Valparaíso: Ascensor

"Oda a Valparaíso" by Pablo Neruda

Valparaíso, / qué disparate / eres, / qué loco, / puerto loco, / qué cabeza / con cerros, / desgreñada, / no acabas / de peinarte, / nunca / tuviste / tiempo de vestirte, / siempre te sorprendió / la vida / te despertó la muerte, / en camisa, / en largos calzoncillos / conflecos de colores, / desnudo / con un nombre / tatuado en la barriga, / y con sombrero, / te agarró el terremoto, / corriste / enloquecido, / te quebraste las uñas, / se movieron / las aguas y las piedras, / las veredas, / el mar

Translated by: Laney Sullivan and Lonely Planet

Valparaíso, / how absurd / you are / what a crazy / insane port. / Your disheveled head / you haven't / combed your hair, / you've never / had / time to get dressed, / life / has always / surprised you /  Death woke you up / in your undershirt and long underwear /  fringed in color / naked / with a name / tattooed on  your stomach / and a cap / the earthquake grabbed you / you ran / mad / broke your fingernails / it moved / the waters and the stones / sidewalks / and seas

Pablo Neruda got it right: Valparaíso is disheveled, crazed, chaotic, more dirty than clean (except for the very respectable Cerros Alegre and Concepción), and much poorer than its respectable and manicured sister up the road, Viña del Mar.   I head over from Viña to Valpo every day on the Metro after dropping Z off at school, and I work at PUCV just beyond Muelle Baron,  but I don't spend nearly enough time exploring the city.  

It's a port town.  Before the Panama Canel, it was the port of call for ships after they rounded Tierra del Fuego.   Darwin spent a lot of time here and spoke highly of it, and the British have left an indelible, though fading, mark.   Despite its down-on-its-luck appearance, it is a vibrant place of commerce and art, and it is one of the most intriguing places I've ever visited.  

One of the most original and probably best known features of Valpo are its many ascensors or funiculars--45-degree elevators built in the early twentieth century to get people up the San Francisco-like hills that rise up the Plan. Here's a 30-second video of an ascensor that I took early in my stay. For 100 pesos (20 cents), you can walk through the original turnstiles and board what seem like the original cars operating on the original tracks using, perhaps, the original cables,  not always with the greatest of confidence in the safety of this means of conveyance.

Ascensors are not just quaint relics of the past, though.  Modern buildings in Viña and Reñaca have included ascensors as part of a peculiar-looking buildings along hillsides.