Discover Valparaiso and Its Amazing Street Art, Valparaiso, Chile

If Santiago is Chile’s sophisticated, cosmopolitan son, Valparaiso is the capital’s grungy, in-your-face half-brother.

Just 120 kilometres from Santiago, on the country’s Pacific coast, the city is a gloriously jumbled mess of decaying mansions, lung-busting hillside streets and corrugated metal facades decorated with some of South America’s finest street art. It’s a city of paradoxes, where graffiti (or street art) is technically illegal, but where artists are actively encouraged to transform decaying buildings and facades with their ubiquitous spray cans.

Which is perhaps not surprising given the number of tourists who now flock to the city. Not just to wander the streets and gaze upon the sometimes staggering works of art, but also to admire the colourful buildings. And, of course, to then spend their tourist dollars in the city’s flourishing hotels, shops, restaurants and bars.

Indeed, if you’re planning to visit Santiago, we’d suggest you add at least a couple of nights to explore the cobbled streets of this wonderfully atmospheric city.

As with many South American ports, its roots and growth were borne out of the transportation of gold and other commodities to colonial Spain. After which it became the continent’s major Pacific port and a magnet for European immigrants. But its dilapidated buildings betray its descent from a booming 19th-Century trade and commerce hub into a fading 20th-Century relic following the twin “catastrophies” of an earthquake in 1906 and the opening of the Panama Canal. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).