Valparaíso

Reader's warning: This post is long and contains a lot of pictures for your enjoyment, but mostly because I have to get them off my camera. :)

Yesterday we went to the city next door, Valparaíso (affectionately called Valpo by the locals--and by me because I have a hard time doing the í on my computer). It's a really pretty city in the tourist district, but really old and poor in the residential parts. Valpo is made up of hills, cerros, and it's COVERED in houses. Everywhere a house could fit, there is one. There's also a lot of kids in the street, and dogs and cats are often homeless and allowed free roam over the city. It's not pretty.

We took a bus from Viña to get there, and stopped along the way to learn some of the history of Valpo and to take pictures, of course:

The Wofford Girls:

The Wofford Group:

The Parliament Building of Chile:

The hillside (look at all the houses):



The Chileans solve the problem of the hills with the "Chilean way". The Chilean Way is this: do what you have to do to make it work, regardless of what it looks like or how pretty it is or what anyone else thinks about it (read:the way my dad does things). So, they built these elevator type things to get themselves up and down the mountain. It's also well known that the Chilean women with the best legs live in Valpo (because they walk up and down the cerros a lot). We visited two different elevators:

The first:




The inside of the elevator that pulled us up the mountain:


The second elevator was more like a real elevator, only built in a rock instead of a building:




The view from the elevator:



Some more random pictures:














Graffitti on the street:


The boat house:



Home of the Chilean Armada (Navy):


We took a boat ride around the inlet of Valpo, and I was glad to be in this boat:



And not this one:


The Chilean Navy:


A sea lion, who at first, liked to show off:


But, apparently had a long night of partying and was not up to showing off:


More sea lions:


The boat ride:





We spent around six hours touring Valpo and I was so tired after we walked back home. I have a cold today, and haven't done anything but hang out around the house and read. I think my cold probably has something to do with falling in the (very) cold ocean on Thursday and then being in the hot weather for six hours yesterday.

I found out that my Nana and Papa read my blog (hey, y'all!), and that's exciting. Hopefully tomorrow will be better than today (cause I have lots of homework/studying to do). Ciao!