Valparaiso First Day

We decided to do the free walking tour this morning, down in the square right below us.  This time our guide was Nelson and he walked with us for nearly four hours.

As I said the whole city is built up steep hillsides, Nelson took us up through the conservation area, and down through the city centre, main square and then through the port area.  The centre is small and compact, and the residential parts are sprawling up and out.

The hills of Conception and Alleged are UNESCO sites.  This is both good and bad.  We saw a couple of burnt out houses.  If you buy property in this area you have to renovate it back to it's original condition, hence people don't because they cannot afford it.

Last year there was a devastating fire on two of the hills further out and over 1000 houses were lost.  I'm really not surprised as the houses are so close together and the alleys so narrow,how would you be able to control it.

The Street Art.  During the Pinochet era was hard on Valparaiso.  All forms of artistic expression was banned completely and a curfew at 9pm stopped people getting together. But Valparaiso rebelled with its street art. When the regime ended it became the city of culture.

There is a particular art is who like Banksy has become famous.  He now has stuff all over the world.

we walked and walked but did ride up in two ascensors, many are scattered around the city.  They are publically owned and cost between 10 and 30 pence a ride.

we stopped for a short break and Chilean diet food....Deep fried empanadas... They were totally gorgeous, but think I will have to stay away from them.

Some pictures to keep you going.  Unfortunately I have run out of time and we have to get going down to the port to join the ship.  I will keep writing the blog and hope that when we get into ports that I will be able to load it.  But it will eventually get updated.  Hope everyone is well and will speak to you all soon.

lots of Love Janette and Rod