On the walls of ex-Cárcel

So there has obviously been a HUGE lapse in this blog. Oh well, you can deal with it. So since the first post, a lot has happened. I suffered a 13 hour planeflight to China. I enjoyed an amazing week in China with some AMAZING people I met there (Nelson, Blake, Taylor, etc.). I endred a return flight of another 13 hours. I crammed in some great friend time back in hte states for two days. And then (drum roll please), another extensively long international flight- an exciting 9 hours to Santiago, Chile.

Once arriving in Chile, we followed my sister around her home city, Valparaiso. It is a beautiful city with a unique character. Upon arriving in this paradise, I realized its my fourth UNESCO cultural heritage site in under a month. Great Wall, Forbidden City, Terra Cotta Army, and now: Valparaiso. Valpo, as many locals call it, is unique for many reasons. Its historical significance is that it was the first city established in Chile. If I am correct, it was set up by two groups of conquistadors (one by land, one by sea) who met along the coast near the tallest mountain, one of the magnificent Andes . Its houses also astound the fresh tourist such as myself. Not only are they painted in a bright rainbow of colors, many of which would never be found in the U.S., but they have unique structural design. Throughout the city, there are many different hills which the houses are built on. But instead of removing chunks of the hills to build houses, the houses are shaped to fit to the natural shape of the hills, often looking as though they were precariously balanced there.

Another favorite Valpo attraction I admire are the Ascensors. These are little elevator-esque boxes that move you up steep hills so that you need not take the long walk required to access your final destination. You can just walk up and ride one of these magical contraptions for a mere 250 chilean pesos, which evens out to around 50 cents.

The first thing I did today was go to the ex-cárcel cultural park. What is a cultural park? Its an old prison thats no longer in use! Although it sits upon extremely caluable land, it has not been demolished due to its history. While in operation, many things happened within the prison that today would violate numerous human rights laws. The common feeling is that if the prison were demolished, you would be demolishing the memory of all the people who suffered through their daily lives there. Don't get me wrong, it is much more than a run down prison. It is a center of the most fanastic local art. No not art, I speak of the art of the people- Graffiti. I must have around 200 pictures of the most astounding public artwork i have ever seen. It was just there. On the walls of ex-Cárcel.

After our art tour, we went for a brief boatride in the bay. We found a man who offered us a family tour for the standard price of 10.000 pesos ($20). We asked him which boat it would be, and does he point at a small tour boat which is usually crammed with around 15 people so that it looks like a raft from Cuba thats about to sink? No. He points to the largest boat moored in the tour boat corner of the harbour. This boat did not have rotting wooden benches, it had rows oh plastic tour seats. This boat should have taken out around fifty people. This boat took a family of three.