Philip's Valpo

Philip, my Chinese friend whom I met in San Pedro de Atacama a month ago, made a weekend trip to Valparaíso, where it was my turn to serve as Valparaíso tour guide. Disturbed after watching the dog get run over 20 minutes before, rushed to meet him at Plaza O´Higgins. Immediately I made him put his camera, strapped around his neck, underneath a zipped jacket, and wear his backpack in front. We stopped to admire the dizzying mirrors in Tres Palacios and the equally dizzying effect of the floor of Plaza Victoria, where the tiles have wavy lines that appear 3D if you walk perpendicular. Or at least as perpendicular to a wavy line as one is able to walk.

We started at ascensor Espiritu Santo, taking the same route I had the day before, through Museo Cielo Abierto to the Mosaic Pillars of Alex and Golzalez, and back down another street of the museum. Though I have been here multiple times, I never have seen the stairwell with the murals painted directly on the front of the steps. We started up towards Avenida Alemania when who did we meet but Alex and Gonzalez, on their way to buy fish from the port!! You don't get any more Valparaísian than that! ¡Qué entretendio! Needless to say I was overly excited for our second reunion. We moved on, to Avenida Alemania, on the route I took with the Cristian Valparaíso tour. I peered longingly up the high hills, wondering how a micro could get up there. One went partway up, stopped where it got steeper, and turned around. I have my answer. Though I wonder if it was for safety or for the steepness or neither.

We continued the Cristian-tour route to Cerro Concepción, where I could not remember the route so we diverged a bit and found more graffiti, including one with rabbits! We found the paseos and dined at the restaurant/hotel with the checkerboard floor, which was good but did not serve me nearly enough food. More wandering, into Cerro Alegre, where we found more graffitis and... Alex! Again! The mosaic artist of Cerro Bellavista. He also works at a restaurant in Cerro Alegre. Paseo Yugoslavo, then el Peral, one of my favorite ascensores. From there the port, where a man put his hand on Philip's chest and asked for 20 pesos, and I freaked out unnecessarily. At ascensor Artillería I heard my name yet again. It was Ana, a Chilean I know through the Mentirosos and have not seen in over a month. It is an odd sensation to hear your name wherever you go in Valpo. From paseo 21 de Mayo we explored a bit of Playa Ancha but turned around luckily before the higher part of it, which I found out after is rather dangerous, so dangerous that all of the surrounding hills are dangerous because they are close to Playa Ancha arriba, or so they say. We took the windy and slightly shady route back, passing below a slum, in what was for me a new sector of Valpo. This story is getting really lengthy.

I paid my first daytime visit to the Ex Carcel, or old jail, which is now a cultural park. There was a group practicing drums there, in a big dancing singing joyful circle. Also school kids rehearsing... something under the watchful eye of the artfully-graffitied defunct watchtower. kids played fútbol in the field, the higher hills in the spectacular backdrop. We pounded back to the Plan, eager to get to el Polanco before sunset, catching Casa Central and Avenida Brazil on the way.

At ascensor Polanco (another fav) there was a pleasant gray cat perched on a wall in the stairs leading to the tunnel entrance. I only ever pet them if they look healthy, with fur intact, eyes that are not oozing, and if they don´t look like they want to bite me. I put my hand on it´s back but encountered instead of nice soft fur an enormous patch of gray scabby skin, crusted and falling off. I had just petted the most infectious cat in the entire city. Great. Scabby cat disease here I come. I am not sure if I was more disturbed by the expectation of soft fur and instead enountereing flaky crustiness, the fact that the cat was sick, or the idea that whatever it had was likely contageous. Upon returning later to the Plan, I doused my hand with an obscene amount of hand santizer, twice, then santized both hands, then watched them in a restaurant multiple times.

On the Polanco stairs we found a group of people crowded around a tv, with cord extended across the alley, the men cheering and shouting and drinking together. This is another very "South American" thing in my mind, the neighbors coming together to share the game.

We finished up with chorrillana at Renato, which I was recommended for a more "real" Valparaíso dining experience. We were the only ones younger than 60, but it was nevertheless an excellent meal. After traversing for the day, Jun's apartment and birthday party were calling. 5 days later I am still not caught up on sleep.