings, houses, etc and arty graffiti. There are a few tour guides showing small groups around but in reflection I believe you can easily find these sights just by walking a few streets around this headland and taking notice where the funicular lifts are placed. An example of this is the photo of the piano stairs and a cultural centre. The walk down to the main city is quite steep and some hairpin corners and the car’s motors do rev up a bit loud. The footpaths are quite narrow as well but understandably so. We don’t mind this walk as it confirms we are somewhere different.

Using our city map we head towards the funicular lift nearest our hotel called Ascensor Reina Victoria adjacent to Calle Cumming (Calle = Street). There are a few handicrafts and tourism merchandise rooms attached to the lift and all is quite quaint. We take notice of how this lift works, with the operator doing manual door openings, gear stick movements. It has all the hallmarks of its 1902 vintage (some are even older at 1883). It all looks like it works very well .. good maintenance, so we are assured of taking the ride for just $100 pesos … $0.20 each person, each way. Obviously, I gave the driver a decent tip. The ride was quite smooth however it is when it reaches the extents that the gates and locking cable gear and handbrake gets a bit clunky. We alight to a suspended walkway overlooking a small playground towards the small shops and notice adults and children using the slippery slide from the walkway down to the playground. Smiles and laughter all around.

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Along the walkway we are enjoying the warm sun and the views to the ocean in the West and we spy the café we saw along our city walk yesterday. It is very busy and not a table to spare inside and out. Obviously, the out area is prime real estate for the view and clean air. We note, we can find a table ourselves so Scott & I slowly patrol the verandah/ balcony area and with just a few minutes we land the BEST table … what a win!!! We are near the end of the balcony with the best views. A couple inside the café are definitely giving us the evil eye as we noted they were re-sitting themselves back onto their inside table.

The service was excellent and the food even better … it came to a point where we almost felt guilty staying at the table long after our meal and juices but there were now plenty of tables vacant so the guilt went very quickly and it was a superb place to talk to my son on numerous topics. Such times are priceless. We had such a great time enjoying the view mostly overlooking Cerro Concepcion (Cerro = Hill) in the direction of our hotel where colourful buildings abound. We slipped up on not recording the cafés name. We believe it maybe the Altamira Café. Speaking of cafés, we found out some days later Valparaiso has a café called the Melbourne Café. Shame we missed this.

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As night plays out, we are in need of dinner so Scott and I branch out even more reading menus and scouring many eating places but nothing meets our eyes or our needs … after quite some time we circle back and seek out our favourite, ‘La Concepcion’ with the endless night light view and the Pacific Ocean. We were not let down by their service and the main waiter later recognises our faces and smiles accordingly. We bunker down after at our hotel, still a barely lukewarm shower and some music and Youtube madness.

Tomorrow is not a rushed day, and that goes for the last 4 days too so we will pack later and leave checkout to the last minute after their great buffet brekky, catch a taxi at the rear of the hotel and travel to the adjacent coastal city, Vina Del Mar, approximately 5klms away, hoping for more entertaining sites and culture feel.

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In reflection, Valparaiso is a port city, founded in 1536, with a population in 2017 of 295,113 making it the 2^nd largest city in Chile. It has a naval port and the largest adjoining import/ export wharf at the Sth Eastern end, no accessible beach to laze on with revetment walls along its entire coastline with buildings placed against it. Surprisingly, it is an educational precinct incorporating 7 universities and several colleges. The main part of the city is on flat land stretching some 4klms and then rises sharply to very high ground where every inch is occupied with brightly coloured buildings and houses, etc and numerous churches. There are about 16 remaining funicular elevators throughout for the very steep parts. The ‘Walking Tour’ centres around our hotel area and that is unique and colourful however the city outside of this area is a typical bustling city with very little impressive architecture or new development. The tourism part firmly focusses on the ‘Walking Tour’ area. Within the Valparaiso regional limits there are approx. 47 hills so that’s a high number I wasn’t expecting.

Once again, many thanks for reading my blogs and feel free to place a comment below. Any feedback is good. Any sharing of my blog link to your friends is certainly OK by me. Hopefully, it may provide some travel inspiration to them.