Valparaiso Chile:  A House Where Every Room has a View!

March 6, 2012

We are leaving Valparaiso, Chile today in a rented car, headed for cities and small towns to the south.  We will be avoiding Chile’s largest city, Santiago for now as we prefer to explore much smaller towns and cities for the next few days.  But first I must tell you about our visit to Valparaiso.  This city was founded in the 1500’s by Spaniards, who established it as a major port city.  Before the opening of the Panama Canal, in 1914, it was a thriving port known as “Little San Francisco” due to many topographical similarities, including that of having large sections destroyed during earthquakes.  However, to us it seems to have steeper hills than that of San Francisco, and most of the residents live there, perched like hawks, in homes on the hillsides. From what I could tell every home had a perfect view.

We have only walked “down” (not up) the hills into the “flat” part of the city and my calves are still annoyed by the effort it took to keep from falling and rolling all the way down. Most residents think nothing of walking back up these steep, twisty streets and we passed many making the journey up to their homes.  One friendly fellow who was well into his eighties told us he walks up and down the hills daily.  We admired his strikingly healthy countenance and told him how young and robust he seemed to be.   He boasted about how good he felt with the exercise and “just a pinch of sulfur taken daily.” 

But since “we” are not in the habit of walking “up” the hills to return to the inn, we took a cab called a collectivo, which is like a taxi that waits near a park for a group of four to fill the car.  Then they zoom, frighteningly fast, up narrow one way streets into the hillsides delivering the passengers. Strangers could easily become friends sitting so close and tossed into one anther around each curve.  For me it was an exciting ride but scarier than our trip through the Andes.  Our hotel was in zone one and we were told there are fifteen more zones above that.  I was glad we didn’t have to go any higher. 

 “The Grand House”, our home for two days, lived up to its name.  It is grand in size and view.  From every window the view of the city and harbor is stunning.  This house really is what I called a “Museo de Antiqua.”  The original part of the home was built in 1919 and the current house contains many of the furnishings of that era.  Every corner and surface is covered with glassware, figurines and china sets too numerous to describe. Antique furniture covers the hardwood floors, and the walls are full of old pictures in ornate frames.  During breakfast I would imagine how long it would take to clean and polish all the things just in the dining room.  I figured it would take at least a day just to clean one room, and then by the time you finish all the rooms it would be time to start again. The sisters do all the work themselves because, as Doris pointed out, “Everything is too valuable and could be easily broken or stolen.” Doris then added, “We don’t trust anyone else.”  

Our inn keepers, Doris and Carolina are fraternal twin sisters who took over the task of running the business at the ripe old age of fourteen.  They are now about to celebrate twenty years of welcoming guest into their six guest-room home.  They were very sweet and friendly and told us many stories of the home’s history.  According to them, the home originally belonged to their great-grandfather, who emigrated from England in the early 1900’s.  Back then it took several months to travel by ship from other continents because there was no passage through the Panama Canal. We were told that great-grandpa left his wife and three daughters behind until he could find work as an accountant with a silver mining firm.  He loved Valparaiso so much that he decided to buy a home on the hill where he would raise five children and never get tired of the ever changing scenery below.  However, to buy such a home required more money than he could make from his accounting job. Family lore contends that he turned to the lottery, which he won, not once but twice, giving him enough money to make the purchase.  The home was then inherited by the girls’, grandfather who sired eleven children, one being their father.  We wondered how just one out of eleven ended up owning the home.  We were told that at some point in the 90’s, the grandfather sold the home and two years later it was re-purchased by their father, and the concept of the inn was born.

Valparaiso seems to have many homeless dogs.  They appear to pair up to rummage through the garbage, beg for handouts, try to catch rides on buses, and leave doggy landmines that appear frequently.  I wish I could say that we rested well at The Grand House, but we didn’t. Night sounds crept into the open windows long into the early morning as we attempted to sleep in our very uncomfortable, sagging twin beds.  Traffic was heard in the distance-- the occasional honk of a horn, clang of a trolley and the noise from the funiculars as they took passengers into the hillside neighborhoods.  Combine the vehicular noise with a chorus of dogs, sopranos and baritones, dominating the barrio serenade.  However, most annoying sounds were the local canine soloists that intermittently sang off-key right near our window preventing any semblance of a normal, uninterrupted sleep.  

Early morning fog brought the sound of foghorns and ships answering in the distance.  Since I couldn’t sleep, I dragged my painful muscles (achy from days of horrible beds and hills) to the window to see the foggy morning view.  I was surprised by the change from a city and coastal view to a city completely blanketed in damp undulating clouds.  Only the occasional tip of a church spire or top floor of a building could be seen floating above the cloudy sea.  Tonight we look for a hotel in Santa Cruz with a comfortable bed in a quiet town. Perhaps I am just dreaming, or maybe I just wish I could!