Valparaiso

We spent a day at the "Paradise Valley", the nearest coastal town to Santiago.

Apparently this place was very prosperous at the turn of last century but has slowly fallen into a state of decline. I later met a guy in Uruguay who was from here - he explained to me that, as Chiles main port, it was impacted greatly by the opening of the strait of Panama. Obviously a lot of business was lost practically overnight.

Its still generally very pleasant and, like Esquel, is actually huge. We spent most of the day walking around the west bay area, keeping out of the centre as much as possible in our quest to avoid the "urban" scene.


You can see the size of the town in the background in this pic.

We found this really pleasant (though seemingly abandoned) little plaza with paths up the hill, right at the west end of town.

And I noticed this guy cleaning the beach - surely there has to be a more energy efficient method than this? Possibly the hardest working Chilean we saw the entire trip (most brickies we encountered were lying on the pavement, having a siesta, next to their pile of cement mix).

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But the most interesting thing about this place for me were the ascensors, or funicular lifts - being situated in a really steep valley, the only way to get to the back end of town is to take one of a series of rickety old sheds that drag slowly (and noisily) up rusty old rails to reach the high ground. Great fun for 4 vertigo sufferers.



Not the best picture (didn`t get one with the sheds in) but you can imagine the peril of the short trip.