Christmas in Chile

Valparaiso, Chile
33.0472°S, 71.6127°W

I can’t remember exactly how Sarah and I ended up deciding to spend Christmas in Valparaiso, Chile.

We originally planned on heading to Chile’s south to explore Patagonia and the very bottom of South America. But we underestimated the size of Chile and realized the cost of getting there and then back up to Buenos Aires, Argentina (our next destination) didn’t make sense. And I enjoy saying Buenos Aires way too much to skip out on visiting that city.

So we decided on a week in Chile in between longer stints in Peru and Argentina. After a little bit of research and a few conversations with other travelers, Valparaiso seemed like the right place. The city is described as having a laid back and “bohemian” vibe, and since I’m laid back and Sarah is so bohemian we pulled the trigger and booked six nights in Valparaiso. So more or less that’s how we ended up here for Christmas.

Valpo

Valparaiso was once one of the most important port cities in South America due to its access to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. As a result, throughout the 19th century, the city received an influx of mostly European immigrants. After the creation of the Panama Canal in the early 20th century, the city became less important to merchant activity and thus not as economically significant to the continent as a whole. But towards the end of the 20th century, Valparaiso had something of a cultural revival and began attracting artists, students, and an increasing number of tourists.

It’s still very much a port town (residents are referred to as porteños). The Chilean Navy is based in Valparaiso and you can’t wander more than a few blocks in the city without seeing a sailor or ten walking around in their brimless white hats. The navy has long had a reputation for being one of the best in the Americas, which makes sense given the that Chile has something close to 3,000 miles of coastline.

Valparaiso is about a 90-minute drive from Chile’s capital city, Santiago. The first thing you notice when driving into Valparaiso is the graffiti. The city is known for a vibrant art community, and the work of many of these artists extends beyond the local galleries and into the streets. Graffiti and street murals are everywhere, especially as you climb up the city’s hills. Valparaiso has more than 40 cerros, or hills, where most of the city’s roughly 300,0000 residents reside.

There is barely an inch of Valparaiso that isn’t covered in some type of graffiti. In fact, most of the walls throughout the city look something like Tommy Lee’s torso. At first, we both had mixed views over whether or not this added to the city’s unique atmosphere or just made the whole place seem like it belonged under a highway overpass. Much of the graffiti was clearly done by talented artists, but there are certainly some less talented folks with spray cans in Valparaiso (e.g., “U suck” and “eat shit” were on the wall next to our hotel). But the colorful walls, stairways, and buildings definitely gave the city a distinct feel.

We stayed at a small hotel in the city center just a few blocks from the port and one of the main squares. Downtown Valparaiso, the area at the bottom of the cerros, is definitely not as cheerfully bright as some of the areas at the tops of the hills. Even with the sun shining, the aging buildings and trash on the street gave the blocks around our hotel a depressed feel. And in fact, outside of what can be seen on the few cerros aimed at tourism there is a lot of poverty in Valparaiso. But even with its visible economic struggles, the city has undeniably positive energy, fueled in part by an influx of students studying at the city’s many universities.

Going Up….Hopefully

To get to the most touristy part of the Valparaiso, you have to walk up (way up) the cerros. On one of our first days in the city, we took a walking tour of the city and learned that the communities on each of the hills are very tight-knit. The reason being that if you run out of milk, eggs or sugar late at night, you’re screwed. There are no stores up in the cerros, and the last thing you want to do is go all the way down into the city center…and then up again. Fortunately for the people of Valparaiso there are a number of elevators strategically located at the bottoms of many of the biggest hills. For between 100 and 300 Chilean pesos (about $0.15 to $0.50) you can ride up and down the cerros from early in the morning until late at night.

The first elevator was built more than 100 years ago, and that may have been the last time someone provided any maintenance on these things. Actually, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. I’m sure the antique elevators are well maintained and perfectly safe. But let’s just say Sarah and I weren’t the only ones holding our breath on our first ride up a cerro.

Lazy Dog Days

One of the things we’ve discovered nearly everywhere we’ve traveled is how much we enjoy the street dogs. I know this might upset Bob Barker, but it’s nice to see dogs just roaming around with their balls still attached, eating whatever they want and (for the most part) not being aggressive to humans. Valparaiso had more street dogs than probably any other city we have visited. For some reason, they also seemed better fed and more prone to mid-day naps than dogs in other cities. They really looked like they were stoned, and neither of us is convinced they weren’t.

Feliz Navidad

Neither of us has ever been far away from family for Christmas, and it was one of the few things that we weren’t looking forward to on this leg of the trip. While there were Christmas trees and decorations everywhere in South America, the warm weather and being away made this Christmas certainly feel different than others. In Chile, almost everything shuts down for the holidays. This made us nervous that we would end up eating alone at the Sheraton Hotel buffet, Sarah wearing reindeer antlers and me with an oversized Santa hat. Fortunately, there were a few restaurants open on Christmas Eve, and we ended up having one of the best dinners we’ve had in South America at La Concepcion Restaurant. And we didn’t even feel the need for festive attire.

Christmas day in Valparaiso was beautiful (high 60s and sunny), and with temperatures being what they have been in the Northeast of the U.S. I can’t say with a straight face that we missed the weather. The day after Christmas was spent figuring out exactly where we would be staying for our next destination – Buenos Aires. In addition to my excitement about getting to repeat the words Buenos Aires over and over again, we were also looking forward to our next month of travel in Argentina.