VALPARAISO, DAY 2
Today was foggy and cloudy and in the 60’s with a few snatches of sunlight. We had a half day walking tour of some of the neighborhoods in Valparaiso’s historic quarter. Named a World Heritage Site in 2003, Valparaiso has undertaken an ambitious effort to clean up and restore many older buildings as well as to repair crumbling streets and steps. It’s also notable for the number of firsts in this part of the world—first railroad line in Latin America, first telephone, first Spanish newspaper, and first cemetery among others.
Valparaiso was the most important port and first stop for travelers from Europe bound for San Francisco and the Gold Rush (before the birth of the Panama Canal). Thus, by the end of the 19th century, Valparaiso had sizable German (40,000), British (10,000) and Italian (5,000) populations. Many of these business people stayed and their influence is reflected in street and building names and in the cuisine.
In the main business district near the port, there are traffic lights (none up in the hills), lots of banks, historic hotels being remodeled into new hotels or restaurants and apartments, and facing the water, the pale blue French style headquarters of the navy, Armada de Chile. It could be a sibling of Philadelphia’s equally ornate city hall. 
Our guide, Esteban Tacul, was simply marvelous. Extremely knowledgeable and personable, he gave us some of Chile’s history, talked about street artists by name, many of whom he’s met, told us about the first cemeteries (one for Catholics and one for Dissidents aka Protestants) and introduced us to some of the special staircases leading down to the port area. His tourism company, Ecomapu (ecomapu.com), operates seven days a week and offers both private tours and a daily free tour. We highly recommend him!
Our tour was three hours, on foot with lots of steps, except for one funicular trip on Queen Victoria, the shortest and steepest of the 16 remaining funiculars. To his credit, the route Esteban chose took advantage of flat streets whenever possible. One of the most interesting aspects of the buildings we saw on the hills was how many have corrugated iron facades; this iron originally was cast off from ships where it had been used to wrap foodstuffs to preserve them on the voyage.
After leaving Esteban, we had lunch downtown, looked at the all the boats, ships and containers in the port, and then rode the Peral ascensor (funicular) up to our hotel. 
I absolutely loved all the street art and took many photos of human faces, animals (there are a lot of sleeping dogs around plus a number of cats and they figure in the art), fish, and other creatures. So many bright colors, so much variety, such creativity! Here is just a further sampling. 
Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved)
