valpo, as remembered from puerto montt

It's been a while since I've written an update here. I've covered around 1500km of ground since then, visiting Valparaiso, Villarica, Valdivia, and Puerto Montt (I feel like I should have stopped a little north of there at Vares, Puerto to continue the trend). This time saw the transition from the north to the south -- and it's a different world here. I guess Chile is sort of like California in that aspect.

I spent a couple days in Valparaiso (hereafter, Valpo), but left before the big New Years festivities. I was feeling tired of cities, and burnt out on dealing with lots of people, so I just wanted to get south. That said, the time that I did spend in Valpo was nice, and there was a lot going on.

Valpo and San Francisco have a lot a in common, and from what I'm told, they had a lot more in common 50 years ago. Valpo is port town, built against steep hills. There are a number of steep, windy roads that bring to mind the neighborhoods of SF or Lombard street. The architecture is different, though -- each city has its own distinct feel and look. The biggest difference is that Valpo is still a port town, whereas SF is not.

I arrived to Valpo after taking an overnight bus from La Serena. I generally don't like to travel that way, but it seems to be the way things run in the north. I was tired when I got in, and went straight to the Hostel that Mary, from the place in La Serena, recommended. It was clean, and friendly, but didn't have the same common space and open atmosphere of La Serena. After sleeping for a while, I spent a the afternoon wandering through the city. My first reaction was quite negative. I was feeling sick of cities, and people, and cars, etc., and Valpo is not a good city to visit when you're feeling like that. It's streets are a crazy, confusing jumble, and especially this close to New Years they were crowded. At one point, my eyes were focuses on a sign or something else going on near the bus station, as I kept walking forward. I felt something soft under my foot as I started to put it down, and sort of stumbled forward. Looking down, I realized that I just walked into the middle of a bunch of cigarettes that someone was selling on the sidewalk.

As much as my Spanish has been improving, I wasn't able to understand a word of the chewing out I got by the woman selling cigarettes. However, her pointing to her eyes and then to the sidewalk was clear enough. And she was right. I paid her something for the packs of cigarettes that I damaged, though I suspect she'll sell them for full price anyway, and walked back to my hostel. "I need to be more awake than that," I thought. "I'm going to get mugged if I'm not careful."

I rested for a while more, then went back out to the city. This time, though, I enjoyed it a lot more.

I caught the beginning of the New Years festivities, with a big city-wide fair celebrating the different cultures of South America. There were three different stages set up through town at the different parks, each with a different type of music playing. I stopped for a while at each, but spent most of the time watching a "battle of the bands" contest (and, no, the amateur bands in Valpo aren't any better than those in the states. A good song or player now and then, but on the whole the atmosphere was better than the music). While the bands were playing, people walked around selling different things, including bags of confetti. When people threw it, it had an effect sort of like snow, that was quite pretty. Probably my favorite part of the evening was watching two young families have a big confetti fight through most of the evening. Latin American cultures, in general, seem to be more family oriented than ours.

The next day I spent walking around Valpo, riding the ascensores, and visiting one or two of the museums there. I then caught a bus to Villarica.

The first day visiting any new city, I'm finding, is hard. The second day is always better. At least, that was the case for every city I've been to since La Serena. I think the moral of the story is to take it easy on the first day, and not try to do to much. Also, of course, make sure that you're doing more than just a long string of first days.

Posted by vanwie at January 5, 2004 05:07 PM