What a crazy, colourful, rabbit warren, gritty, edgy city. Despite its colonial architecture, the vibe was anything but European. We had spent the last 3 days driving through wine regions in open, rural areas; Valpo, as they call it, was at the other end of the spectrum.

 

Valpo doesn't have the best reputation (I lost count of the number of people online who reported being mugged), so we used our senses and stuck to the touristy areas. There wasn't a whole lot to do except walk around the dark, twisting, narrow roads and admire the street art, brightly painted buildings and the small restaurants and bars that popped up here and there. Occasionally there was a view out towards the sea, but they were mostly interrupted by ugly concrete buildings. From what we could tell, the busy port wasn't much to look at anyway. The area overall was reminiscent of La Candeleria in Bogota or Getsemani in Cartagena, but turbocharged. We loved it.

 

The entire city was built on a hill, with steep roads and stairways running up and down the slopes. Whenever we went anywhere we had to endure a stairmaster workout. Although there were outdoor escalators (ascensors), we weren’t interested in joining the long lines to ride them. After all our hiking in the past few weeks, we should have been used to relying solely on our legs.

 

The only touristy thing we did here (other than take photos of hundreds of street murals) was visit the Museum of Fine Arts, housed in a stunning Art Nouveau palace built in 1916. On display was artwork of the past 200 years by Chilean and international artists, filling room after room. Not only were paintings and drawings on display, but also the building itself. Marble fixtures, mosaic tiles and stained glass were highlighted, as well as the most industrial shower we had ever seen (yes, the signed route sent us through the original bathroom). We were surprised by how much we enjoyed it, even without knowing who the artists were.