The Fresh Air of Valparaiso

On Saturday, June 5th, we boarded a bus headed towards the port city of Valparaiso. I was surprised at how in-expensive the 1.5 hour-long trip was because it only took 3,800 pesos, or about 6 dollars, for the ride. Marlen, her husband, and her four-year-old son Piero rode along with us. Piero is an energetic toddler and all the girls flocked after him because they thought he was adorable.

As soon as we arrived, we had a short desayuno and took a quick ride to el hostal Verde Limon, where we were going to spend our next couple of days. Verde Limon was bigger and nicer than the previous hostel and also painted in many colors to match the beautiful city of Valparaiso. The bottom section had a long swing attached to the thirty-foot-high ceiling and Sofi took the pleasure of climbing onto it and swinging on it several times during our stay.

Shortly afterwards, we met up with Antonio, his polola Karen, and his friend Roger, who were going to show us around Valparaiso. The city of Valparaiso is more artsy and liberal than Santiago and the city is decorated with well-painted murals. You quickly notice the difference in the air quality from Santiago because you can get suffocated in the Santiago smog while there is a breeze of fresh air that blows into Valpo from the Pacific that gives the city a fresh aroma.

After walking around and touring the city, we went to eat at a seafood place by the name of Los Portenios. Seafood is popular in Valpo since it is a port city and it is easy and relatively cheap to attain. I ate a dish of fresh shrimp mixed with mayo and a salad. I decided that I preferred my shrimp fried because the fresh shrimp wasn´t too tasty for me.



In the afternoon, we toured the city more and went to Pablo Neruda´s old home. There is a section of the house that faces the Pacific and you can see the naval and cargo ships out in the bay. We were told that the construction of the Panama Canal severely affected Valparaiso because it was a popular choice for ships rounding the bottom tip of south america prior to the canal. However, the city appears to have rebounded and is doing well with tourism. We saw a variety of Neruda´s paintings but couldn´t take pictures because the museum wouldn´t allow it. The museum did allow us to take photographs of the view outside and I managed to take pictures of the awesome view of the town from the fourth and fifth floors.


Later that evening, we took a forty-minute bus ride for the equivalent of USD $.50 to visit Karen´s parents and had la once (bread, cheese, butter, and tea/coffee before dinner. I was surprised at how cheap transportation was in Chile because the ride back was only about USD $8.00. In the U.S. you would easily spend at least fifty dollars for a similar ride.

Further on that night, we took an excursion around Valpo to get a glimpse of the city´s nightlife. We enjoyed a great meal at Valparaiso Eterno where a lady sat in the middle of a stage in front of a microphone and played music from her guitar. The experience was pretty awesome because she managed to get Eduardo to go up and sing in the stage and even asked us to recommend songs for her to play so we could feel more welcome.

Valparaiso was a fun, relaxing time for all of us. I´m sure we are going to miss the fresh air of the city.