We woke up early Wednesday morning to catch a bus to the coastal, port city Valparaiso. The view from our Santiago balcony revealed (what we believe to be) Venus rising up over the Andes, our lovely Cerro Santa Lucía a-glow.

Valparaiso is full of cerros (sizeable hills) 45 of them, in fact; consequently the city is full of funiculars and daunting stairways.

Our tour guide was telling us about how this once-stately building blew up due to a gas-leak. The decrepit appearance of the building led us to believe the whole ordeal took place decades ago, and were shocked to find out it was but in 2007.

Smaller boats hoping to be seen under low light or in fog must be brightly painted; our guide explained that the characteristic Valpo style of brilliantly colored houses is the result of residents using the leftover vibrant-colored boat-paint.

Valparaiso is full of street murals and cats

Parque de Descanso, or Resting Park. A beautiful mosaic-filled plaza, its name comes from its historic use as a resting spot when carrying coffins from the city below to the cemetery above.

Dating back to the early 1950s, these Swiss-made trolleybuses are the oldest trolleybuses in service in the world.

We saw an Anglican Church that had no obvious signs it was a church. Historically Catholics, attempting to limit the appearance of other religions, would permit other churches to be built, but only if a whole set of rules. For example, there could be no visible cross. The altar could not be visible from the street. High walls were to hide what was within. Despite the Anglicans abiding by all these rules, the Catholics decided that they too needed to build a church, of course bigger and higher than the other. They did not anticipate the city would grow up around them and swallow the Catholic church up almost completely, save the top of two steeples and their humble crosses.

Mural from artist Cuellimangui

The bay. Graffiti artist Inti (seen also in the Santiago blog) did the mural at the bottom right of the photo.

Valparaiso was declared a World Heritage Site in 2003, a move made when a shipping company, Hapag Lloyd, proposed building that reflective cube-like structure (if you look closely, you can see the building is set inside a classic-looking, limestone facade/base). When the UNESCO nomination was finally accepted, a couple of the “cerros”, the trolleybuses, and the historic center were all protected. Ironically this included the then-completed reflective Hapag Lloyd.

Andrea dipping her toes in the Pacific, undeterred by the military ship not far from shore.

Girlfriend/boyfriend duo Jekse & Cines do murals together, always depicting a female and male.

After exploring Valpo by foot for 10+ hours, we dragged our weary feet to the bus station and headed back to Santiago.