Valparaíso, Chile

The coastal city of Valparaíso (Valpo) made for the perfect location for us to finish our trek across the Southern Cone. We arrived in Valpo before sunrise on the 31^st of December. After resting in the morning we spent the afternoon grocery shopping and preparing dinner for New Year’s Eve. The V Region sits on the Valparaíso Bay and is composed of the cities of Valparaíso and Viña del Mar (both about 300,000 inhabitants) and surrounding communities. This region is famous throughout South America for having one the world’s best fireworks shows; remember in the Southern Hemisphere that New Year’s falls right in the heart of summer. After preparing our food we climbed up the hill overlooking the city and bay and spent a beautiful summer night relaxing and enjoying our picnic in a park. As we looked down into the bay we could see many boats as well as what appeared to be floating docks a kilometer or two offshore. There were actually about twenty of these docks stretched out over a fourteen kilometer distance. As midnight approached we, along with everyone else in the park, prepared to open the champagne and begin the countdown. At the moment the clock struck midnight the entire city went dark amid the screams of children and the popping of champagne bottles. After a couple minutes of joyous hugging in the dark the sky exploded into a wash of colors. Every single one of those docks was a platform for fireworks. From our vantage point we enjoyed the bright and shiny fireworks display from as many as ten synchronized platforms at once. Never in my life have I seen such a brilliant horizontal fireworks display. We sat in awe of the exploding fireworks that not only spanned the entire bay but also went around and beyond the heads on either end of the bay. This amazing show continued until 12:30 at which point we walked down the mountain towards the waterfront and danced until eight in the morning on the historic shipping dock.

Other than the New Year’s fireworks, the biggest summer draw on the V Region is the beaches of Viña del Mar. Not only did we start our vacation on an Atlantic beach, but we also finished our vacation on a Pacific beach. I’m sure you can imagine what it is like to relax on the beach in the middle of the summer so I will not go into much detail here.

Valparaíso city’s most famous tourist attractions are its elevators. The Andes Mountains start only a couple hundred meters inland from the bay and so once Valpo started to grow into a port city the majority of the population began to live up in the hills surrounding the bay. For this reason there is a series of about fifteen elevators throughout the city bringing people from sea level to the residential neighborhoods twenty meters away. All elevators were built over one hundred years ago and frankly are not very exciting. The stations have fallen into disrepair, they are more expensive than taking a public car or bus up the hill, and it is actually faster to walk up the stairs underneath the elevator than to take the elevator. Nevertheless, taking an elevator really gives one the opportunity to explore the real neighborhoods of Valparaíso.

During one such exploration in a random uphill neighborhood a lady came running down the hill at me yelling things that I would rather not translate into English. I tried to ignore her and keep walking, but she eventually caught up to me and interrogated me as to why I was breaking into her house. I had done no such thing (I actually hadn’t even walked onto her block), and told her that I was just wandering around and taking pictures. At this point she got really confused and asked why I would be taking pictures. I told her I was on vacation and wanted some memories from Valpo. She told me she thought I was Chilean (and a thief), but became very happy that I was from the US. Apparently she and her husband lived on Long Island, New York for close to ten years in the 1990’s. We got to talking and she told me all about how she loves Americans and how during her time in the USA they were always so wonderful to her. She talked about her family and how she has a daughter that has sole United States citizenship. I thought this lady was very pleasant and really enjoyed meeting someone who can be openly critical of our government but still love our people.

After a while this conversation began to run on and I was ready to go. I was just about to tell her that I had to get going and find my friends when a man comes sprinting down the hill with a terrified look on his face. I thought this was somewhat odd until I saw another man also sprinting down the hill with a knife in his hand. I heard the first man bang on someone’s door around the corner, but apparently they did not open it as I heard him and the second man yelling and arguing and struggling below us. At this point the lady I had been talking to invited me to her house to meet her husband and daughter. I was a little wary about going to her house, but I figured that was a much better option than walking downhill into the knife fight.

At her house I met her husband, who was equally gracious and loving of Americans. Once he realized that I spoke Spanish we also talked for a long time about their lives in the US and about my work in Ecuador. They even made me a sandwich, and I really like to eat so that was pretty awesome. It is very refreshing to know that there are friendly people that just want to share in their happiness with others. After we conversed for a while I met their daughter. She is an adorable little eight year old girl with an interesting identity (that she does not even really comprehend). Although she does not speak English, she is an American citizen, having been born on Long Island to legal immigrant parents. These people showed me all their old New York State driver’s licenses and work ID cards to help ease my concern of going to a strange Chilean home. This girl lives in Chile with Chilean parents and speaks Spanish, but she is not a Chilean citizen; her parents actually had to earn a resident visa so they could bring their daughter home. The question, however, is if having an American daughter and absolutely loving the people of the United States, why would this family return to Chile? Everything changed for this family on September 11, 2001. Rather than living in happiness and security, all of sudden this family began to live in fear and confusion. Their baby daughter was only a year old (she does not even remember the attacks on the World Trade Center) and she was (and is) the most important thing in the world to them. With the increased national pride rampant throughout the country, they began to hear stories of American citizens being separated from immigrants (documented or undocumented). Despite the life they had made for themselves in New York, they were terrified that they would be deported and their daughter would be sent to a foster home in the US. Eventually they felt that the only way to keep their family together was to leave the country.

Despite the fear instilled in this family by our country that eventually caused them to leave their entire way of life to completely start over again in Chile, this family still loves the United States. The father is already talking about how once his daughter graduates from high school that he is going to send her into the US Air Force so that she may continue her education, gain job security, and learn about her country.