Valparaiso
Chile

Valparaiso on a summer day, mid-December.

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Chile's main port Valparaiso is a very colourful contrast to Santiago, particularly the World Heritage Site hills of Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepcion, where brightly painted corrugated iron house walls compete with clever, skilled murals.

That's not to say the whole city is a treat for the eyes, quite the reverse, there're plenty of hideous newer structures spoiling what should be grand vistas from the 42 hills that comprise the city and the port area just below the the best hills is especially crammed with rusting metal and dull concrete.
Nevertheless, Valparaiso is unique, and makes Buenos Aires' Caminito look tiny and pathetically touristy - this is the real thing.

A typical corrugated iron wall festooned with wiring in Cerro Alegre.

So what's the story behind the technicolor iron or zinc walls?
No one seems to know for sure but the corrugated iron certainly protects and beautifies the irregular adobe brick walls. The BugTheory is that an entrepreneur sent a shipload of iron sheet out after an earthquake for the usual roofing but locals found the iron also well suited for enhancing walls.

As for the colours, the pressed iron of the early years would certainly have required paint and being a port, visiting ships would have had leftovers after painting the insides and outsides of the vessels. Naturally ship paint would be extremely weatherproof and often brightly coloured - deck metal needs to be clearly visible in poor weather conditions. Crewmen sell off a few litres of bright, weatherproof paint here and there, and so begins Valparaiso's technicolor future...

Mad murals in Cerro Alegre looking down towards the port.

And the murals? Maybe being raised in a multicolored neighbourhood does things to one's head that demands anarchic, external artistic expression? Alternative theories on the Bug's desk by Monday morning please.

An ascensor in action in Valparaiso.

Another curiosity of Valparaiso is the large number of ascensores (funicular lifts) to help you up the city's 42 hills, but otherwise the city is about strolling the hills rather than visiting specific sights, though there are some grand structures around too.

Wow, Valparaiso residents certainly have an eye for colour!

Chile Naval Headquarters in Valparaiso.

Valparaiso's most interesting structure, downtown near the port.

For beaches travellers just need to hop onto the new metro and head for the large and calm though unexciting resort of Viña del Mar, 15 minutes down the line, though the beaches are hardly useable outside January and February.

One of Viña de Mar's beaches.

Not one of the world's best beaches by a long shot, but the beaches are big enough, the sand soft enough and the sun hot enough for desperate beachgoers, even if the sea is a bit chilly. Just 9kms (5mls) from Valparaiso and easily accessible by metro, Viña's casinos will also empty your wallet if you choose or questionably entertain you with their February 'International' Music Festival.

Further north are other less developed seaside resorts such as Reñaca, Maitencillo and Zapallar, as well as central Chile's best seafood restaurants in the fishing town of Concon.

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