Valpo or San Francisco?

I´ve never been to a place like San Francisco. Living there, we all think it is a one of a kind in the world. Turns out that Valparaiso, Chile is the a close sibling to SF.

SF
*Just one or two hills...
Valparaiso
*Just one or two hills...

SF
*Surrounded by water
Valparaiso
*Surrounded by water

SF
*Artists and lots of culture
Valparaiso
*Artists and lots of culture

SF
*Dirty
Valparaiso
*Dirty

Okay, okay, you get the drift. The cities are a lot alike, have great views, very interesting port and maritime history, and both have crazy activists preserving buildings and keeping the city "as it was".

One of the things about traveling that we´ve mentioned before is the variability of places we´re staying. I mean you really never know. A place could look awesome online or sound great in the guide book, then you get there and it´s a complete dump in a crappy part of town. For Valpo, we got lucky. It was the end of summer here in Chile so basically the entire country is traveling on holiday, so it was really important for us to book things ahead of time. Lisa booked this place for Valpo that was way cheaper than any other place (finally good prices...about $30/night!). We get there and the place is awesome. Just check out the picture of the outside below. The owners, Ken and Carolina, are awesome. They are a family that basically runs the place as their own house with about 8 rooms. The place was really clean, the rooms were like actual bedrooms that we would have at home, the kitchen was normal, and best of all there was a deck and bbq with awesome views! It totally reminded me of my old place in SF before Lisa and I moved in together.

Staying here really made our visit cool, all the people staying at the house would hang out on the deck and cook dinner together every night (it rotated - we barbecued, of course!), then just chill. It was awesome. These are the kind of places that you want to find when traveling, a home away from home with good people.

Our awesome home away from home, Hostel Mariposa


Some of the crazy street art, it´s everywhere...and super cool.


The City of Funiculars - there are I think 13 funiculars around the city, with only 3 actually working. The hills here really take SF hills to a whole new level, it´s like you get to the top and then there are two more hills to go!


More building art


The city


The Valparaiso port. Valpo used to be a huge stop on the way around Cape Horn, before the Panama Canal was built. It´s more about touristy harbor tours now...kind of like SF.


A few other tidbits..We also visited Pablo Neruda´s house, a little taste of culture. He is like an icon in Chile and won the Nobel Prize in the seventies. The city has a ton of character, from the different colored and shaped houses to old bars that look like the inside of pirate ship. Pretty cool.

On one of our days we decided to take a trip down the coast to check out the famous Vina del Mar and some of the nearby beaches (Con con, Renaca). I have never in my entire life seen such an overdeveloped beach in the world. It is amazing. There are skyscraper condo units literally back to back, lining the entire city and beach area in Vina. Basically, if you live in Santiago (a Santiaguino) you come here to vacation and buy a condo. It is ridiculous.

Beautiful coastline...except the HUGE skyscrapers in the background


If you look closely there is a yellow bulldozer next to the ocean. Looks like they are about to build another highrise condo complex...this one about 10 feet from the ocean. This ugly disaster would never make it in Cali. I guess some of our environmental protections are a good thing...


Is this the Cali coast or Chile??


Despite all the development, it is still very beautiful here and we had a great day at the beach. Every year they have an end of the summer blowout (like our Labor Day), called Vina 2012 (this year), it´s like a HUGE party on the beach with concerts, dancing, you name it. We were there the day before this started, so it was pretty packed. So we´re finishing up our beach day and decide to try to get the bus back to Vina. We get to the bus stop just as the beach starts to get cold, and literally hundreds of people swarm around us trying to get on the buses from the beach. Hundreds I tell you, all at the same time. It was ridiculous. The buses were more packed than the 30X on an SF morning. What did we do? Well, we had no time pressure, so we hopped over to a beach bar, grabbed a nice cold beer, and waited it out. Perfect. Even caught the sunset on the way back to Valpo. Sometimes it just works out.

Sunset over the Pacific, oh how we´ve missed you!