Valparaiso: Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!! I spent the holidays in the port town of Valparaiso.

Folks from 'Valpo', as it is known, are called 'Porteños' - literally "people from the port".

Neighbourhoods are called 'Cerros', which means "hill", because pretty much everyone lives on a hill.

There are stairs everywhere and even these elevator/gondola things called 'funiculars' - like the one depicted in this mural - to bring you up into the Cerros.

It's a really arty little town with murals everywhere.

Everywhere!

The houses are also really brightly painted. This was my view from the walk down into the flat part of town each day.

I left my bike in Santiago when I heard how hilly Valpo was. Luckily, the next generation is a little spunkier!

Fedor, the guy I couchsurfed with, and I went out to a little town on the coast to see the house of Pablo Neruda, Chile's most famous poet.

He was a great fan of all things related to the sea and his house was full of those wooden women that are on the front of boats, coloured glass, shells, ships in bottles, compasses, etc., etc. Apparently, however, he was afraid of sailing and only used his little sailboat on land to entertain guests.

This was the symbol he used in all his work.


His workshop.

I decided that, with a view like this, I could also write some pretty stellar poetry. Okay, here goes:




"Fleas interest me so much/ that I let them bite me for hours./They are perfect, ancient, Sanskrit,/ machines that admit of no appeal./ They do not bite to eat,/ they bite only to jump;/ they are the dancers of the celestial sphere,/ delicate acrobat/ sin the softest and most profound circus;/ let them gallop on my skin,/ divulge their emotions,/ amuse themselves with my blood,/ but someone should introduce them to me./ I want to know them closely,/ I want to know what to rely on."

Okay, okay, that was actually from Pablo himself. Fleas don't actually interest me that much.

It was a little weird to on the beach in December. I spent Christmas back in Santiago with Tomas, a friend of Nelson's who had done an exchange from Chile to Vancouver a few years ago. His family was so wonderful to me, even buying me presents. On Christmas day, I swam in their pool then lay out in the sun until I got too hot.

In the lead up to New Years, the cultural carnaval was amazing - I saw dance (traditional and very modern), theatre, circus, photography, music and even a film projected onto a screen on a staircase way up in one of the Cerros. I was really blown away.

New Years Eve was spent with new friends back in Valpo. They all laughed at me for buying a silver wig, but then everyone wanted to wear it! They had also made fun of me for always going home so 'early', but I managed to stay up past 5am, which was midnight in Vancouver, to bring in the New Year Canadian style!


I am back in Santiago now and found a wonderful apartment in a great neighbourhood close to Nelson's school. Nelson arrives early tomorrow morning. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!