I begin my epic 3-day adventure by metro-ing my way to the Registro Civil for my new Chile ID. I still have the old one, mailed to me when I thought it was lost, but in the meantime bought one with a better picture. From there I moved on to barrio puerto, where before I had really only skirted the edges. The port neighborhood is distinctive, a little bit shady, fast-paced, and packed with graffiti murals, ascensores, and some of the oldest buildings in he city. I Rode my second ascensor, Ascensor Artillería, to Paseo 21 de Mayo, a walkway overlooking the port and providing a view of almost all of Valpo. This may be the longest ascensor ride available in the city. Once atop cerro atrillería, I sought out two things in particular: ascensor Villaseca and el Museo Naval y Marítimo. From afar I could see that the ascensor was not functioning, which made me really sad. But on to the museum.
To say that I was impressed is a gross understatement; it was absolutely fantastic. Chile's maritime heros were well-commemorated in what was really a palace, with artifacts, statues, cannons, maps detailing battles, model ships, soo much cool stuff. It was an extremely informative visit. Finally, I have become familiar with many of the people behind the names of streets and plazas all throughout Chile. I felt a sense of greatness just from moving through the place. Another favorite part included the room with all of the paintings of the faros, or lighthouses, of Chile. There are so many of them, and every one is rather unique. Also great was the are detailing shipping routes and exploring, with paintings of the legendary danger of Cape Horn, and the room detailing pirates and treasure. I enjoyed the museum so much that I went back to several rooms a second time, and would be willing to pay it a visit again.
Back down to the port on ascensor artillería (yay!) and onward, to explore more of the port. Next I rode ascensor Cordillera into cerro cordillera, the only ascensor to have a set of stairs adjacent to it the whole way up. I explored for a little while but not extensively, as I was advised not to do so in this particular area alone. I wandered to Museo Lord Cochrane, which was closed but which had a fantastic overlook of Plaza Sotomayor, Mirador Lord Cochrane. I took the cheap route back down to the plan, 161 steps. 161.
My next adventure was ascensor El Peral, but I couldn't find it. Turns out it is actually really easy to get to, but I'm an idiot. It turned out for the better anyway, because the next day I went there with Cristian. I moved on to Ascensor Concepción, the oldest in the city. This took me well into cerro concepción, where I had explored before with Thomas el vecino (German Thomas.) Past the Lutheran church to the sector around ascensor Reina Victoria. For me, each sector was defined by it's own ascensor. They are great. They are old and creaky, but full of charm. I love every aspect of the ascensores, their history, the colorful cars, the view, the incline, the rarity of such a mode of transportation. They are awesome, and I would ride them all the time for fun if I lived close. In all seriousness, they add a lot to the culture of Valparaíso. Some people take them every day, as part of their commute. Ascensor Concepción was one where I encountered commuters, not just tourists. The people there, those who ride the ascensor and those who operate them, are part of the history and part of the present, part of the old remaining in the new.
Ascensor Espíritu Santo also had commuters. This made me so happy, that the ascensores are not just for tourists but are used in daily life as a part of the public transit of the city. I was now in cerro bellavista, filled with graffiti. The pretty kind. Mural upon murals surrounded by more murals, in the open air museum, Museo a Cielo Abierto. I realized later that I missed seeing an entire street of murals, the museum extends on several streets. Even when I went back another time I still missed this street. I climbed into cerro florida to visit La Sebastiana, the house of Pablo Neruda. I had seen the outside once before, but now the time had come to go in. I got a little handheld thing that was my tour guide. It was kind of like a TV remote; you punched in the number of the area you were looking at and could listen to the history behind it. What a novel idea! I was confused at first though, because at first I thought the number corresponded to the floor, when really it matched a specific location on that floor (I realized when I saw a number 12 and was like oh, wait, this house does not have 12 floors...) there were a ton of interesting things about this house. It was ambitious but relaxed. interesting, historic, and monumental, a very Pablo Neruda place.
Then I decided that I was tired, and that it was not a good idea to stay in the hills close to nightfall by myself. I walked down cerro mariposa, passing on the street above ascensor mariposa, which unfortunately was not funcionting. I had been here before with the Germans, and descended the same shady stairs as before, back to the plan. I wandered further away from my destination in order have an extended troleybus ride. I take back what I said before about troleybuses; they are really cool. Valparaíso has the oldest working system of troleybuses in the world; the oldest buses were build in 1946. They were declared national monuments 6 years ago, and line 802 somehow continues to run, the only one in the world privately owned. In the middle of my ride, loud banging from the back of the vehicle caused the driver to stop, get off, open something on the side, bang around some more, get back on, and drive again.
I wonder how the troleybuses work in the sense of how do they stay on the tracks? Their power comes from the electrified wired above, along which run the cables that are attached to the bus. The electrical power is rather efficient compared to a diesel bus. I wonder how often dewirements occur (how cool of a word is 'dewirement'?!) I guess the drivers have to keep the vehicle really steady and must know exactly when to turn, because they need to match the route of the tanglement of overhead wires. I never before could imagine using a troleybus to commute, but that is what I saw. I hit rush-hour traffic, and the troleybus was packed with people heading home. I like traveling at this time because I know I am traveling with Chileans, not tourist, not extranjeros, real Chileans living their daily life. It is both a rushed time and a slower time to travel; rushed for the urgency to get home, but slow because there is so much traffic.
At the Jumbo complex I went into Easy to buy an adaptor for my US stuff. It was difficult to communicate what I needed to say the least. I have no idea how to say any words like 'plug', 'outlet', 'convert to Chile outlets', ha I could not even explain it well in English. It took 20 minutes, two confused customer assistants, a demonstration of me charging my camera (which was not successful in any way), some guessing, and poorly-constructed Spanish phrases like "I want to put my camera cable in the wall, but can't because it is from the US," to figure it out, but I finally found what I needed. It was great; I happily bought it for $3,98 (haha Dr. Seuss quote, no relation to anything here, but I like it anyway.)
Here I will cover my minitrip to Palacio Vergara, home of the Museo Bellas Artes in Parque Quinta Vergaro in Viña. This place is full of cool stuff, statues, paintings, more paintings, some really really cool paintings, and chandeliers, gigantic ones. It is a small but intriguing place, I mean it is a palace, so the building itself it awesome. The park too, is way bigger than I had time to explore, so of course I will return. Pronto.
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