High Tech Hobo: Valparaíso

A Pretty Standard Valparaíso Ascensor

After my day or so of recharge time in Santiago, I made my way out to the first of my last three (well, five, as it would turn out) major stops in South America: the colourful, hilly, UNESCO World Heritage Site city of Valparaíso.

Valparaíso has been dubbed the San Francisco of South America. It's not hard to see why; it's really freaking hilly. Oh, there are some gorgeous old buildings too. And the ascensors match up pretty well with cable cars when it comes to examples of quaint modes of urban public transportation.

A Valparaíso Panorama

I didn't do anything incredibly exciting during my time there on the coast of Chile. My three days in Valpo (the local-preferred abbreviation) served as time to recharge my creative batteries – eight hours a day just wandering around with my camera fused to my hand. The historical centre, and the cerros (hills) surrounding it, are just a font of inspiration to any artist or photographer, and to say that I was in a picturesque little area would be a massive understatement. I took a lot of pictures – some of which actually turned out to be good.

In fact, I'm just going to refrain from churning out more words, and just put up a few more pictures. Any written descriptions I have of the sights in Valpo would not do them justice. Believe me, there are a lot more images where these came from, but my lack of dedication to timely photo post-processing is already well documented in previous entries.

A Rainbow of Buildings

Valparaiso Graffiti

A Hole in the Wall

When I said I wouldn't write any more, I lied. I have one more anecdote:

Towards the end of my time in the seaside city, I learned an important lesson about achievement. Many of my accomplishments over the last few months have been based upon goals. The problem with aspirations, in general, is that one has to know one wants to do something, before one can go about doing it. I'd almost forgotten what it was like to fall ass-backwards into success – of being able to cross something off the list without ever having written it down in the first place.

You see, I never set out on my trip with the expressed goal of finding The Freakiest Mannequin in the World. But find him, I did. And he was right there in Valparaíso.