Shafik Meghji | 25 February 2024
An urban guide to Santiago and Valparaíso, Chile
These Chilean cities are united by a difficult history, a vibrant present and the country’s most enduring cultural figure, the poet and diplomat Pablo Neruda...
These Chilean cities are united by a difficult history, a vibrant present and the country’s most enduring cultural figure, the poet and diplomat Pablo Neruda...
Chile’s dazzling landscapes – fjords and deserts, rainforests and mountains, ice fields and steppe – tend to overshadow its urban areas, which many travellers treat merely as stopovers or transport interchanges. But if you dedicate some time to exploring the capital, Santiago, and the nearby port of Valparaíso, you’ll discover two of the most engaging and storied cities in South America. Above all, they allow you to immerse yourself in Chile’s often tumultuous history
In a central valley flanked by tumbling hills and Andean peaks, Santiago is a cultural, political and economic powerhouse, home to almost 7 million people, more than a third of the country’s population. Founded by Spanish conquistadors in 1541 in an area that had been inhabited by Indigenous communities for millennia, it quickly became the heartbeat of Chilean society, as is evident from the array of impressive mansions, government buildings, cathedrals and museums fanning out from the buzzing main square, Plaza de Armas. Foremost among them is the presidential palace, the Palacio de La Moneda. Yet, despite its wealth of history, Santiago is far from stuck in the past. While rarely receiving the plaudits lavished on counterparts such as Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, it is a dynamic, rapidly developing, forward-looking capital.
Colourful buildings tumble the hillsides of Valparaíso (Shutterstock)
A cable car climbs to the summit of San Cristóbal, Santiago (Shutterstock)
To the west, Valparaíso has a similarly rich history and spirited present. Consisting of a multitude of cerros (hills) topped with colourful houses and encircling a wide bay, it was one of the continent’s most important ports in the 19th century, a thriving, multicultural trading hub prospering from Chile’s booming silver and copper industries, as well as from ships bound for the California gold rush. Yet a devastating earthquake in 1906, followed by the opening of the Panama Canal eight years later – which provided a handy shortcut between the Atlantic and the Pacific – precipitated a sharp decline. In the words of one former resident, the Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda, the erstwhile Jewel of the Pacific became ‘a heap, a bunch of crazy houses’.
But, ironically, the economic downturn helped to preserve the city’s glorious buildings, while cheap rents attracted writers, musicians and artists, who gave the place a distinctly bohemian vibe. Today, Valpo, as it’s commonly known, is one of South America’s most interesting – and idiosyncratic – cities. The centre is a UNESCO World Heritage site, awash with elegantly decaying industrial infrastructure, churches, banks, townhouses, clocktowers and funicular lifts, and there are strong creative, cultural and culinary scenes. Yet the gritty working port beneath the picturesque cerros ensures the city retains its edge.
the graffiti of Cerros Concepcion and Alegre recall a time when this was as much a form of protest as it was art
Santiago and Valparaíso are both renowned for their street art, murals and graffiti, awash with a riot of colour and creativity adorning walls, underpasses, flyovers, public transport and frequently entire buildings. During the brutal Pinochet dictatorship of the 1970s and ’80s, street art became an important – and safely anonymous – form of non-violent protest, before expanding rapidly over the following decades. While some pieces are stridently political in nature – many reference the recent waves of mass demonstrations or the heated referendum over a new constitution, for example – others are playful, dream-like, abstract, psychedelic and sometimes lascivious.
Many neighbourhoods have, in effect, become outdoor galleries. In Santiago, these include the barrios of Bellavista, Franklin, Brasil and Yungay, as well as Calle Bandera in the city centre. Meanwhile, the best place to start your exploration in Valparaíso is Cerro Bellavista, home to the Museo a Cielo Abierto (Open-Air Museum), which features works by some of the country’s most feted street artists.
The scenes in both cities are constantly evolving, and many works are left unsigned, so it is worth taking a tour with an outfit such as Valpo Street Art Tours for a deeper insight.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a set of ascensores (funicular lifts) were built to whisk residents of Valparaíso from the lower town (around the port) to the residential neighbourhoods spread across the steep hills above. Only a few are still in operation and, as their cacophony of creaks and rattles indicates, they’ve barely been upgraded over the past hundred years. Yet the ascensores remain an important – and atmospheric – form of public transport. As well as being an energy saver, they generally deposit you on a scenic street or at a sweeping viewpoint in the cerros, with the El Peral and Concepción routes being two of the most captivating.
Santiago’s own funicular is a relative youngster by comparison, only dating back to 1925. It combines with a more modern cable-car system (the Teleférico) to transport passengers up the 850m-high Cerro San Cristóbal, the highest point in the city and home to a large park, public swimming pools, botanical garden and children’s playground, as well as a small church and a towering statue of the Virgen de la Inmaculada Concepción. If you’re lucky enough to reach the summit of the hill on a clear day, there are sensational views of Santiago and the mountains beyond.
The funiculars of Valparaíso have been little updated since they were installed over a century ago (Shutterstock)
Allegations that Neruda was a victim of General Pinochet’s brutal regime surfaced long after his suspicious death (Alamy)
‘He who does not travel, who does not read, who does not listen to music, who does not find grace in himself… dies slowly,’ wrote Pablo Neruda, who passed away in suspicious circumstances 50 years ago this September and was perhaps the most influential Chilean cultural figure of the last century. Neruda, whose first anthology, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, sold more than 20 million copies, lived in both Santiago and Valparaíso. His former homes are now open to the public, providing a glimpse at the poet and diplomat’s eccentric interests and turbulent (and troubling) personal life.
Named after his third wife’s ‘messy hair’, La Chascona was Neruda’s bolthole in the capital. It lies tucked into the base of Cerro San Cristóbal in Santiago and features a quirky selection of knick-knacks – everything from sea shells to coloured glass – plus rooms designed to resemble a lighthouse and a ship’s cabin.
You will find a similarly nautical theme at another of his stays, La Sebastiana, which sits in an elevated location in Valparaíso and was dubbed the ‘house in the air’. Its furnishings include a stuffed ibis, a wooden music box and a carousel horse from a Parisian fairground. A third Neruda home, Isla Negra, lies in the coastal village of the same name, an hour’s drive south of Valparaíso, and is also now a museum.
If you’re still after a cultural fix, another renowned Chilean poet, diplomat and Nobel Prize-winner, Gabriela Mistral, lends her name to an eye-catching and innovative cultural and arts space in downtown Santiago called the Centro Gabriela Mistral (aka GAM).
The Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos delves into the brutal years under Pinochet (Shutterstock)
Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, Santiago
This museum has a vast collection of Indigenous artworks and artefacts spanning 10,000 years and most of Latin America. Highlights include exhibits of items from Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Aymara silver jewellery and Inca quipu, an ancient system of colourful knotted threads used to keep records and convey messages.
Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos, Santiago
A visit to the glass-fronted Museum of Memory and Human Rights is essential for understanding modern Chile. It uses multimedia displays to provide insight into the human rights abuses of the Pinochet dictatorship, during which more than 3,000 people were killed and many more ‘disappeared’, tortured, detained or exiled.
Cerros Alegre and Concepción, Valparaíso
These labyrinthine neighbourhoods were once home to wealthy European traders. Wander cobbled streets and winding alleys lined with colourful townhouses and faded mansions, many of which have been renovated and converted into guest houses, restaurants, bars and galleries. They are also hotspots for street art.
Luciano K (Luciano K)
Once the tallest building in Chile – though now dwarfed by the capital’s modern skyscrapers – this elegant hotel is named after its architect, Luciano Kulczewski. Dating back to the 1920s, it combines classic Art Deco design with an array of contemporary comforts. Alongside a selection of excellent en suites, there’s a bar-restaurant on the roof terrace, plus a sauna and tiny plunge pool. A short walk away is lively Barrio Lastarria, one of Santiago’s cultural and culinary hubs.
More information: lucianokhotel.com
Hotel Palacio Astoreca (Shutterstock)
A lavish mansion built for a wealthy Croatian saltpetr magnate in the 1920s, the eye-catching Palacio Astoreca played host to a local arts college before it was thoughtfully restored and turned into a boutique hotel ten years ago. Sitting in the heart of Cerro Alegre, Valpo’s most picturesque hilltop neighbourhood, it has a collection of bright en-suite rooms, some of which have private balconies and sea views. A well-equipped spa and heated indoor swimming pool complete the package.
More information: hotelpalacioastoreca.com
Besides breakfast, lunch and dinner, Chileans also have a fourth meal, known as la once (the eleven). It was inspired by the British tradition of elevenses, which was brought over by merchants, engineers and miners in the 19th century and is eaten in late afternoon. It often features a mix of sandwiches – or bread, butter, cheese and jam – and cakes, tarts and doughy croissants known as medialunas, as well as pastries that often feature manjar (Chile’s take on dulce de leche). Café de la Candelaria on Avenida Italia in Santiago and Emporio La Rosa in Valparaíso are both good places to try it for yourself.
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