greta goose and mr. wyatt: Valparaiso!

Valparaiso, how absurd you are . . . you haven't combed your hair, you've never had time to get dressed, life has always surprised you.

~Pablo Neruda

Somehow, it took us seven months living in Chile before we finally made it an hour and a half away to visit Valpo. Color. History. Vibrance. Industrial. Artistic. Free. These are the words that come to mind after spending time in Valparaiso. A photographer's dream. An out-of-shape person's nightmare. This hilly, gritty, fascinating town has our hearts.

We rented a flat on one of the hills, parked our car the moment we arrived, and walked almost everywhere for four days. Our walks were mostly aimless, just looking in corners and alleyways to see the art or to sample the food. It is clear that we succeeded in our mission to create the love of travel - and even an urgency for travel - in our children, because they were indefatigable despite the long days of walking about.

Despite Valpo's reputation for the art scene, the city is mostly an industrial port city. The harbor is filled with boats bringing in cargo and trucks parked at the ready to receive the goods. We watched this process unfold for a long while our first morning.

We needed some street food to keep us going. Sopapillas!

Like other towns across Chile, Valpo has an amazing array of funiculars running up the tallest hills so that you can hitch a ride for about 20 cents if you don't feel like walking up the stairways. We made use of this convenience every chance we got. The best was a race we had. Paul and I ran up the stairs racing the funicular that Phil, Mary, and the kids were riding. We beat the funicular by a nose, but we actually felt our fat hearts burning.

Going up! And coming down!

Evidence of a city growing in ways the original layout never intended. Snakey mounds of wires converge at every main artery of the city as countless homes stacked atop each other vie for power and phone cables.

Check out the funicular on the far right hillside.

One must keep hydrated while traveling.

The giant pulley system that moves the funiculars.

Grandpa's cats. This little family of clones just couldn't keep their eyes off us.

Greta is becoming quite the shutter bug.

Occasionally we whimped out and took a city bus.

Pablo Neruda's house. Pablo Neruda's view.

All over the city, there was a juxtaposition between old and new. Renovated and dilapidated.

We had lunch in the main market.

The market seemed to attract cats. They were skulking around our legs while we ate lunch.

Graveyard in the middle of everything.

Wyatt gets comfortable in the sweet shop.

Another of Greta's shots.

I often trail behind my family, but the moments I can capture this way make me smile. The sun was setting on their day, but they were not lost in its shadows. The were glowing, too.