Valparaiso

Valparaiso, or Valpo as the locals know it, is a city made for wandering. With patience and flexibility, aided by long hours of sunlight, you can explore the winding streets and side passages to find bursts of color around every corner. But be warned--throw your map away now; if you have a destination in mind, forget about it. The city´s Escher-like layout is unkind to those seeking the particular, and unforgiving to those looking for order or efficiency.

Imagine a funnel cut in half and folded like an accordion; that´s basically Valparaiso. To walk from one side of downtown to the other, along the coast, takes about 30 minutes. To do so any other way will take hours, and could take days. You might start walking up one of the many cerros or hills, and find the road splits in two; so you follow one road and it dead ends, but offers a pedestrian passage over to the next road-- but that road might go up or down a different hill, only to backtrack later to nearly where you were before. Did I mention many of the streets aren´t signed, at least not at intersections where it would be useful? Did I mention that with many of the streets you´re looking at a 45 degree slope? Did I mention that many of the streets that start in one direction will twist and turn, change direction and elevation and deposit you somewhere even the map seems to have forgotten about?

But here in Valpo the journey is the destination. Dilapidated grand old mansions aside makeshift shanties; more color in the houses, the flowers, the walls and streets than seems reasonable or feasible; old men herding alpaca up broken concrete stairs. Its a feast for the senses, a kind of anarchic free for all. Not something I´ve found anywhere else.