Walking the Streets of Valparaiso (Tues 3/30)

Stats:
- hours of walking tours
- lots of earthquake damage
- 1 town that has gone to the dogs
- 1 megastore
-1 cafeteria style lunch
- best pasta of the trip
- best dessert of the trip

We have read that the best way to see Valparaiso, Chile is by walking the streets.  Arn had researched a book with over 20 miles of walking tours.  So, our plan for the day was simple.  Find the book, buy the book, and walk.  With a street map in hand, we headed out.

Valparaiso is north of Santiago and located on the coast.  It is the largest shipping port in Chile (90% of all port activity occurs through Valpo).  Parts of the town were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2003.  Close to the water, the city is flat.  In just a few blocks, it heads steeply uphill.  There are in excess of 40 distinct hills.  So, while you might climb up to one neighborhood, it is down and back up to get to the next area of the city.  There are over a few hundred thousand people living in Valpo.  If you have been to San Francisco, then you think it is probably a hilly city.  By Valpo standards, San Francisco is flat!  It is crazy steep.  If you have been to Venice, you are familar with back alleys and narrow passages to get through the city.  Well, this is like that, but vertical.  The passages are crazy flights of stairs that climb 50 to 300 feet.

After a lot of up and down, we found a book store with the walking tours.  Of course, the store did not open until 1pm, so we did some exploring "unguided".  We took an audiotour of Neruda´s house in Valpo.  Who was Neruda?  Yeah, if you know, then you were not busy studying thermodynamics or linear programming like I was in school.  He was a poet --- "probably the most read poet since Shakespeare".  Who knew?  Not me, I was too busy with math and engineering.  His house was perched in the hills with commanding views of the city and ocean.  His favorite chair was called the "cloud" and he kept a wooden trunk stocked with whiskey for his parties.  Eventually, we picked up our guide book and continued our exploration.  

Valpo is a crazy place.  On the same street, there are beautiful houses.  They are painted in bright shades of yellow, purple, green, blue, orange, pink, and red.  Often, there is beautiful iron work on the windows, doors and fences -- painted white or black or a complimentary color to the house.  Then, right next door, there is a dump....corrigated metal shack, peeling paint, broken doors, etc.  The juxtiposition is crazy.  In places, the city is stunning and next door it looks like a slum on the hill.  Now, the city does not belong to the people.  Valpo has gone to the dogs!  Yes, packs and packs of stray dogs.  How does one experience this?  It goes like this --- "watch your step, watch your step".  There is dog shit everywhere.  It smells like dog shit everywhere.  I really like Chile, but they need to clean this shit up.  It is crazy.  The dogs bark, howl and run throught the streets.  It is a common sight --- laying in front of the pharmacy, 8 dogs asleep.  In front of the mini-market, 6 dogs asleep.  Two boxes in front of the produce stand?  One dog sleeping in each box!  It is nuts.  The sidewalks and streets are filthy with dog excrement.  Did I mention the smell?  Seriously, there is more room to walk in a cat´s litter box that hasn´t been changed in a week!  While you can hear the dogs during the day, the howling and barking takes on a whole new level of aggravation at night while you are trying to sleep.  Last night, we turned on a fan to cool the room.  I told Arn that fan will run all night, every night --- no matter the temperature.  It creates white noise and you can´t hear the dogs.

During our exploration, we found the center market for fruits and vegtables.  Here are a few prices for you.  Over two pounds of awesome tomatoes -- 40 cents.  A shoe box of strawberries -- 2 bucks.  The produce market was one place without dogs.  Why?  Because the cats have taken over!  At least there was no dog or cat shit!  And, the cats don´t run in crazy packs growling and howling.  We found one black kitty that reminded us a lot of Bean.  It was both good and bad.  It was probably the first black tabby like Bean. This kitty had the same markings in her head. 

For lunch we headed to what we thought was a mall. It turned out to be a super store --- something like Target ot Walmart with something like Home Depot downstairs. We ate lunch in the cafeteria. We both had a salad and shared an order of fries. If you could have seen the meat, you would have agreed with this strategy. I have not seen that many people eating jello in the same place ever. But, I have not seen that many different varieties of jello desserts in the same place either. 

Now, about the earthquake, we saw more damage today than we would have anticpated or expected. We saw broken windows, buckled sides of buildings, places where the sidewalk buckled and collapsed, collapsed roofs, and lots of cracks and busted plaster. It was not on every building, but there was a fair amount of it. Many things were taped off as dangerous and we found lots of piles of debris (bricks and busted plaster).

For dinner, we enjoyed the best pasta of the trip. Arn had gnocchi with blue cheese, walnuts, mushrooms and white wine. I had pumpkin ravioli with fresh tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, and goat cheese. We shared a chocolate brownie with a chocolate and cherry sauce and Dulce de leche ice cream for dessert. It was the best dessert of the trip. They actually pulled the brownie out of the oven on time --- leaving it gooey in the middle. They tend to over bake everything but the bread. We had a great Chilean wine and it was a great evening out. The only bummer --- oh come on, are you paying attention?  The bummer was the dog shit dodge on the way back to our room and the ever present howling of at least a dozen dogs. Oh, and let's not forget the smell.