Valparaíso

West of Santiago, at the end of the autopista del pacífico, is the coastal port town of Valparaíso. This was an important town in the second half of the 19th century, as it was a convenient stopping point for many ships making their way around Cape Horn and north to California in order to profit from the gold rush there. 1848 until 1914 was the golden age for the port, in which it expanded rapidly, both into the hills, as people settled there, and into the sea, as land was reclaimed to allow bigger ships to dock in the deeper water. However, this era was abruptly brought to an end as the Panama canal was built, allowing passage from Atlantic to Pacific without navigating the treacherous cape.

Valparaíso's cerros

Nowadays, Valparaíso is a thriving container port, yet is deriving more and more revenue from tourism. Its rapid expansion and unusually hilly terrain led to a higgledy-piggledy assortment of buildings atop the many 'cerros' (hills).

The Ship

Each building is unique as it was built on whichever piece of land was available. This resulted in thin slices of building such as the above ship-shaped house. The mismatching colours were a product of using leftover paint from ships. Similarly, the delicate adobe walls of the houses are protected with corrugated iron, since this was used by ships as ballast and packaging and was repurposed as a building material.

Yellow house

Graffiti is technically illegal in Valparaíso, but is still prominent in two forms: tags and murals. Would-be artists approach the owners of buildings with freshly painted outsides in order to fill the space with their work. The alternative is that the wall would be almost immediately filled with an assortment of unsightly tags. The far more aesthetically pleasing murals are allowed to remain. The more prestigious the artist, the less likely the mural is to be defaced.

Illegal art

Valparaíso presents a challenge in terms of protecting its heritage. Two of the principal hills - Cerro Concepción and Cerro Alegre - as well as the town centre are protected by UNESCO. This order was motivated by the contentious  extension of an historic building with a modern glass tower. Ironically, the composite building, including its newer parts, is now protected under the order and cannot be changed.

The offending building

The downside of the protection order is that buildings that have been destroyed beyond repair (such as by fire) are prohibitively expensive for their owners to rebuild according to their original plans and now lie in ruin.

Valparaíso's main square

We learned all of the above and more from a very enthusiastic and informative guide on a Tours4Tips tour of the city.

Where's Wall... I mean Ignacio?

He took us away from the shady port area up to the top of Cerro Alegre via an ascensor. These funiculars are the original mode of transport used by residents and now shared by tourists. La Pedal can be ridden to Cerro Alegre for 100CLP and was built in 1902. However, the oldest of the ascensores is on Concepción and was opened in 1883. These were privatised for a while, during which time the price rose beyond the affordability of the residents, but have now been renationalised.

A mural by Charquipunk

The hills serve as residences but also as local businesses. We were stopped outside just one of these by our guide, who rang the bell and implored us to shout out "Buenos días, Don Sergio" in unison, as the door opened. We were greeted by a smiling Don Sergio carrying a basket of foil-wrapped alfajores caseros - a decadent confection of dulce de leche sandwiched between two biscuits and coated in chocolate.

Aside from the houses, many of which have been converted into cafés and restaurants to serve the arriving tourists, there are oddities such as the Palacio Baburizza.

Italian house

This house was constructed in the art deco/nouveau style by Italian architects under the direction of an Italian immigrant, Ottorino Zanelli, for his family. Sadly, he never managed to live in the house as he died in the same year as its completion (1914). The house is named after its second owner, Pascual Baburizza.

Lutheran church

Other oddities are not so much odd because of their architecture but because of their very existence. A 'secret', largely unobtrusive Anglican church was constructed on Cerro Concepción at a time (1858) when freedom of worship was not allowed - the Catholic faith being enshrined in the constitution until 1865. While the latter year saw official recognition of the practice of other faiths, the dominance of Catholicism was (and is) very much apparent. Undeterred, the German immigrant community built a prominent Lutheran church, surmounted by a cross, in 1897. The Catholics countered with a church twice as large at the very top of the hill.

Valparaíso port

Coming back down to sea level, we finished up on what used to be the richest street in the town, and is now ironically the start of the poorest neighbourhood. Here, in a magnificent town house that had seen far better days, we were served a parting drink of chichón. Chicha is an alcoholic drink made by fermenting corn, which when mixed with a white wine known as piñón becomes chichón.

To digest all the cultural and historical information we had received, we repaired to Altamira - the first brewpub in Valparaíso. Commensurate with the area's reliance on immigrant labour and ingenuity for its success, this brewery was set up only steps away from where an Irishman, Andrew (Andrés) Blest founded the first brewery in 1825.

We sampled a range of typical styles of beers from across the world - from English bitter, through American pale ale, to Belgian quad - while eating a mixture of olives, refried beans, aubergine and curried lentils, while listening to a mixture of James Brown and Depeche Mode. It was a real cultural mezcla.