Day 51 Valparaiso

Valparaiso is a very charmig harbour city. From our hotel we had an amazing view of the port. In this hotel, there was a very family atmosphere and the service was much better than in Santiago.

As there was a kitchen we could use, we tried some local delicacies like olives, and cheese.

The colonial architecture in Valparaiso mixes colonial style with harbourlike materials, so you can see for instance old styled buildings covered by rough metal facades.

One of the city's highlights is the funicular system that connect the port with the rest of the city (80m above). Built about 1890, when the Panama channel didn't exist and the economy was florishing, they are now national monuments.

We took 4 funiculars, to have the best views of the harbour.

Here funicular Espíritu Santo:

And the views from above...

Here funicular Monjas:

In Chile you can see a lot of old french autos especially renault, but this peugeot (on the right) was really unique. Could any one tell us the year of this car?

The "troleys" (electric buses) are the oldest public transportation of the city. They are very old but good kept, and sitting inside is like a travel back to the 50's. But apparently they forgot to translate the signs into spanish when they imported them from Switzerland... So unless you speal French, you dont know how to open the door.

Finally we took the last funicular, which goes up to a place with the nicest views of the harbour. This "harbourlike ambiance" reminded us of Hamburg, and actually a lot of containers come from there!