Sabbatikos

We hired a driver to take us to the UNESCO world heritage site of Valparaíso for the day. Valparaíso is a coastal city in central Chile, known for having once been a maritime super power (until the Panama Canal changed shipping routes). It is now known for its colorfully painted and artistically graffitied homes and neighborhoods perched precariously on the hills and cliffs of this vibrant and bohemian city.

Our driver arrived in a gigantic immaculately buffed and shiny black Chevy Tahoe “Texas Edition”, complete with a sheriff-badge emblem and bold lettering on the side denoting as such. While I may have felt self-conscious riding in such an ostentatious American car while in Chile, I have to admit the ride was smooth and comfortable for the 90 minute drive from Santiago to the coastal town.

Along the way we stopped on Ruta del Vino Casablanca for a quick tasting at Veramonte winery. We sampled a lovely rosé and two exceptional carménères. We ended up buying a very nice bottle of the Veramonte Orgánico Carménère 2021 Gran Reserva.

The wine stop was a bit unexpected and perhaps a little early in they day, so we may have dozed off a little for the next 40 minutes or so before arriving in Valparaíso during a massive all city Sunday flea market. We were met with many closed and rerouted roads across the city’s narrow, steep, and winding streets. Our driver was trying to take us to one of the many funiculars of which Valparaíso is famous for, such as Reina Victoria.

However, the roads to the bottom of the hill and the funicular were all blocked. It became increasingly difficult for him to navigate narrow streets and mid-street-closure-u-turns in that beast of a SUV. We were already at the top for the hill where there were several sites we wanted to see, such as Cemetery No 2 (the Dissidents Cemetery) and the Parque Cultural Valparaíso (an old jail converted into a cultural center). We asked our driver to just let us out to explore and walk around on our own. We exchanged phone numbers and promised him we’d contact him if we got lost or when we were ready to return home. Valparaiso’s hills, like Cerro Alegre and Concepcion, are adorned with brightly painted houses, narrow alleys (and alley cats), and artistic murals which reminded me of the graffitied stairwells and buildings of Athens and Portugal.

We eventually found our way down the hill only to discover why the streets were closed (but sidewalks open). It turns out we were there on the day of the annual Red Bull Valparaíso Cerro Abajo, an annual death defying mountain bike race down Cerro Abajo through the narrow, windy, and graffiti-clad streets. Check out this video from today’s race!

We were able to navigate around the commotion and jump on the funicular back up the hill from which we had just walked down (for 100 Chilean peso each–about .10 cents). From there we proceeded to walk up and down the wonderfully creative and artistically painted streets of Valparaíso enjoying quirky works of art, rickety old funiculars (and local stray dogs) and precariously perched buildings.

We thought we’d escape the heat of Santiago by heading to the coast, and while it was cooler there, the funicular’s were hot, and the stairs even hotter. Luckily we stumbled upon a fine little terrace cafe called Kapüra where we were able to refresh ourselves with cold cervezas and sánguches.

We continued to explore the streets of Valparaíso before meeting our driver at the bottom of funicular Ascensor El Peral. He drove us to the top of another hill with wuthering heights and withering Victorian homes weathered by the sun and sea and ready to fall into the ocean if it weren’t for the busy harbor of cranes and stacks of shipping containers below seemingly propping Valparaíso up.

It was late in the day, and we found ourselves weathered and worn by the sun, the stairs, and the heat. We returned to Santiago, found a few Chevy-Tahoe-Texas-Edition-sized Pisco Sours, ate a good meal and went to bed.