Valparaíso

Gresham is to Portland as Viña del Mar is to Valparaíso. Except Valparaíso is more ginormous and historic. All of us international students went on a guided tour (5 hours!) of "Valpo" (as the locals call it). It's a huge, beautiful, old, intimidating and diverse city.

Left to right: Mia, Holli, me, Abby and John-Miguel overlooking Valparaíso.

This is a gorgeous house that also happens to be where my friend John-Miguel lives. Boy did he ever luck out on his host family!

Abby overlooking Valpo.

This is what is called an "ascensor". They are all over the city (but this is the only vertical one, the others go at a slant) because the city is built on the side of a mountain range. Instead of taking a billion stairs, people pay a small amount and go up in one of these. Did I mention this was built in 1905? Yeah, lots of creaking and scariness. But the tour guide assured us we were safe.

This was at the top of the ascensor. We had to walk along that metal bridge thing.

This is probably the most pathetic and mangy little homeless puppy. We all felt sorry for the poor thing.


There were awesomely painted walls everywhere in the city!


Our last activity on the tour was a boat ride on the ocean along the port of Valpo. It was SO cool! My dad told me that his dad went to Valparaíso while in the merchant marines. It was very awesome to be in the very same port where he docked and see the same sights that he did!!