I just finished my first week in Valparaíso (or Valpo as the locals call it). I am taking two classes at the university PUCV, which are going well so far. It helps that the professors are really nice and helpful. One of the most interesting things so far is taking the bus. Here they call their local public buses the "micros". Every day I took the 504 or 505 which picked me up right outside my house and dropped me off right outside the school which is very convenient. It's a 10 minute bus ride which is also really nice.
Tuesday we went on a mini tour of Valpo which more or less consisted of walking on Cerro Alegre (one of the many hills), touring La Sebastiana (another one of Pablo Neruda's houses), and taking a boat tour at the port. Cerro Alegre is a beautiful hill in Valparaíso which attracts a lot of tourism. It has a lot of little shops and is full of culture. It particularly has a lot of street art. Street art or graffiti is not viewed the same way in Valpo as it is in the United States. Most graffiti here is more art than vandalism. It makes walking the streets a more interesting experience, since there are usually very captivating drawings on the walls. The boat tour was also really cool. The main reason Valparaíso has so much tourism is because it is a port. Before the opening of the Panama canal, it was the largest port in South America. So a large portion of the income in Valparaíso is trousim. It attracts so much tourism that it actually decreased the utilization of the port.
This Wednesday we went to the Cementerio de los Disidentes, which I believe was the second cemetery in Valpo. A "disidente" is a person outside the Catholic church. At the time, a non-Catholic was not allowed to be buried in a Catholic cemetery, so it was placed across the street from the first cemetery in Valpo, a Catholic cemetery.
Cementerio de los Disidentes
Cementerio No. 1
