“This world is but a canvas to our imagination”.
Henry David Thoreau
Henry obviously visited Valparaiso, Chile before he came up with that line.
And my particular favourite…
For those of you unaware, Valparaiso is located 120km northwest of the capital, Santiago.
The bus takes around 2 hours and costs approximately $8. I use Busbud.com to book all my bus trips around South America.
Is it worth visiting Valparaiso? Yes! Absolutely.
Valparaiso is a major seaport, so there’s always some action going on by the waterfront.
There are plenty of sights and attractions:
- Ride the funiculars (kind of like a cable car to go up the endless hills)
- Museums
- Boat trips
But the real magic comes from the street art. As you can see in the above images, they take it very seriously!
The pieces are vast… absolutely huge! How they do it, I have no idea. I can barely draw a smiley face without screwing it up. Some of the art spans entire buildings.
You can take a free walking tour or just go wandering on your own.
I chose to just get lost and explore on my own. I was not disappointed! There are some areas which are a little less safe than others, so ask for advice before heading out.
Valparaiso has hills. Lots of hills! You’ll certainly be ready for an ice-cream and a beer after a good day graffiti hunting.
I spent around a week in the city before being mugged and beaten up, but that’s a story for another day. When people tell you to avoid certain areas, listen to them.
I didn’t. I was silly.
Would I go back? Absolutely! Apparently they update and repaint the artwork throughout the year so it’s always evolving.
If you’re in Santiago and fancy a day or week away, Valparaiso is definitely worth visiting.
Unfortunately it suffered a devastating fire not long after I visited. Thankfully they were able to rebuild, repaint and recover.