More photos of Valparaiso

As the title might suggest, here are some more photos of Valpo all from Cerro Concepcion or Cerro Alegre. Enjoy.





The British built British houses












And the Germans built German houses







Victory! Late last year, the private company that owns and runs the Ascensor Concepcion (or Turri as it's known locally) raised the price of a ticket from 100 to 200 pesos and then to 500 each way. For a 30 seconds ride. And all to rip off tourists. There's been a massive campaign and boycott against the company for months and this week they finally saw sense and reduced the price back down to 200 pesos. Which is great news, as it now means i don't have to walk up and down the hill every time i need something from El Plan.





Ship-shape






The Palacio Barburriza, council owned and supposedly the fine arts museum-it's actually completely infested by termites and, despite being an emblematic Valpo building and in the heart of the UNESCO World Heritage Site zone, the council refuses to spend the money required to remodel and repair the place. Muppets. The house belonged to a Nitrate Magnate.

Valparaiso Cerro Abajo

This post should really have been made weeks ago. Back in February we had the annual Valparaiso Cerro Abajo crazy mountain bike race around Cerros Alegre and Concepcion. We actually didn't know anything about it until we woke up to a lot of hammering and found a ramp bolted to our front door step. This made it a bit tricky to get out of the house but i did manage to escape once and take a few photos and a poor quality short video that gives you a vague idea of things...

Here's a photo of the dirt-bike policemen i've mentioned in the past. Since the event, we've had fairly regular visits from these guys thinking it'd be fun to ride down the alley and staircase next to our house for no other reason than to piss about...it's really bloody noisy...i've a good mind to call the police on them...oh.

Navy's Day Out

Today, the 21st May is the Chilean Navy's most important day. The date celebrates the supposedly heroic actions of our old friend Arthur Prat. Against impossible odds the obvious happened. Arthur died along with everyone else on his ship. I quite honestly cannot work out why the hell they made a hero out of a guy that lead his entire crew to their deaths. He should have been posthumously court-martialled and his crew's families compensated for their completely pointless deaths...His name is rather apt: A Prat. The girlf prefers Condell . She's not alone among Chileans in thinking that Prat gets more credit than he deserves.

Anyway, the date is marked by a big naval parade here in the Plaza Sotomayor and a presidential speech down the road in Congress.. It's quite an important event. Here are some photos.








The police look on, clearly jealous of the Navy Cadets' shiny blue uniforms.





And although they've got nothing to do with the armed forces, Los Caribineros de Chile also got to parade. In these photos you can see both Caribineros and Caribineras-the guys got to march with rifles. Obviously, women can't be trusted with big guns...







For some reason that i couldn't fathom, the Chilean equivalent of the cowboy or gaucho-el huaso- also got all dressed up and took a stroll with the Navy and the Pacos.




After the parade we went to have lunch in a little hole in the wall tapas bar that we've walked past dozens of times. It's called Urriola 383. The address is Urriola 383. It's quite a cool place-the food was good but not spectacular. We had Papas Bravas, bruschettas of capresse (tomato, goats cheese and basil) and also spanish chorizo along with a carnitas asadas-thin strips of beef. It ended up costing 11,000 pesos (us$20) including a couple of soft drinks, which i thought a bit pricey for what we got. Still, the atmosphere was nice so we'll probably go back at some point and try some of the other stuff on the menu. If you go, make sure the owner's daughter isn't around-she pushed me out of my seat and started eating our food...

Grafitti

Chile has a major grafitti problem. It's everywhere. This is both good and bad. Good when the grafitti is good. Bad when the grafitti is bad. Simple, eh? Due to Chile's economic success, spray paint is within financial reach of most people. That's also a good thing. And a bad thing.

Anyway, below are some photos of the good kind of grafitti, all within 2 minutes walk of my house on Cerro Concepcion.



Don't know what that word means but the bottom line asks for the land-owner to die.



Your friendly, neighbourhood whorehouse









Mono-stereo. Mono means monkey in Spanish



Don't wait-just do it








The police is a joke



It's true





Suicide Notes



Blah blah blah and then Liberty to Mapuche Political Prisoners


International style





My friends the bears: Go Vegan