Day 10 (Feb 29) - Walking Tour of Valparaíso

We wandered around Valparaíso a bit before getting some empanadas for breakfast/lunch. After a bit more walking around, we navigated to what we thought was the Plaza Sotomayor (but was actually Plaza Cívica). After some loitering, we realized we were at the wrong location and eventually found the correct plaza. We then met with a free walking tour group that ran from 3 - 5 pm.

The central fountain of Plaza Victoria.

Another angle of the fountain at Plaza Victoria.

The obelisk area of Plaza Cívica.

A local produce stand at the edge of Plaza Cívica.

Some painted murals along the walk toward Plaza Sotomayor.

The Plaza Sotomayor monument to Arturo Prat, the Chilean naval officer who valiantly fought and died at the Battle of Iquique and became a national hero.

A building in the Plaza Sotomayor that is somehow related to the Chilean Navy.

The tour took us through several streets on two of the most scenic hills in Valparaíso: Cerro Concepción and Cerro Alegre. We saw several colorful buildings and artistic murals along the way, and we learned that the reason the buildings are so colorful is because the early sailors in the area brought more paint than they needed, so they left it in the city, and citizens of Valparaíso found that the paint worked well for their houses because it protected them from the salty humidity of the sea and allowed them to distinguish their houses from their neighbors by using different bright colors.

El Domino / La Rosita del Puerto, a restaurant with good chorrillana (a traditional Chilean dish).

The top part of an ascensor, a gondola-like machine that takes people up the steep hills.

The view from the top of one of the hills.

More hilltop views.

A very large painting on one of the buildings (there are many of these!).

A painting on a low part of a wall.

The second half of the same painting.

La Baburizza, a museum on top of one of the hills.

More views from on top of the hills.

A neat painting of Valparaíso.

A mural depicting whales.

We also got free samples of our first (but not last!) alfajores, which are two cookies sandwiching dulce de leche, all dipped in chocolate. I don't think all alfajores are chocolate-coated, but these were, and they were delicious! We also had our first sips of chicha, which is a drink that is one part grape juice and four parts pipeño, a local style Chilean white wine.

A full alfajor and a half eaten alfajor!

After the tour, we got some ice cream from a place called Emporio La Rosa, number 18 in the top 25 ice cream parlors in the world. It was delicious! And pricey but not too expensive given the exchange rate (about $4800 CLP, $6.92 USD, for 3 scoops).

Emporio La Rosa, the 18th best ice cream parlor worldwide!

Delicious ice cream!

We walked around a bit and passed the office of El Mecurio, one of the largest news/newspaper companies in Chile, with main offices in Santiago and Valparaíso.

One of the main offices of El Mercurio.

Next we decided to try chorrillanas at the restaurant the tour guide recommended: El Domino. We agreed with most people who tried it; the dish had some appeal, but wasn't really that great (or healthy). It was interesting to try though. Mostly just fries, onions, cheese, beef, and tomatoes.

The chorrillana we ordered at El Domino.

After dinner, we stopped by the Express Lider (Lider is a supermarket owned by Walmart... naturally) to get a few supplies and water, and we finally completed our collection of coins from Chile! The last one we needed was the legendary one peso coin (far left in the picture below), which is worth about 1/7 of a US penny.

From left to right: 1, 10, 50, 100 (above and below), and 500 peso coins.

After all that excitement, we were ready to head to bed. All that walking was quite tiring!