Valparaiso is a town on the coast with a bit of a buzz, plenty of people I've met so far have recommended it & with bus travel so cheap (£7 for a 90min journey) I went to check it out.
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| Funicular railway - Valparaiso |
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| Trolleybus - Vaparaiso |
Would you believe first stop at the information place and she directed me to the trolleybus (33) and then onto one of the 14 funicular railways (34) in town. This one was one of the longest at 185m & has been since 1886, although I think it's had a paint job since.
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| Chile miners rescue capsule |
At the top of the hill was the naval museum & thinking of James I couldn't pass this by. It was pretty good, not sure how authentic the pirate ship was but the capsule used to rescue the Chilean miners was also on display - I fitted in ok, just a bit tight on the headroom
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| Pirate room - Navel museum Valparaiso |
The town is a world heritage site and there's plenty of good street art on display. The other highlight was a visit to Pablo Neruda's house - a poet, the first South American to win the novel prize for literature
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| street art - Valparaiso |
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| house - Valparaiso |
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| view from the hostel of plaza del armas |
A quick mention for Santiago too. I stayed in the plaza del armas - the central square where arms were kept. A Chilean equivalent to Cuba's revolution squares, i.e. every town has one.
From the top of the San Cristobel hill it´s possible to get views of the whole city and really see the impact of the smog
Not really worth a visit in itself but a good spot to spend some time while planning trips in the area.
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| statue of the virgin Mary overlooking Santiago |
Who's the dude in white?
ReplyDeleteactually it´s a girl, captions now updated!
DeleteSantiago´s equivelent of the Rio´s christ, quite a common sight in many S American cities