A bit of pride and community spirit

Valparaiso, one of the seaside cities in Chile, is about 2 hours west of the capital city, Santiago. Since we had a day before the conference, we decided to try and pay it a visit. With a bit of luck, we managed to track down the inter-city bus terminal and buy our tickets.


The city of Valparaiso itself lies on some mountains, and the houses cascade down to the sea. It's quite dramatic to look at. There're numerous elevators, which are little more than boxes on wheels, driven by a counterweight, to ferry those residents (and tourists!) who'd rather not walk the steep slopes. The rides cost about 10-20 cents (US) and lasted for a couple of minutes.


The first impression of the city is that it's definitely more complex (as in, less safe) and less prosperous than Santiago (not that Santiago is very prosperous by Hong Kong standards, but still it is the capital after all). Indeed, we were actually warned by the tourist agency to not walk about the port town, and a lady driving by stopped to warn us to watch our cameras.


That said, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Valparaiso. The old part of the city was beautiful -- the architecture of the old houses were stunning and a lovely visual treat, especially for an architecture buff like me. I suppose they harken back to better days for the city, when the rich made their homes here.


Aside from the older houses, the newer ones weren't of very good quality. Many of them had walls made of corrugated metal -- I haven't seen *that* for years! -- or simply of poured concrete. Even given that, though, it was evident that people were taking care of their living spaces. Many of the houses were painted with very vivid colors (that's actually a recurring theme -- it seems that Chileans are very fond of color and do not hesitate to use bold colors), and we actually saw a row of houses that were color coordinated. That's a lovely sense of community!


I remarked on the sense of community that I felt from the first day in Santiago. In Valparaiso, I felt it even more. The houses may be somewhat run-down, but they were well-kept. The yards were nicely planted and maintained. The streets were clean, even the garbage cans were painted. It is obvious that the locals take a sense of pride in their living environment, and they take good care of their property and that of their neighborhood. This is even though they very clearly do not enjoy the same living standard as in many first-world countries.

I hate to say this -- but compare this to rural China, or many other countries in Asia!