Valparaíso
Valparaíso is a port city 1.5 hours northwest of Santiago. It's known for its hilly cobblestone roads, its colorful
houses, and the gorgeous murals and graffiti that are absolutely everywhere. In recent years, it's become more
touristy and remodeled, but fortunately for residents, rent hasn't increased by much.
We spent our time here wandering. We started in the historical district, which is full of twists and turns, alleys,
and murals. This is where you can find poet
Pablo Neruda's former house.
From there, we took the unusual funicular elevators into the city center, which had fewer murals but was still artsy and beautiful. We walked through the
Parque Cultural de Valparaíso where we saw sculptures
and poetry as part of the project Valparaíso en
100 Palabras - Valparaiso in 100 words. The park also houses the Warehouse of Gunpowder, which was built in the
early 1800s to store gunpowder and whose architecture is noticeably out of place next to all the greenery and modern art in the park.
Eventually, we found our way to Cementerio N° 1 de Valparaíso. The cemetery was beautiful, filled with flowers and fruit trees and
overlooking the city. There are a lot of graves marked as bomberos - firefighters. A monument explains this, describing the tragedy at a New Year's Eve party in 1953. The party was held at a
lumber storage warehouse which was situated next to an explosives warehouse. An explosion caused a fire, injuring 350 and killing
50, 36 of whom were firefighters. They were buried in the cemetery and the memorial was erected to honor them.
