Valpo Street Art: Part 2

The second full day we ventured to the dock for an informational boat ride around the bay. It offered great views of the colorful city and hills.  In the bay were shipping boats bound for China, Hamburg and probably many other places around the world as well as old military boats. 

 We went across town to find art from the 2012 street art festival. At first we weren't sure if we arrived in the right area but the fabulous murals left no doubts in our minds. Unfortunately, the only still running elevator was closed for maintenance. It's crazy some of these have been working for over 100 years!

We saw a guy leave this house.  I can hear him giving directions now "Just look for the blue building with two giant weird alien creatures on it."

The only elevator (the rest are ascensors/funiculars) with its view over the hills. 

The stairs up and down these hills also have many other purposes besides just getting people up and down the hill.  They are also homes for the many street dogs, trash cans (yes, lots of trash in places) and bathrooms (the stench of urine was pretty prominent at times which is unfortunate).  More art:

One of my favorites!  Love the muscles, the 'eye' and the hot air balloon.

 

This was when we decided to become part of the art.  We may have around 30 different photos of this attempt.

Shows the graffiti, the old colorful buildings and the buildings of Cerro Concepcion above.

The view from our hostel room at dusk!

Our last day was Pascual (Easter) and while we didn't see any of the burning Judas parades that apparently were occurring on each cerro, we ventured around town to see more art.  It was quite cloudy and foggy but made for better lighting for our street mural escapades.  We decided jumping in to the art was more fun than just looking at it.

 

This town actually reminds me of Guatemala in a way because of the absolutely haphazard way the buildings are constructed up and down the hills, with seemingly random colors splayed over dilapidated corrugated metal walls.

Since we've newly developed an interest in Chilean cemeteries, we visited the three in Valpo.  First, there is the Catholic one, then the Dissidents for other religions (the first of its kind in South America) and the Everyone Else (it didn't really have a name).  Unfortunately, the one that had all the gravestones from the immigrants was closed by the time we arrived and it would have been interesting to see the diverse headstones. From the gate, we saw headstones from Germans, Scots and Brits who died in the 1800s.

There were many different tombs for the various Bomberos (fire fighters) from each country.  The white plaque here listed about 15 volunteers who died on 1 Jan 1953. We later learned why.  Turns out a little boy started a fire by throwing a firecracker into a house. The firefighters rushed to the scene and almost contained it before it reached a building full of dynamite.  Yes, 10 tons of dynamite.  The explosion rocked the entire bay.  Fifty some people died, mainly first-responders , and the ensuing catastrophe took years to rebuild.  Very sad and crazy piece of Valpo history!

The oldest headstone I found...Maria Del Carmen Rodriguez was born in 1799.

 

Even the plaza steps were artistic.

The open air museum was a bunch of murals from university students in the 1990's. 

Another university student mural below the tall metal buildings.  Taken from below as we walk down the steps of the hill.

After some horrible dining experiences, we splurged on meals our last day.  While returning to our hostel in the late afternoon, we randomly ran into our French friend Remi who we have now ran into 4 times.  First was at our refugio breakfast on my birthday in Torres del Paine, then again in San Martin, Pucon and now Valpo.  He is riding a motorcycle for 4 1/2 months (started in Buenos Aires in February) and will finish with his wife in Peru next month.  While we've met a few other travelers again along the bus trail, it's even more random since he is on a motorbike.  So we invited him to dinner and enjoyed a nice conversation alongside the gorgeous views of the twinkling lights of Valpo.

Thanks for a fun dinner Remi!

The next day, we awoke early to catch our bus to Mendoza.  It was quite scenic, going up and through the Andes mountains, past a few very basic ski slopes, and whizzing through customs, even though we slept through most of it as usual.

Don't think I'll be returning in the winter to ski these hills!

Adios Chile, bienvenidos Argentina (otra vez)!