We looked very much forward to going to Valparaíso, Chile because we would see our friends Basti and Dani who live there. They were also so very kind and let us stay almost two weeks in their home. We appreciated it a lot and were really glad we got to spend some time with them. 😊
Valparaíso is a city on the West coast of Chile. It is a very colorful city with a big harbor as well. During our first days we mainly walked around and took gazillion pictures of all the graffitis in the city. Every day something new pops up! Some art works are so big and beautiful that other artists respect those and they are on the walls for a long time. But some other places get new art work on top of the previous one all the time. If you own a house in Valparaíso (or Valpo as they say), you can hire a street artist to paint your house walls. This way you will most probably get something well-made. Otherwise someone will paint anyhow on your walls and you don't have any control over it 😝 There was one house that was white and we learned that the owners have to paint it white like every month or so.
Many of Valpo's stairs are also painted or decorated in different ways and they bring a smile on everyone's face. But there is not only colorful street art - even the houses are painted in all possible colors! It truly is a happy, colorful city! When we took a walking tour through Free tour, the guide told us that there are different theories on why the houses are in all different colors. He said that one theory would be that fishermen painted their houses in the same color as their boat, and another theory was to build a house in a bright color so that one would find it in the middle of the night when one comes from the bar... 😜
During our walking tour (which was great, btw!) we also learned something about Valpo's clock towers. Do you see what's wrong in the pictures below?
Yes, number four is incorrect! Our guide told us that when a clock master built the first clock tower, he was in a hurry and made a mistake with number four. Instead of IV, he put IIII in it. The city got really mad and the clock master had to go to jail for it! But then all the following clock masters wanted to support him and they put intentionally number four wrong in all the clock towers that were built after that. Then the clock master was released from jail, too. We found this a very interesting story!
We also passed this place during our tour. Can you guess what the place was used for back in the days?
Well, it was used for washing clothes. People were sitting on the stairs on the left and water would come down the slide where one could wash clothes one by one. Apparently there was always a competition or even a small fight about the places on top of the stairs where the water was the cleanest. 😮
On another day we went to a "mirador" next to the harbor. There are 14 working elevators in Valpo, if we remember correctly, and we took one of them to come to the top of the hill. From there we followed how quickly and accurately the harbor workers unloaded a ship with many containers.
We also tried Raíces cafe in the city but it was a disappointment. 😨 All sounded delicious, but no. Muffins were dry (even if there was avocado in it) and the biggest disappointment was their hot chocolate. It might be the combination of their weird cacao powder and UHT milk, we're not sure... But it was really not good. Darn.
We had heard that there would be many vineyards close by and started to do some research. We got many names for different places from Dani and we searched online what they offered. We ended up choosing Bodegas RE and we are very happy about it. We took first a bus from Valpo to Casablanca (2000 pesos/person) and then a taxi from Casablanca to the vineyard (shoud be 2000 pesos, but our first taxi said it was 3000... damn). No pre-booking for a tour was needed. During our tour we walked first to their grape farm. We learned for example that they plant olive trees around the vines to protect from different diseases.
Bodegas RE makes also all kinds of liqueurs. We got to see the bottles in their liqueur room where there were bottles filled with fruits and herbs and 48% alcohol. We also visited their vinegar room where they had a big project going on. There were two sets of five barrels. One has the grapes in one barrel four years and then puts them into the next one for four years etc. So the entire project takes 20 years! The idea is to get aromas from all different barrels in the end. At Bodegas RE the owner is trying something new - to cut the time in half by putting the grapes in all barrels and changing barrels every 2 years. Apparently this is something no-one has done before - at least in the region.
Lastly, we visited the wine cellar where all wines are produced. We learned that the better wines come from the barrels in the front in the picture below. The winery has developed bigger barrels that are easier to maintain, but still, the old clay barrels seem to be the best. But there you also need some luck 😉
In the end we had a tasting of four wines. They were all interesting and complex and different than any wines we have tasted before. That was great! The wines we tasted were 'Pinotel', 'Chardonnoir', 'Doble' which is Carignan and Garnacha grapes growing from the same plant(!) and some fourth that we don't remember.
Unfortunately, the situation has become worse now. Chile is even asking for help from the U.S. to get all the fires extinguished. Two days ago (27 January) we saw in the news that 240 000 hectares had burned and that there was a city of 6000 people that was totally destroyed by the fires. When we left Chile, we saw big clouds everywhere and we were wondering whether if they were clouds or smoke. Also, the sun was completely red! This was all because of the fires. 😢 We truly hope that the situation will get better soon and we have our thoughts in Chile!!
On our last night in Valparaíso we cooked a dinner to Basti and Dani. It was sad to leave them but it was so nice to see them for such a long time! Our dinner time included some creative methods for whipping cream...
Valparaíso is a city on the West coast of Chile. It is a very colorful city with a big harbor as well. During our first days we mainly walked around and took gazillion pictures of all the graffitis in the city. Every day something new pops up! Some art works are so big and beautiful that other artists respect those and they are on the walls for a long time. But some other places get new art work on top of the previous one all the time. If you own a house in Valparaíso (or Valpo as they say), you can hire a street artist to paint your house walls. This way you will most probably get something well-made. Otherwise someone will paint anyhow on your walls and you don't have any control over it 😝 There was one house that was white and we learned that the owners have to paint it white like every month or so.
Found a legendary game graffiti! 😄
This could be a design for Marimekko, don't you think? Beautiful!
Artist doing his work.
Many of Valpo's stairs are also painted or decorated in different ways and they bring a smile on everyone's face. But there is not only colorful street art - even the houses are painted in all possible colors! It truly is a happy, colorful city! When we took a walking tour through Free tour, the guide told us that there are different theories on why the houses are in all different colors. He said that one theory would be that fishermen painted their houses in the same color as their boat, and another theory was to build a house in a bright color so that one would find it in the middle of the night when one comes from the bar... 😜
Piano stairs!
Story behind these two stairs is that when people painted their houses in all different colors and when street art started to appear, locals called those people hippies. Their answer was "No, we are not hippies, we are happies". 😃
Yes, number four is incorrect! Our guide told us that when a clock master built the first clock tower, he was in a hurry and made a mistake with number four. Instead of IV, he put IIII in it. The city got really mad and the clock master had to go to jail for it! But then all the following clock masters wanted to support him and they put intentionally number four wrong in all the clock towers that were built after that. Then the clock master was released from jail, too. We found this a very interesting story!
We also passed this place during our tour. Can you guess what the place was used for back in the days?
Well, it was used for washing clothes. People were sitting on the stairs on the left and water would come down the slide where one could wash clothes one by one. Apparently there was always a competition or even a small fight about the places on top of the stairs where the water was the cleanest. 😮
There are two similar apartment buildings in the picture. We lived in the right one. Perfect location!
Our free tour (i.e. tip-based tour) ended up in Valpo's harbor
On another day we went to a "mirador" next to the harbor. There are 14 working elevators in Valpo, if we remember correctly, and we took one of them to come to the top of the hill. From there we followed how quickly and accurately the harbor workers unloaded a ship with many containers.
We also tried Raíces cafe in the city but it was a disappointment. 😨 All sounded delicious, but no. Muffins were dry (even if there was avocado in it) and the biggest disappointment was their hot chocolate. It might be the combination of their weird cacao powder and UHT milk, we're not sure... But it was really not good. Darn.
The cafe looks inviting and cute
We had heard that there would be many vineyards close by and started to do some research. We got many names for different places from Dani and we searched online what they offered. We ended up choosing Bodegas RE and we are very happy about it. We took first a bus from Valpo to Casablanca (2000 pesos/person) and then a taxi from Casablanca to the vineyard (shoud be 2000 pesos, but our first taxi said it was 3000... damn). No pre-booking for a tour was needed. During our tour we walked first to their grape farm. We learned for example that they plant olive trees around the vines to protect from different diseases.
The grapes weren't ripe yet
Bodegas RE makes also all kinds of liqueurs. We got to see the bottles in their liqueur room where there were bottles filled with fruits and herbs and 48% alcohol. We also visited their vinegar room where they had a big project going on. There were two sets of five barrels. One has the grapes in one barrel four years and then puts them into the next one for four years etc. So the entire project takes 20 years! The idea is to get aromas from all different barrels in the end. At Bodegas RE the owner is trying something new - to cut the time in half by putting the grapes in all barrels and changing barrels every 2 years. Apparently this is something no-one has done before - at least in the region.
Lastly, we visited the wine cellar where all wines are produced. We learned that the better wines come from the barrels in the front in the picture below. The winery has developed bigger barrels that are easier to maintain, but still, the old clay barrels seem to be the best. But there you also need some luck 😉
In the end we had a tasting of four wines. They were all interesting and complex and different than any wines we have tasted before. That was great! The wines we tasted were 'Pinotel', 'Chardonnoir', 'Doble' which is Carignan and Garnacha grapes growing from the same plant(!) and some fourth that we don't remember.
During our stay we also witnessed one of Chile's big fires. Unfortunately, there is not much rain and it's quite windy in Chile and this is not helping the forest fire situation. We heard first a loud alarm in the city and were wondering whether if we needed to go somewhere or what it meant. We noticed that no-one started to run or panic so we stayed in the apartment. We heard a constant noise from fire trucks and ambulances passing by. Then we saw big pieces of ash falling down from the sky. We looked out from another window and saw a huge smoke cloud and helicopters dropping a lot of water to extinguish the fire. There was even news about the fire in Finland.
Unfortunately, the situation has become worse now. Chile is even asking for help from the U.S. to get all the fires extinguished. Two days ago (27 January) we saw in the news that 240 000 hectares had burned and that there was a city of 6000 people that was totally destroyed by the fires. When we left Chile, we saw big clouds everywhere and we were wondering whether if they were clouds or smoke. Also, the sun was completely red! This was all because of the fires. 😢 We truly hope that the situation will get better soon and we have our thoughts in Chile!!
The view from Basti's and Dani's window
Helicopters putting the fire down
On our last night in Valparaíso we cooked a dinner to Basti and Dani. It was sad to leave them but it was so nice to see them for such a long time! Our dinner time included some creative methods for whipping cream...
Thank you Basti and Dani for hosting us and for making us feel at home! We miss you guys!
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