South America, Days 130 to 133 - Stage 25: Buenos Aires to Valparaiso, Chile

On our tour of the Colon Theatre, Buenos Aires

Day 130 Monday 

Awoke to no WiFi, due to the rain which had been coming into the power cabinet, or something! Not quite clear what. We had stuff to do on the internet, but sadly that was not to be. We had tickets for a tour of the Theatre Colon, fortunately, as everyone else thought this was a good idea, given the weather. We walked, despite the rain as Brian had been chatting with Jeff, a new guest, so rushing was better than waiting for an Uber.

The entrance hall to the theatre, mostly made in marble from Italy

It was a beautiful theatre, though not that different from the one we saw the show in in Montevideo. A good wet weather activity, but relatively expensive for what it was.

The chandelier in the main theatre. Apparently the chandelier can be lowered on a chain to the floor for cleaning. The auditorium apparently has amazing acoustics, on par with the best opera houses in the world

We decided that despite the rain we should get an Uber and go to La Boca as it was now or never. We were not alone, it is really very touristy, and very expensive. We had a drink, shared some chips and watched a guy dancing on his own, who was good, and a singer and guitarist we could have done without!

The golden French room in the theatre. Apparently when the theatre was new you had to be able to speak French to enter this room. That you could speak French in a Spanish speaking country showed you were sufficiently wealthy and well travelled to enter

It was still raining so we headed back to the hotel on the off chance the WiFi would be back. It wasn't, so we repacked our cases and chilled. The WiFi did come back, but we were past it by then.

The stage is off to the right, you can just see the stalls and the various balconies range in cost to the very cheapest at the top where you have to stand. I think our guide said you can get standing tickets for US$10 to about US$200 for the most expensive. You can see the curve in the wall which helps the acoustics

We decided to go back to the bar we had eaten in yesterday as it was close and had a nice feeling to it. We invited Jeff to join us as he is having a bit of a hard time. His phone got stolen in Colombia which is everyone's worst nightmare. He can't pay his bills or change anything as everything requires the OTP that banks etc send to your phone. He'd bought a new phone, at great expense as his company said they would be able to give him an eSim, only not that model! Fortunately the phone shop took it back and refunded him the money. Online chat was going round in circles telling him there was nothing they could do, which wasn't what he'd been told when he rang from his friends phone, hence why he'd bought a new one..... It all goes to make us even more paranoid about our phones!

We listened to this tale of woe before moving on and having a pleasant evening.

El Caminito in La Boca, Buenos Aires on a wet Monday. It was a holiday on the lead up to Lent, so lots of people about despite the rain

Day 131 Tuesday 

And we are off again. Uber to the airport to fly to Santiago. Yes we do seem to be going round in circles. Definitely a feeling of deja vu as we went through immigration, again. Taxi to the Pajaritos bus station to get our bus to Valparaiso. The 20 minute taxi cost about 3x the hour and a half bus which is one of the weird things about travelling. We are only going to be here a couple of nights before going back to Santiago for our flight to Easter Island (must call it Rapa Nui), but it's somewhere new, it's not BA and it's not raining. 

All the buildings in this area are brightly painted. It was a fairly rundown area until the locals decided to do something about it, it's now a very popular touristy area and they are making lots of money judging be the prices they are charging (US$17 for a coffee at one establishment!)

I'm not sure what I thought about BA, it had been built up as being very unsafe, phone theft through restaurant windows etc, but didn't feel any worse than anywhere else. There were a lot of people sleeping on the streets, seemingly with nothing to their name. Which is always horrible, but particularly when It rained as much as It did. It was dirty and full of rubbish, not helped by the homeless going through the bins on a regular basis. It was also expensive. We enjoyed the tango but fortunately neither of us are as obsessed by it as many of the people we met. With our new shoes (which were a nightmare to pack) we will continue with lessons in Barnt Green when we get back. We'll just have to hope we remember something of what we learned!

We did manage to find a tango show

A taxi from the bus to La Galeria our BnB and a very friendly lady. She wrote us out a list of local restaurants, but I'd already found a pizzeria that scored highly and having had no lunch except for a packet of crisps and a cereal bar on the plane, off we went. We got there as it opened the doors but was very quickly packed, and slightly noisy, but a great pizza and couple of pints.

Another walk round to look at the colourful houses

Day 132 Wednesday 

There was a tours for tips leaflet downstairs, and Brian had read about them in the guidebook so, after breakfast, we set off for the 10.00 tour. Jocelyn our guide was excellent with great English. This was the "off the beaten path" tour and was well worth doing. We (9 of us) learnt a lot about the history of Valparaiso, how UNESCO status isn't always helpful, the dictatorship in the 70's, and the Disappeared amongst other things. We had to wait for a bus at one point, so although we had been told not to pet the street dogs, mostly because they then just follow you, she hadn't mentioned cats so I saw nothing wrong with cuddling the kitten that was trying to pounce on pigeons, about the same size as it was.

Before fining somewhere for lunch where a lone dancer and a band entertained us. He wasn't shy in asking for tips for him and the band. We gave up on the rain after this and went back to our hotel

We finished at the bottom of one of the 6 running funicular railways (there used to be 31) where another of us was going to go up to a fish restaurant that Jocelyn had recommended to her yesterday on the afternoon tour. We went together and had a good, and interesting, lunch talking with our new friend about all sorts including her work with the Peace Corps in the Gambia.

Time to move on and here we are on our flight from BA to Santiago, passing over the Andes. We wondered if the mountain on the right is South America's highest, Aconcagua, and whether that valley is the one we'll be walking along when  we do our base camp trek in just over a week. We've no idea really, I suspect it's not as it doesn't have enough snow on it

We left her and went back to the Central Plaza to pick up the afternoon tour. This time with Felipe. He took us, and Alex from Poland also staying in our BnB, to the port before telling us a lot about the architecture of the plaza. Up another funicular to the two touristy areas, one of which we are staying in, to look at the street art. We had already seen and photographed some, it's impossible not to see it, but it was really interesting to learn about how it started, in the '80's, how some of the artists are now widely travelled. He had recognised some street art in Shoreditch on a trip to London to prove that point. He also spent a long time explaining some of what was going on in a very political piece which would have meant nothing to us without him. This was enhanced by the artist doing some work on the mural. No photograph as he was wearing a balaclava as it's not strictly legal and he's a private person. The tour finally finished directly outside our BnB which with aching feet we were very pleased about. I recorded both walks (with bus and funicular. It shows just over 13km, but we walked only about 8.5km) on my Relive app and there's a short video with some photos of it: click here

On the street where we live. This was our arrival in the fabulously colourful port city of Valparaiso, built on steep hillsides. Our hotel, La Galeria, is just down there, no wonder the taxi driver dropped us off at the top, his car won't fit down there!

We looked at 3 of the restaurants in the list we had been given yesterday and went out to dinner. I had a 'starter' of 7 langoustine in oil, chilli and garlic which were very good. Thoroughly enjoyed them, though I did get a little messy. Brian had a crab pie which was also good. On the table next to us the man on his own had had a meal and a glass of wine, but then moved on to a cocktail and dessert, which came with a candle in. We wished him Feliz cumpleanos (happy birthday) which seemed to really touch him. He was 50, a doctor (still wearing his stethoscope) who has been working on his own for a year. His girlfriend is in Santiago so he wouldn't properly celebrate till the weekend. Oddly though he has to understand some written English for his job his spoken English was probably worse than our Spanish, but we all did our best and he seemed not quite so sad when we left. A thoroughly enjoyable day, so although we go back to Santiago tomorrow it was worth making the effort to come.

First evening in Valparaiso at MaliZioso pizzeria, a proper pizza restaurant and excellent they were too!

Day 133 Thursday 

The plan was to mill about looking at some more murals but as my watchstrap had suddenly self destructed we had to go and look for a new one. Despite our two walks we hadn't actually seen any shops and strangely this proved harder than expected. After asking the guides for the 10.00 tour at least we knew which direction to head in. Finally found a shop with a few and a lovely girl who at least understood that I had to be able to see it without my glasses on but that I didn't want too big. 

Waiting in Plaza Sotomajor for our first 10:00am Tours4Tips 'off the beaten track' tour 

Drift up the hill towards Concepción and found our way back to the hotel via routes we had been or seen yesterday. Grab an empanada and call an Uber to the bus station for our return to Santiago £1.99 each this time on the bus!

Safely arrived at the bus station and Uber to the hotel by the airport. Journey from Valparaiso to here £16.32 and from Santiago to Valparaiso £31.72. It all goes to show what a difference using Uber is to taxi's. Not to mention that you don't need money, and don't feel worried about being ripped off. Phil and Jackie paid for a taxi in Santiago, it showed as £16 but actually took about £600 from his card, to pay for the groceries. He got it back, but it happened without him even knowing.

This is on our first walk and a stop in the port area, passing the first funicular, the Vilaseca. See the stairs at the side? That used to be the only way up before the funicular. 167 steps we're told. This area has a fearsome reputation as being unsafe, it didn't feel that bad, but it is a bit rundown. It's a pity as it could be a very vibrant area with many fabulous building, but they need a lot of work. The UNESCO listing is detrimental in many ways as it means nothing can be changed from the original, which can be expensive and very limiting in what they can be used for

This photo was taken from the top of the new market building. To the right is the port and in front a non-working funicular, making the ascent muscle burning up stairs. The old market building collapsed in an earthquake in 2010, it measured 8.8 on the Richter scale. It took 12 years to rebuild this three story structure in the same format as the original, but in that time all the traders had found other places to sell their wares so, at the moment its empty and our guide doubted it would ever be used. 

Another view from the market rooftop and here's a building that was gutted by fire and lies abandoned as there's no money to rebuild it. It used to be a centre for entertainment and, when it closed a lot of trade went with it

The church stands on the site of the first church built by the Spanish and, originally it stood at the edge of the ocean. The market building on which we are standing was in the sea, now reclaimed land

Jackie finds a kitten that was trying to savage a pigeon, while we waited for our bus. Jocelyn, our guide there, told us not to stroke dogs, but said nothing about cats! 

At a viewpoint at Plaza Bismark where we got off the rollercoaster bus

We're up high with great views of the coast (but is was a bit misty and, looking straight into the sun, the photos aren't good) this is the other way, which is still much higher. See that block of flats? There's a stairway you might see coming down just to the left of it. Jocelyn told us that last Sunday Red Bull sponsored a downhill bike ride down there, past us and steeply down to the harbour a long way below us. Apparently the winning rider did it in about 2.5 minutes!

This used to be a prison and we were told of horrendous torture and killing of political prisoners during the years of the Pinochet dictatorship. between 1973 and 1989. She told us that the left leaning, democratically elected president was overthrown in 1973 by the United States CIA who installed Pinochet as their puppet president, instigating the terror. He was removed from power in 1989 as the country reverted back to a democracy (although it's far from perfect she told us). The building is now used by theatre, arts and performing arts companies on a free or low cost basis, being a community facility, which is a nice way of using it

Apparently this is a much used view in publicity for Valparaiso

On our way to our afternoon Tours4Tips tour which is the 'highlight', covering architecture and some of the murals that decorate the city

On our tour with Felipe and we went up a funicular to a high viewpoint overlooking the port. See that old building down there with a new glass rectangle sticking up through it? The shipping company who owned it threatened to move their headquarters to San Antonio, an hour away, unless they could erect that. 'You won't see it' they told them, 'its glass'. There was such horror that it would set a precedent for new modern buildings that it helped propel their application for UNESCO status to protect the city. Now new buildings are not allowed, old buildings must be preserved but, the irony of it is that that building with it's glass rectangle is also protected so, if it fell down in an earthquake it would have to be rebuilt exactly as it is!

Palacio Baburizza, originally built by a millionaire who made his money from mining, now an art museum with a huge private collection of art 

There is a massive amount of murals everywhere and we were taken to look at a few. The artists are well known and have gone on to do major works of art. This is by a couple, Unkolor and Distinta and they always paint a male and female in their murals

This is a famous one and features in a lot of material about Valparaiso

This red door appears on a lot of peoples Instagram accounts. The wall surrounding it is fabulous

This mosaic of mirrors and coloured glass only appeared overnight last October. It tells the story of a massacre in 1907, but I can't remember all the details now

We'd walked past this several times without really looking. It's actually huge and spreads well off to the left but it's difficult to capture as it's a narrow alleyway. The artist was there touching it up but I wasn't allowed to take his photo as they are all very secretive and his face was covered. Details in this section concern the USA and their unwelcome interventions in Chile. There's a US drone top right and just beneath, the current world richest man (EM) is shown atop a helicopter with the president of Latam airways dead at the bottom. The parachutist is to illustrate how the US arrives unwanted into other peoples business

This one commemorates the firemen of Valparaiso, all volunteers. The winding red hosepipe illustrates their difficulty in reaching fires in these narrow, hilly streets with tight turns

Another dig at the US. The man in the blue suit with yellow hair is the current US president atop the Chilean army and holding in his hand the Chilean navy

The Brighton Hotel, an English designed and built hotel that's been here and still open for as long as our guide has lived (he only looked about 30!)

We walked past it today from the other side and saw how its built over the edge of a cliff. You just don't get that impression from the photo above

The piano stairs, we like these!

What about this for a work of art? It's actually a staircase and the artist has created this on each of the stair risers. There are two footprints in the ground over which you must stand to get all the risers to line up to show the picture. Our guide told us that, whenever you walk down some stairs (of which there are many), turn around and look back, there will probably be some art painted on them that you'd miss coming down

A fabulous line drawing. This artist has done quite a few murals around the city and we like them all

I could go on, there are so many fantastic murals, but I'm going to finish here. I'm not going to put on the one Jackie took.. Actually I was going to but I can't find it. It's one of cats and dogs along a wall. You'll have to imagine it (unless she moans at me and tells me to put it on, in which case it'll appear below magically in a moment). Other than that, see you in Rapa Nui (Easter Island)!

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