Valparaiso was only a short bus ride from Santiago so we rocked up around 2pm and following check in we noticed that there was a free walking tour around the city. Dropping off the bags, we nipped over to an empanada place recommended by the dude on hostel reception, who especially recommended the shrimp empanada. So off we went down the road and ordered exactly that. It turned out to be pretty dam tasty but I only got 4 shrimps in there, it was like a walkers packet of crisps when its a fairly big bag, and you open it only to peer down to the bottom and find a handful of crisps. Jen had a chicken one and she got about one chunk of chicken. Both fairly dissappointed, we couldn`t find something else as we needed to get down to the walking tour in the central plaza.
Walking down our steep road, we saw what can only be described as a mess of wires that fed the city with electricity....a fire hazard waiting to happen.
Arriving in the central plaza, we found our tour guide who was dressed up as "where`s wally", so was pretty easy to spot her. Named Sydney, she was an American who had visited Valparaiso whilst travelling before and loved it so much she decided to come back and stay here. She was also a pretty good guide and we learnt loads about the place so I`ll tell you a few stories!
This statue is of Chile`s national hero, Arturo Prat who was a naval commander. There was a war between Chile and Peru over the land back in time (you can see I`ve forgotten a few details!) but it ended up that Peru were winning the naval battle quite drastically. With Peru advancing and Arturo Prat realising that they were way outnumbered, he decided to do the thing you see in movies and swing from his boat onto the other boat in an attempt to take the ship. Unlike the movies however, he was killed instantly but this action put fear into the Peruvian`s and they backed off which ultimately led Chile to win that war and is why they have the northern part of Chile which sneaks into Peru. Chilean`s loved him after as he put his life on the line for his country. Fair play. Pretty stupid if you ask me though.
This building was pretty weird, didn`t look quite so bad from ground level but it definately stuck out. Valparaiso is a port city, one of the biggest and wealthiest back in the day as it was the main stop off point for ships coming round the west coast of South America on their way to California for the Gold Rush. This building was owned by one of the citys biggest naval companies, and they decided to expand their business and asked the city if they could build a big glass box ontop of an already existing building. The city said no as they wanted to maintain the style of buildings so the company just said they would leave instead. As they brought wealth to the city, the decision was quickly reversed and they let them build it. Years later, the city realised the mistake they had made and were granted Unesco World Heritage protection so now buildings can only be built following the theme of the city.
Being a wealthy city back in the day, it is hard to believe from this photo that this street used to be the most wealthy street in the whole of South America. Wealthy European families moved here and the rich buildings can still be seen although looking a bit worse for wear. Now it is quite a dangerous street, one to avoid at night as the city is now really poor, thanks to the opening of the Panama Canal which allowed ships to shortcut through the continent.
Being a cultural city, there were plenty of colourful steps and things, this one next to a funicular which allowed the people to get up into the higher parts of the city as it is built on hills.
This street was right outside our hostel, and was massively influenced by the good old English who got in on the action when Valparaiso was wealthy. The street is designed for donkey carts to come down the middle carrying goods, so that the English women could go and pick what they needed off the donkey carts whilst not having to walk down the path where the donkeys would do their business.
Speaking of the English, this statue has a great story behind it. There was a wealthy British merchant who moved to Valparaiso who liked to sleep around. Getting his way with most women, he managed to get into bed with the wife of the Lord Justice General. Obviously pretty miffed with this, the Lord Justice General sentenced the wealthy Brit as a murder and off to prison he went. Being wealthy he simply bought his way out of prison and left valparaiso. Being a cheeky Brit as most of us are, he commisioned a French sculptor to send a Lady Justice statue to Valparaiso, addressed from France. Upon receving it the city folk couldn`t believe their luck as French scultpures were highly sought after so placed it proudly infront of their court rooms. It took them 30 years to realise that they had been had by the wealthy British merchant as the Lady Justice statue was purposely misdesigned....the scales were not balanced, she was not blindfolded and she didn`t have a sword. To top things off she was also holding a cross upsidedown - so was basically taking the piss out of justice.
Realising their mistake 30 years later, they decided to leave the statue up and make up some pants story that it actually symbolises the justice only happens in the courtroom, and any wrongdoing outside the courtroom would be caught and punished. However, we know that the cheeky Brit did them over. Truelad.com.
Going up another funicular we could get a view of the city which was pretty cool.......
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