Sunday in the city

After a relaxing morning updating facebook and catching up on my correspondence, I struck out yesterday in the direction of Valparaíso. It was another gorgeous day, the sky streaked by light fingery clouds high above the impossibly flat blue sea. I got off the micro near the port, just past the Plaza Sotomayor in the financial heart of the city. I was determined to find el Museo Lukas which I’d passed many weeks earlier on the COPA tour of Valpo. “Lukas,” which is actually a pseudonym that stands in for a six-word-long Italian name, was a famous Chilean cartoonist who lived in Valparaíso, worked for El Mercurio, and won a whole bunch of journalist and cartoonist awards. It took me awhile, but after riding up the Ascensor Peral on Cerro Alegre, asking a friendly man for directions, bajando-ing and then subiendo-ing a few times, walking past the Mirador Atkins on Cerro Concepción twice (and having the Historia de Valparaíso thrust in my face when I asked someone else for directions), and some more looping back and forth through the seemingly endless curves and hills, I finally found the museum. I apparently wasn’t the only one who had trouble finding it, because I practically had the place to myself, meaning that I was able to take full advantage the fact that there wasn’t anyone around to give me strange looks as I chuckled to myself and made funny faces in reaction to Lukas’ cartoons.

Satisfied with the level of Lukas, I left the museum to wander. In trying to locate a guide book-recommended boutique, which turned out to be appropriately closed since it was Sunday, I found myself hiking up some deserted streets below Ascensor Concepción, and then heaving my way up a series of stairs next to the Ascensor Espiritu Santo. The view of the harbor, of the plan, of Viña and Reñaca and Con Con off in the distance, of the thinly-stretched shelves of clouds hanging above the horizon, makes me want to sit down in the middle of the sidewalk and paint…or write. Or just sit there and stare, perhaps with a picnic of some sort. And it’s not just the view that has me so thoroughly taken with this city; it’s the visible, tangible expression of personality, of life that’s so overwhelming. All available wall space in this place is overrun by color. Not only are the houses and shutters and doors painted vibrantly, but there are murals and stencils and mosaics and sculptures and graffiti and drawings wherever you look. And the winding streets and sidewalks and paths take you right through peoples’ backyards, through narrow passageways, by kitchen windows, next to porches and patios. It feels so intimate and secluded, but still very warm and inclusive. And oh goodness, people are friendly.

After my large amount of wandering, which landed me in Plaza Victoria, browsing artisan stalls, I called Cristian and we met up for coffee. He took me to this great coffee shop that I’d passed about an hour before and had decided I wanted to come back to. We spent a couple of hours lounging on the couches in the basement, chatting about traveling and Chile and who knows what. It’s so cool to find myself having long conversations in Chilean Spanish. Then for dinner Alex and I went to Jerusalem, the hummus-dispensing Middle Eastern restaurant of amazingness that I recently discovered in Viña. It was amazing. Back at home, he even massaged my muscularly-challenged leg, per therapist’s orders. Oh, how convenient. Oh, what a lovely day. A day which, by the way, ended with the whole family talking and laughing around cake.