Valparaiso

Spent the weekend in the small coastal city Valparaiso, inspired by Isabel Allende who writes a lot about it. Parts of the city is built on steep hills, making you wonder how they managed to build their houses. Being a major port and a natural stop before the Panama Canal was made, it was a quite wealthy town, as is possible to see today in all the old elevators scattered around, saving you the exercise of taking the stairs. That is, if it's not during the siesta.

Several bohemian neighbourhoods are nice just to stroll around, admiring well done, creative graffiti and the view of the bay. One of Nobel-winner Pablo Neruda's houses are found in one of these areas. It's not big or impressive in any way, just very nice and.. hm.. interesting. With a magnificent view.

Downtown is more chaotic, and has some of the feel I expected and missed in both Santiago and Buenos Aires. I like this city!

For those in the need of beaches, they are close by. At the moment I'm still not really there after my Caribbean overload. And knowing I'll spend christmas on a Caribbean paradise, I'm still prefering city life.


-- Posted from my iPod
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