Valparaiso, Chile - What Did We Miss?

Valparaiso, Chile Slide Show

After traveling quickly through Peru, we were looking for a nice place to settle down for 6 nights. The guidebooks that we consulted on Valparaiso led us to believe that it was the perfect city to hang out in for a week. The Lonely Planet Chile Guide states that, "Valparaiso is undoubtedly the most unique city in Chile" and "has long been the continent's best kept secret". Not to be outdone, Footprints South American Handbook lists 6 places in their "Don't Miss" section on Chile and the city of Valparaiso was listed first.
As the title of this blog says, what did we miss?! Let's just say that we were relieved to be able to get out of our 6 night commitment at our "apartment" after spending 4 nights there. The apartment ended up being in a marginal area of town, was dark and dingy and we were afforded the opportunity to pay the most we have paid on a per night basis yet on our trip!
To be fair, the location of our apartment contributed greatly to our issues with Valparaiso. Although we were across the street from a famous Valparaiso landmark, La Iglesia Matriz, the oldest church in Valparaiso, the drunks in town used the steps leading up to the church as a pillow and the dogs used those same steps as their outhouse (the drunks did too, but let's not get into that). There are stray dogs and cats fighting all night long and sleeping in the sun (see the first picture in this blog) during the day. The dog is not dead. There are hundreds of them around town that sleep like that all day. Valparaiso just confirmed my love for these wonderful beings.
We did manage to find some interesting things to do while in Valparaiso - much better than hanging out at our "apartment". We took a harbor boat tour since Valparaiso is quite a large port town. We also spent a couple afternoons hanging out at two different beaches in the area. As long as you didn't have a need to go in the changing rooms, life was good at the beach. There are some nicer neighborhoods up in the hills that have very interesting architecture and some of the most amazing graffiti that you will ever see.
One night, we decided to do something different and go to the horse racing track in town. We were temporarily lost trying to find the track until some nice German/Peruvian man who speaks every language picked us up and drove us to the gate. Noah, never missing a chance to question our parenting skills, asked us why we tell HIM NOT to get a ride from a stranger, but it is okay for us to in a foreign country from a man that we don't know. Jennifer and I went with the "Do as we say, not as we do" line. Has anyone else ever used that line when you were at a complete loss of an explanation?
Anyway, we bet on 2 races. The first race, we chose a horse that had a name that we liked, Oceans Eleven. That didn't work so well as the horse finished 12th in a 12 horse race. Next, we went with the pre-race favorite, and that strategy worked great until the final .001 seconds of the race as our horse was beat in a photo finish. We would have won, but I only knew how to say bet to win in Spanish instead of bet to place or show.
Valparaiso goes to show you that you can't always win over the course of a 7 month trip. All is well and we learned a lesson about location, location, location. If you go to Valparaiso, do not stay in an apartment by La Iglesia Matriz. To see a slide show of Valparaiso, click on the following link ==> Valparaiso, Chile Slide Show.