Caleta Quintay: Update

Fantastic news..!

• The deadline for the project approval has been extended until mid-January
• Without going into details that I've been asked not to mention, it would seem there's a genuine will on the side of MOP to reassess the project. Let's hope that they take into consideration everyone's points of view.
• A well-known architect from Tunquen, Pedro Salas, has become involved in the little tussle- I hope that any project he is involved in is as considerate to the environment as some of his houses are (I've seen a couple in Tunquen- he's a really good architect).

My, personal, opinion of what should happen to Caleta Quintay is:

• Ban public parking from the start of the single track road leading down to the caleta and have a single bus that goes up and down at 5 to 10 minute intervals at certain busy times. People can either take the bus or walk down.
• Extend the pathway that leads to the ex-whaling station by a couple of metres out into the sea and make it nice. The coastal path that leads from the beach in Zapallar would be a good model.
• Convert the ex-whaling station into a proper museum, based on the numerous examples from around the world (I drove 6 hours to go to the one in Albany in Australia).
• Also use the ex-whaling station as the dock for the fishermen.
• Whales will continue to return to Quintay over the coming years. In 10-15 years, they will be a regular sight. Educate the local fishermen about whale-watching tourism and make them understand that they'll be able to make far more money doing that than fishing in the medium term. Seriously- whales will be under two hours from Santiago and the airport. 30 minutes from Vina and Valpo. You usually have to travel hours and hours from major cities to see whales in South America. This could be huge business.

Anyway, that's my take on what should be done. I'm sure that not everyone agrees but I hope that the opinions of people who, like me, are not directly affected will be taken on board. A place like Caleta Quintay should be there for the enjoyment of everyone who lives in or visits this country.

How To Destroy Something Beautiful, Chilean Style: Caleta Quintay

A few weeks ago, I went with a friend to Quintay as he was interested in purchasing one of the restaurants down by the caleta (fishermans' wharf/dock).

Caleta Quintay is beautiful. The drive from the Ruta 68 is beautiful, winding through forests before a series of sharp curves take you down into the town of Quintay. A single lane track leads down to a little cove with a beach and several decent seafood restaurants. On the walk down the lane, it's like a small little fishing village in Cornwall, only with better weather. It's really very pretty.

A couple of hundred metres along from the Caleta is the ex-whaling station. Whaling stopped in the 1960s and last year a mother and her calf were spotted for the first time since then. Whales are returning to Quintay after almost 50 years.

The whaling station is now open to the public as a museum. Granted, it's a pretty poor museum; the exhibits look like a 12 year old's school project but the potential to do something great is clearly there.

Unfortunately, the Ministerio de Obras Publicas and the local fisherman have other ideas. They plan to cement 30 metres out into the Ocean, covering the rocks, destroying the local eco-system, disrupting the nesting habits of Quintay's pelican population and completely destroying everything that is lovely about Caleta Quintay.

The supposed plan is for a new dock for the fisherman. It's pretty obvious to everyone that the dock will simply be used for parking. There is no need whatsoever for a new dock. The ex-whaling station that is already there would be ideal for the fishermen.

The budget for the project is about us$36 million. Seriously. Can you imagine what they could do with the Caleta and the whaling station with us$36 million if they wanted to design something good, something devoted to tourism, to whale-watching. The fishermen are clearly crazy- more tourists mean more restaurants which would mean more business for them.

This project will do nothing but drive tourists away from the Caleta. A huge opportunity to undertake a truly worthwhile project is about to missed.

Why not use the money to convert the whaling station into a wharf and a proper museum (as has happened very successfully in countless former whaling towns worldwide)? The beach area and coastal path could be renovated and cleaned up. Instead of allowing people to park at the beach (which creates serious traffic issues along the single track road leading down), why not have a bus system that runs from the top to the bottom (with parking only allowed from where the bus leaves)?

It is so frustrating to see Chile make the same stupid mistakes we made in Europe in the 60s and 70s that lead to so much destruction . Why can't this country learn from those mistakes?

I simply cannot understand how anyone could think this project is a good idea.

So you can see the scale of the destruction about to be wreaked on Caleta Quintay, the plans are below. If you are interested in knowing more, contact Mario F. Illanes, head of Comité, Salvemos la Caleta de Quintay via email: rightdir(at)vtr.net

The group needs urgent legal assistance, time is running out to either stop of modify the project. If you can help, please do.

Zapallar in 1992

I seem to be posting more on this blog since I left Valpo than before...and I'm neglecting Colchaguino.

Anyway, I came across this article about Zapallar in the New York Times from all the way back in 1992. With the exception of the prices, it's still extremely accurate and interesting to read that almost 20 years ago Vina del Mar, Concon and Renaca had "become so overbuilt, with so many high-rise condominimums, that they resemble Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale in atmosphere. Simply driving up the coast in summer in those areas involves traffic jams and delays. Moreover, officials are worried about water pollution and inadequate sewage facilities for the large number of people."

The article also talks about a 'Presidential aspirant' Sebastian Pineras (sic)...

If you're looking for real estate in Zapallar, please feel free to contact me via: Chile Investments

Calle Condell Before and After The 1906 Earthquake

These pictures give a pretty good idea as to the level of destruction wrought by the 1906 earthquake in Valparaiso.

Before- around 1870-1880. Look how pretty and peaceful it looks; no micros.

After- 1906

The church tower you can see belonged to the Iglesia Espiritu Santo in Plaza Victoria. It survived the 1906 earthquake but not the mentally deficient town planners who decided to knock it down in the 1970s in order to build an apartment block so monumentally foul, one might conclude that the architect was a blind toddler who drew up the plans with a pencil between his toes.

The First Expats

Valparaiso is a city built by immigrants from all over the world, the original expats in Chile. The fire departments are testament to this, as are the cemeteries and also these adverts in a magazine from the 1920s.

The Bar Ingles is still around in the same place. It's a beautiful little traditional wood bar, shame its lunches are so unbelievably expensive and bad.

Baburizza- the man who built the palace of the same name on Cerro Alegre which the council has still not got around to reopening as the Museo de Bellas Artes 10 years after they closed it for renovations. Shameful.

Casa Francesa- locales in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Buenos Aires, Santiago and Valpo...

Fruit

Fellow ex-Buenos Aires resident Dan has just wrapped up another season of fruit farm and farmers' market blogging from Chicago. If you love fruit, fruit based recipes and laughing at the stupidity of people who shop at farmers' markets then I'd highly recommend heading over to Fruit Slinger.

And I will hopefully get around to posting something worthwhile and relevant to Valparaiso on this blog soon but, please, don't hold your breath.

You may have noticed I posted the same thing over on Colchaguino. Please feel free to read it again on a different blog.

Updated Bloggers In Chile List

I've updated and rearranged the Chile blog list over on Bloggers In Chile. It's a great resource for anyone looking for information about living and working in Chile. If you're on the list, please can you link back to it on your blog. Thanks!

Top 5 Wanders In Valparaiso

• Around Cerro Concepcion and Cerro Alegre.

-Start at the bottom of Ascensor Concepcion on calle Prat and take a ride on the oldest funicular in Valparaiso. Wander along Paseo Gervasoni, past the hotel and then double back on calle Papudo and then take a left towards Paseo Atkinson. Walk along Paseo Atkinson, avoid going into the horribly over-rated and terribly run Brighton and then go right on Beethoven. You'll see the Iglesia Luterana on your right; if it's open go in and have a look, it's worth a few minutes. Walk right out of the church until calle Templeman and take a left past the Iglesia Anglicana (only open on Sundays). Take a right down Pasaje Templeman (there's a silver workshop on the corner) and walk down the steps. Stop at the bottom and look up at the awesome red casa crucero, a house completely renovated by yours truly.

Go left down Pasaje Galvez, down the steps and across Urriola. Walk up through Pasaje Bavestrello and at the top you'll find the other casa crucero in the neighbourhood. Continue down towards the sea to Paseo Yugoslavia and admire the embarrassingly crumbly Palacios Astoreca and Barburizza.

Walk back around and up calle Miramar, taking a left on calle Lautaro Rosas, Valpo's fanciest street. At the end, turn left down Alte Montt and head back down to Cerro Concepcion.

• Along Avenida Alemania to Cerro Bellavista.

Start at the top of Cerro Alegre in Plazuela San Luis and walk left along Avenida Alemania. There's not much to see along this route apart from the incredible views of the port, Andes and Pacific. Do take a look at the clown museum on Plaza Bismark, though. Keep going until you reach Neruda's house, La Sebastiana, on Cerro Bellavista.

• The cemeteries and ex-prison.

An essential walk to get a feeling for Valpo's history. Start in Plaza Anibal Pinto and walk up calle Cumming. After a few minutes walk, you'll find three cemeteries on your left, Numero 1, Numero 2 and Disidentes. Take an hour or more to wander through the graves of Valparaiso's oldest and most illustrious families and look at all the different nationalities who came to make Valpo one of the richest and more cosmopolitan cities in South America.

After the cemeteries, head across the street to the ex-carcel to see some fantastic graffiti and the cultural centre.

• Plaza Sotomayor to Cerro Artilleria

Start off in Plaza Sotomayor and walk along calle Serrano. Poke your head into the awesome Bar La Playa for a quick beer. Just past the bar on the same side of the street there's a huge wooden door- if it's open, walk up the marble steps to see what was once one of the grandest offices in Valpo...

Continue to Plaza Echaurren and take a vistazo in Iglesia La Matriz, Valpo's oldest church. Afterwards, keep walking along Serrano until you hit ascensor Artilleria. Take the funicular up to Paseo 21 de Mayo and pay 500 pesos to go into the surprisingly good Naval Museum.

• Plaza Anibal Pinto to Plaza O'Higgins.

This is a Sunday walk. Wander across Plaza de la Intendencia towards Plaza Victoria. Spend a few minutes in Plaza Victoria admiring the trees and fountain. Walk all the way along Avenida Pedro Montt until you reach Plaza O'Higgins, taking in the Teatro Victoria on the way. Upon reaching your destination, you'll find the stunningly ugly Congress building and a small antiques market.

Terrible Travel Stories

This is part of a group blogging thingy and nothing to do with Valpo at all (it's also a repeat of the post I wrote over on my Santa Cruz, Chile blog Colchaguino.

I've experienced quite a few awful journeys back in the day when lugging a 25 kilo rucksack around in 90 degree heat seemed appealing. But I'll just stick to just the one.

The last really bad trip was in Bolivia. The journey was La Paz to Uyuni, where I would be doing the Salar de Uyuni tour (and as an aside, the Salar and the Altiplano lakes are the most spectacular natural wonders I have ever seen in my life and stomp all over anything Chile has in the north).

The trip started with a taxi driver who, despite my insistence I was late for the bus (I wasn't), insisted on taking me on an unwanted and undiscussed tour of most of La Paz. With the meter running, of course. This, despite the fact that the bus station was 8 blocks from where I hailed the taxi and I knew where we were supposed to be going. All my bags were in the boot of the car so I didn't have much choice in the matter, unfortunately.

Upon arriving at the bus station, I found out that the bus was delayed. By 7 hours. And no, there weren't any other buses leaving in that time. After wasting time by buying an 11 year out of date magazine and eating typical Bolivian gruel, the bus finally arrived. I got on the bus, expecting to be sitting near the front with all the other foreigners (they usually put travellers at the front). Instead, I was one row from the back, directly over the wheel arch, with about 3 inches of leg space and surrounded by friendly but extremely smelly locals who believed that chewing coca leaving and spitting on the floor was the height of sophistication.

The first 2 hours of the trip were then fairly uneventful. I got used to the constant staring from everyone around me. Perhaps the 20mg of Valium I'd bought over the counter at a local pharmacy helped. After 2 hours, the paved road gave way to one of the worst and bumpiest dirt tracks I've ever experienced. This on a 40 seater bus (it had at least 60 people on) with dodgy brakes and completely shot suspension. And remember, I was sitting over the wheel arch.

By this time, the aforementioned Valium had really kicked in. Even with the Valium I failed to sleep. I sat there for the next 12 hours unable to move, my muscles and brain feeling like they were melting. It was like being in a rather unpleasant dream. I don't actually remember all that many details, but one that sticks in my mind, despite the the Valium brain fog, was driving over one particularly deep ditch which resulted in the 5 foot tall Bolivian man sitting next to me being catapulted upwards and smashing his head against the overhead luggage compartment.

Upon finally arriving in Uyuni after 14 hours, my back was killing me, I'd had no sleep and my brain was still foggy from the Valium. It was about 2 degrees centigrade. Not only that, but I happened to arrive on a day when the town celebrates some saint by having a water fight. We were met off the bus by a bunch of children who proceeded to shower everyone with ice-cold water balloons. I found one of the kids later and threw him in a water-filled ditch, much to the amusement of all his friends. It wasn't meant to be funny.

An honourable mention goes to the 15 hour, overnight bus ride from Bangkok to Chiang Mai in Thailand which involved the most obnoxious group of Israeli travellers I've ever had the misfortune to come across (and if you've ever travelled in South East Asia you'll sympathise and understand what that really means), bongo drums, faulty air-conditioning, crazy overtaking manoeuvres and a change of drivers at 80mph (the new driver had clearly never driven a bus in his life before).

I'll just link to Bear Shaped Sphere for a list of the other participants as I don't have time to find everyone else.

Plaza Victoria

Valparaiso was so grand and pretty back in the day. It's still incredibly pretty, but in a run-down, nostalgic kind of way. A lot of people think that the city shouldn't be allowed to change, that it should be kept grotty, poor and downtrodden as that's where the city's 'soul' comes from. I disagree. Valparaiso was a clean, well-maintained, wealthy and culturally vibrant city in the past and aspiring to return to that is something that should be encouraged.

Don't listen to the hippies :)