Valpariso, Chile

Funicular

Corrugated Buildings

Fernando-Tour Guide

Jan. 11, 2009-Random Info

We were lucky last night. I forgot to put the "no molestar" sign out but no one molested us.

My new sunglasses are already broken. I can limp along hoping the lens stays put after it fell out or I can use my old ones that only have one earpiece. It's nice to have choices.

We got an email from our neighbor across the street saying we've had ten inches of snow in  Akron. No comment.

We had breakfast with a couple from Brooklyn, Clara & Frank. They're Italian but live among many orthodox Jews including Chabadniks. Our conversation turned to when Schneerson, the chief Chabad rabbi, died. Since he was thought to be their Messiah they waited for his return. We were unaware that this involved his followers carrying pagers so they could be notified of his resurrection instantly.

Rough Going

We headed for Valparaiso, a World Heritage sight, with great anticipation. It was a two hour bus ride away and Marco, the local guide, regaled us with "agri-info." We learned about crops, water sources, and trees until I tuned it out and went to sleep. Not a rare occurrence for me. I didn't even go to see the pathetic llama at our pit stop. Been there.....

We drove through Vina del Mar, a seaside resort neighboring Valparaiso. It reminded me of Mexico and not in a good way. It was shabby with formerly gracious old buildings serving as hostels while living in the shadow of new high rises. The beaches are narrow and the Pacific is bathed by the Humboldt Current on its way North from Antarctica. The ocean depth drops off quickly by hundreds of feet so bathing is not an option.

Valparaiso is up the hill from the resort and up hills again. It resembles San Francisco in that everyone has muscular legs. It's still served by fifteen aging funiculars from the 1800's. Our guide said that some of them are going to soon be extinct. I hoped they didn't do that while we were passengers.

Fernando, our Tour Director, was having a tough day. Roads were closed because of some car rally; the bathroom we were to use near the town square was closed due to a sewer back up; he had to pay for us to use the toilet at a cafe across the way; the funicular he usually took was shut (or extinct), and we had to be at the restaurant for lunch at 1 PM. As he was stressing about the glitches and explaining to us in painful detail about changes, re-routing, and that we'd see what was originally planned, I told him we just didn't care. Whatever we saw we hadn't seen before. It would be interesting and wonderful and we'd follow him anywhere. I think he was relieved.

The funicular we rode was a five foot square wooden box with a roof. It had once been painted red, white, and green but was now peeling so badly it looked like the side of the decrepit house it was parked by. Once we boarded none was afraid. We were all preoccupied holding our breath. The urine smell that wasn't in the Metro yesterday was certainly in the funicular. I suspect some of the many stray dogs have taken a ride from time to time.

Smoothing Out

Valparaiso was founded around 1536 by a poor sailor who is believed to be a Morano or secret Jew (they say Converso) from Spain. He made up a history of having a family in Spain as he was escaping the Inquisition and trying to hide his Jewish identity. In that spirit he named the city Valparaiso, which translates either to Valley of Paradise or Going to Paradise. There’s still a small synagogue today. We didn’t see it. The city has maintained a diverse population and has encouraged minorities to settle.

With the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 the city declined. There were no funds to maintain the brick and stucco buildings so people raided ships and warehouses using corrugated metal as siding. To this day the preservation codes prohibit replacing that siding. Fortunately it doesn't rain a lot. The cacophony would be alarming. An attempt is made to paint each building a different bold color so the overall effect is lively if not lovely.

Lunch was at a charming restaurant overlooking the city and sea. The Gato Tuerto (one-eyed cat) served us delicious mahi mahi over couscous. This was David's 3rd fish meal. He can't wait to get to Argentina and "real food."

Our return trip to the bus was by a different funicular. The ride was short and wobbly. The "box" was not so much ready to become extinct as it needed to be euthanized. Since we're such a small group and it was Sunday we got to go to a flea market where I found more sunglasses. The lens in my original replacement glasses bit the dust, literally. This time I didn't buy at the first blanket, I was more selective. Now I have a pair and a spare. I paid $0.87 for the one and $1.25 for the other. BTW there is no bargaining here.

We returned to the hotel in time for our 6 PM lecture by Claudia Toledo on the political history of Chile from Allende to Pinochet. She spoke British English since her family fled to England during the revolution and returned when it ended. I took notes as she spoke but decided you'd be better served reading up on the era in detail if you so desired. I will sum it up: The Cold War was on, Fidel rose in Cuba, the CIA dumped millions to manipulate elections and deter the rise of Marxism, Nixon/Kissinger said "not again in our hemisphere you don't," the CIA fails, Allende rises, the U.S. imposes an embargo, Castro visits Chile, Allende falls, Pinochet is worse, torture, blood, deaths, disappearances, Pinochet stays seventeen years, Pinochet is ousted but gets to be senator for life and keep the twenty-eight million he stole, he dies in 2006 never having been in jail. The moral is that dictatorships of the right or left are bad.

We stayed at the hotel for a light dinner and will pack for our flight to Puerto Montt tomorrow. We'll continue on to Puerto Varas where we'll stay at the Bellavista Hotel. Don't know if we'll have a WiFi connection.

Toby