Valparaiso Travel Guide - Exploring Chile's Cultural Capital

• Report rights infringement
• published: 12 Apr 2016
• views: 96

Come find out in this city guide why Valparaiso, Chile is considered the cultural capital of Chile. From colorful homes and buildings covered in murals and graffiti to boat tours and friendly stray dogs to steep hills and funiculars (ascensor) you'll find yourself feeling welcome in this fantastic port city mere kilometers away from Viña del Mar and also nearby Santiago. Valparaiso Travel Guide - Exploring Chile's Cultural Capital Video Transcript: So, hello from Valparaiso. That means paradise on the valley. We have a few days to explore the city and we're planning to do most of it on foot. Yes, and most of it is going up hills as well. And there is so much cool street art here. So we're going to be taking a few different walking tours while we're in town. Today we're doing the first one which should be an overview of the city. And it should be fun. So we're going to take you on a little guided tour of Valparaiso. Yee-haw! To say Valparaiso is a bit hilly would be an understatement. The city is a maze of steep inclines which means the best way to get around and save your legs for sightseeing, is by riding up and down the funiculars. It might seem a bit daunting considering some of these are well over a hundred years old, but they still do the job. And this is our friend the pup who has joined our tour. She's the official bodyguard. And she knows where the funiculars are located so she took the stairs instead. Hi, pup. You're sweet aren't you? Yes, you are. Yes, you are. Yes, you are. If we can offer one recommendation for visiting Valparaiso, it would be to join one of the free walking tours towards the beginning of your stay. This is a great way to get some background history and to familiarize yourself with the various neighbourhoods. The local guides know where to find the best murals, so consider this a scouting mission. You can always come back with a bit more time to explore the area with your camera in hand. Apparently, there are 42 hills in the city and we're just exploring it for the first time today. And my first impressions are so much better now that we're seeing this cool part. It is so colorful, so artsy and lots of fun to check out. Exactly. Another thing we really enjoyed about our walking tour of Valparaiso, was the company of all the dogs. Valparaiso has a lot of strays roaming the streets, but we found the dogs to be super friendly and affectionate. We also noticed locals feeding dogs in the park and homeowners leaving water bowls out on their doorstep for strays. We're having a little food break. I think we're going to try some empanadas. And I see that they have shrimp ones on the menu. Shrimp and cheese empanadas so those should be really tasty. The harbor tours depart from Muelle Prat as soon as they get a boat-full of passengers. During the outing you’ll go past container ships, tug boats, and navy vessels, plus you’ll also have a guide on-board to point out sights along the way. If you’re lucky, you might even get to see some sea lions basking in the sun. So still catching my breath from the last hill we finished climbing. Right now we're visiting the neighborhood of Bella Vista. This is where the open-air museum is located. Viña del Mar is a super quick day trip from Valparaiso. The two cities are only 8 kilometers apart and you can easily get there with the above ground metro system that runs along the beach. It’s only a 15 minute ride, and it’s quite the change in scenery. Whereas Valparaiso is colorful, artsy, and gritty, Viña del Mar is a bit more chic and modern. That being said, while we enjoyed our day trip to Viña del Mar, we were really glad we decided to stay in Valparaiso as we felt it had way more character. So our time in Valparaiso is coming to an end. What are your final thoughts of the place? Yeah, that is a wrap from here. I loved it here. It was one of the coolest cities that I think we've visited on this entire South America trip. We have to show you the views from our balcony. Look at that. You get to see the hills, the colorful hills. Bye Valparaiso. Our visit Valparaiso travel guide covers some of the top attractions including the best in arts, entertainment, museums, nightlife and restaurants (Cocina Chilena). We also cover off-the-beaten-path activities that you won't find in your typical tourism brochure or Santiago city guide. This is part of our Travel in Chile series. We're making a series of videos showcasing Chilean culture, Chilean arts, Chilean foods, Chilean religion, Chilean cuisine and Chilean people. Proudly presented by: http://nomadicsamuel.com & http://thatbackpacker.com All photos and video taken by Samuel Jeffery (Nomadic Samuel) and Audrey Bergner (That Backpacker). Music in this video courtesy of Audio Network