Valparaiso — A City Where Creativity Is Everywhere
Valparaiso was more than I hoped for.
We took a bus from Santiago to get to Valparaiso. The two hours ride was my first experience of Chile’s countryside and I was looking forward to driving through the famous winery town on the way. We passed through a valley, hills on both sides, beautiful scenery. And, I fell asleep.
When I woke up we were already in Valparaiso.
I had booked a classy hotel for our one-night stay in the historic city of Valparaiso which a commercial hub of freight ships going to North America before the construction of the Panama Canal in 1914. The hotel was advertised as a luxurious casa and was going to be one of the highlights of our stay in Chile.
The taxi driver dropped us at the end of a street declaring that he could go no further. The street was blocked with iron pillars. We dragged our suitcases, on cobblestone, for two blocks afraid that we were going to break the wheels at the start of the trip.
The hotel indeed was a casa but a century ago. Today it was a world heritage listed crumbling structure. The receptionist led us three levels down from a narrow staircase to a room that was tiny and smelly. The furniture seemed to have come from a museum — an old hospital kind bed, a free-standing wardrobe, a white thin-legged table, an…
