Why do you want to go to the places on your bucket list?

For me the reasons are quite varied.  Some places, like Easter Island for example, I had dreamed about visiting since I was a kid.  Others, like Bhutan, I’d never heard of until I started traveling, but once I saw pictures, I had to go.  Valparaiso, for me anyway, is a little different. In 1996, Sting released an album called Mercury Rising, on which was a song called Valparaiso (you can listen to it in the video below), and I loved it.  I didn’t realize until Holly and I were planning our first trip to Easter Island, that Valparaiso was located in Chile, not too far from Santiago.  We were inexperienced enough at traveling by ourselves that it seemed too great a distance to cover without a guide, and Easter Island is pretty expensive to get to already, so it just wasn’t in the cards.  BUT, Valparaiso landed firmly on my “to-do” list at that point.  Fast-forward now to this year, and I finally made it there.  Holly didn’t accompany me on this trip though, so I have a solid excuse to go back (not that I needed one!).

In my travels, I’ve lucked out with some awesome hotels, and Valparaiso was one of those places.  I stayed at a place called Hotel Boutique Acontraluz, which has porches and balconies on both sides, giving you an almost 360 degree view of Valparaiso and the surrounding hillsides.  The porch area where I took the above photo was right across the hall from my room… and honestly, I could have spent all my time in the city just sitting on that porch, taking in the view.  As you can see, it was spectacular!  As I mentioned last week, however, I didn’t just stay on that porch, I wandered all over the city on foot, and it was AMAZING (and yes, I listened to Sting’s song many times while I was there).

Valparaiso is famous for its street art.  Literally no building in the city (that I could find anyway) is free from graffiti, and a lot of the art is REALLY good.  Beyond the street art, the buildings themselves are painting in a rainbow of colors, which adds to the fun of the city (and photographing it).  Rather than trying to describe it further, I’ve included this week several other pictures that I took from around town.

More from Chile next week!

–Dan Thompson

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