thanks fellas. haha yeah, lots of hotels there, but it seemed like vina del mar is for conventioneers. i went over there to rent a car, but changed my mind, so i don't have much to say about it.
more valparaiso info:
per wiki its 155 sq.mi. today and the population was 284,630 in 2012 (metro 930,220), 6th largest in chile.
valparaiso thrived as a major port city in the 1800's. it had latin america's first stock exchange and first fire department. it still has the oldest spanish language newspaper in the world, el mercurio. it seriously declined after the panama canal opened and was abandoned by the rich.
however it's long stagnation has paid off leaving a unique look and heritage. it was declared a world heritage site in 2003 and in the last 20yrs it fortunes are returning via tourism and via its local major colleges and universities.
a transit quirk is that the valpo trollybus system they use only began in 1952, which is curious because that was around the era when america got rid of them over here. whats cool is that many of the original trolleybuses are still in use. they also have a nice new lightrail line as well as mini busses, regular city busses and very comfortable inter-city busses.
its really a breathtaking place, in more ways than one given all the hills and steps (!). i highly recommend visiting if you can. if you don't want to constantly deal with the hills of the old city you can stay in vina del mar, the touristic beach hotel town next door, which is flat. however, if you want to really explore and can handle the epic hilliness by all means stay in town.
valpo aint all old though, there is plenty of new construction as well as rehabbed new, modern interiors behind old fronts -- the renovation efforts are very impressive.
our hotel and something like this pic are examples:
http://www.casagalos.cl/index.php?lang=en
so thats all for colorful valparaiso -- but more chile to come.
