A Second Look at Valparaíso

For my final day in Valparaíso, I decided I wanted to give it a second try. My first day, I was so overwhelmed and scared of the dangerous reputation the city had, and that made me nervous to wander freely and truly learn about the city. So I took a 3-hour guided tour through the "unexplored" parts of Valpo, and may I just say, I gained a strong new appreciation for the place.

Valpo is not your typical Chilean city. As I'd picked up on, it is the most progressive city in the country, and the city that's the first to spearhead protests and rallies that may eventually break out of the city and spread to the rest of the country. This tour was primarily about the historical aspects of Valpo related to its long history of progressive causes.

First, we strolled around the flat area of the city. We stopped first at one of the ascensores that I talked about in the last post—those funiculars to get people up and down the hillsides. Nowadays, there are 7 working ascensores in Valpo, mostly going just between the port area and the first level of cerros (hilltops). There are, in total, 30 ascensores around the city, connecting both the first-level cerrros with the port level, and the second- and third-level cerros with the lower cerros. After earthquakes and funding issues, most of these went out of service, leaving just the historic 7 we have today. The tourist neighborhoods of Cerro Alegre, Cerro Concepción, and the Port are protected under UNESCO, so they gain money and are able to keep best care of both their buildings and their ascensores.

The UNESCO-Protected Area of Valpo

The ascensores were first built in the mid- to late 1800s. This is when Valpo was going through its true golden age. This was the last port before ships would sail all the way around the southern cape, so an immense amount of money poured in to the city, and quickly. This money, obviously, wasn't spread equally, where mostly the owners were prospering, and the workers were making a mild wage. Primarily, the richer you were, the closer to the port you lived, meaning that the poorer workers lived primarily in the cerros. The owners of the port and related companies wanted their workers to get to work quicker in the morning, hence, the complex system of ascensores.

As the poorer workers lived more in the hills, they just built their houses wherever. There was no urban planning, and there were no rules. They painted their houses using leftover paint from the shipyard, resulting in the bright and multicolored facades seen today. As time went on, this became the style for the city, and nowadays, it's the default. Despite there historically having been no building codes, somehow, earthquakes have not ravaged the city, and have not led to cascading avalanches when houses at the top collapse. Nowadays, there are more codes to prevent these cascades, but much of the city is not in great shape if a natural disaster were to come through.

During this discussion is where we first talked about Valpo's progressive atmosphere. They were the first place in Chile to have unions, as port workers striked for better working conditions. Inspired by their colleagues in Valpo, copper miners in the north soon striked too, and soon enough, labor reform laws were passed in Chile.

In each cerro, the neighbors work together to improve their community. They can apply for funding from the Valpo municipal government, and with that funding, they can spruce up their neighborhood. For example, one community decided that the staircase up their cerro was boring, so they got funding, bought tiles, and in one weekend, all together, tiled their staircase so that all the neighbors could enjoy their walk to and from their home.

The Staircase the Community Tiled

We then took a bus up to the top of the city, deep into neighborhoods most tourists don't visit. It was such a different vibe there—it was calming, and I could actually just appreciate the beauty of the city. Of its architecture, its colors, and its chaos, without worrying about my phone getting stolen. Our first stop is a rather recent cultural spot—one of the iconic locations in Red Bull's Valparaíso Cerro Abajo. This is an insane once-yearly mountain bike competition where bikers from around the world go from the top of the city down to the port. The winner from last year did it in a little over two minutes. They go down staircases, through houses, and on rooftops. It's a huge deal for the city!

We then wandered our way to the Parque Cultural, which was really the focal point of the tour—remembering the Dictatorship. I'll be visiting the Dictatorship Memory museum in Santiago in a few days, so I won't go into too much detail here, but the gist is: Chile had a military dictatorship from 1973 to 1989, which brutally suppressed any dissent, including disappearing dissenters and sending them to concentration camps and torturing them there. This park we were at, which is known colloquially as "Ex-Carcel," was a former concentration camp/political prison. In the early 2000's, when Chile was first starting to process what'd happened over those 17 years, that neighborhood's community decided that they wanted to do something nice with the old prison. Not to wallow in the sorrows of what was, but to make something beautiful out of it instead. They called up their local government, then the national government, and ended up with funding to totally renovate the interior of the prison. Now, just the outer structure and the catwalk survive, and the rest has been turned into spaces to practice performing arts. They also built a brand-new, brutalist style building housing a performance center. Anyone can use the rehearsal spaces inside the prison for free—they reserve for months at a time—with the only caveat being that they have to perform their work for free at the performance center once it's complete.

Parque Culturel Ex-Carcel

What they've done with the site today is really beautiful, and it's so inspiring knowing that they've been able to process their experience under the dictatorship, even if Chile is still in the midst of figuring out what happened at that time. Again, more talk about the dictatorship to come, but for now, I think that's a good summary of the ex-carcel at least.

We ended the tour at a square where protesters gathered frequently in 2019 during their most recent bout of protests. The people were unhappy, but frankly, they weren't really able to put forth a specific list of demands from the government. It sounded just like a super messy situation. But the reason that square was chosen was because the trucks that were spraying water and tear gas on the protesters couldn't make it up there because of the electric wiring, so they were able to protest there without ramifications. The square was littered with more, well, modern political slogans, perhaps pertaining to a certain event in 2023 and onwards, or so (see my last post).

After the tour, I grabbed an empanada and wandered back around the more touristy hills to grab a souvenir or two. I ended up with a cool piece of art of a tugboat that says Valparaíso on it, as well as a ship in a bottle. I figured if I want ship art to decorate my apartment next year, this may be my one shot to get it!

During my afternoon wandering session, I felt so much calmer and safer than I did previously. I think my time on the tour helped me understand Valpo much better, and with understanding came lessened fear. In fact, whereas I was ready to leave right away after the first day, I found myself almost not wanting to leave and to continue my time there! But alas, adventure called and my next destination was waiting for me, and boy was that a fun time!