Along the Pacific

Last Monday (apologies for the lag in blog updates) we had our first full day in Chile. We visited Valparaíso, a shipping town along the pacific coast. Before the Panama Canal was constructed, Valparaíso was an important seaport because it was a stopover for ships traveling between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Straits of Magellan. Many Europeans involved in the shipping industry immigrated to the city. Thus, many of the houses were built in styles of these countries. There is a large German and British population in Valparaíso that remains in the city generations after it lost its geopolitical importance as a seaport.

A European-style house

Geograpically, Valparaíso is not an ideal location to place a city. With many cliffs and little flat land, houses in Valparaíso lay slanted on hillsides. Thus, the city has been designed vertically and they use funicular elevators to reach different neighborhoods elevated on the rocky land.


In addition to rough terrrain, Valparaíso is earthquake magnet. They had a very large earthquake in 2006, which destroyed much of the city. Luckily, however, many houses that should have collapsed did not collapse because of the materials, such as malleable wood, that absorbed the shocks from the earthquake. This photo does not do it justice, but if you notice the building on the left was made of wood and is still in habitable, but the building on the right was made of stone and has cracks in it and had to be vacated. For someone who finds natural disasters fascinating, this is kind of interesting (apologies for those who don't ;))


Perhaps my favorite part of Valparaíso was its color and street murals. The city is eye candy, even on the most foggiest of days.


After visiting Valparaíso, we went to Vina del Mar, which is a beach town. Think the beach towns along the U.S. East Coast. Vina del Mar is a ritzy town that was first inhabited by the richest of rich from the shipping business as their summer homes. We ate along the beach in a fantastic little restaurant called Siete Mares (7 Seas). Unlike, Argentina that is only endowed with great red meat, Chile is also well endowed with seafood. Our lunch was delicious -- The best part was clams topped with hot fried cheese. It sounds disgusting, but actually one of the tastiest seafood dishes I've ever had.

Sleepy and full, we headed back to Santiago, but first stopped to watch the sea lions along the shore. Pretty loud, fat and angry creatures. For some reason, I thought they would be cute.


In the evening, we made friends with Ryan, a fellow American at our hostel, who has been traveling around the world for the last 10 months. He is finishing his world tour with South America and is hoping to get an apprenticeship as a welder in Antarctica after his trip. What an awesome way to spend a year!

We met up with Shiv and Pri who are interning in Santiago for drinks. It has been so great to have friends all over South America to meet up this summer!