We sauntered off to the Sunday Flea Market across town on Avenida Argentina. Unfortunately it was more flea than market with nothing really of interest, largely household stuff, clothes pegs, remote controls, contraband medications, rusted car parts, plastic toys, much of it displayed on blankets and tarpaulins. Every few steps there’s someone selling empanadas baked…
Author: paulandanthony
We're recently early retired from long and exhausting careers in Brand Design Strategy and TV Producing / Writing. After two long years of being trapped by COVID in our home town of Sydney Australia, we're ready to unfurl our wings and fly off on new adventures that will take us first up to Far North Queensland then the UK and Mexico - revisiting favourite places we haven't been to in over 30 years. Now living in Far North Queensland, Australia.
Living in a paintbox – 2
The clouds (and fog) lifted overnight revealing a Valparaíso dawn bathed in a golden, jewel-like glow. It’s often said (by Paul – Ant) that this place is like a tipped up paintbox, and they’re (he’s – Ant) not wrong! It’s Fiestas Patrias long weekend here (‘Patriotic Festivities’ for Chilean Independence Day), which peaks on Tuesday…
The Dark Bars of Valparaíso
Bar Inglés down on Calle Cochrane seems to be a little known institution here in Valparaíso. It’s been here for 101 years and is emblematic of this port’s history and enduring British connections. However, despite the walls plastered with pictures of British royalty, both monarchal and musical – Stones, Beatles and the Queens of England,…
Almost Fiestas Patrias
Chile’s national holiday is almost upon us. Officially Independence Day is September 18th but given it’s a Tuesday this year, it’s become a long long weekend, starting yesterday, Friday. Over at down-at-heel Plaza Echaurren for instance, it was a lovely surprise to find some Chileno dancing with the girls wearing large flaring skirts with layers of…
Living in a paintbox
Someone tipped out a paintbox and splashed its colours all over the hills – that’s how it looks here in Valparaíso. There’s hardly a building or a surface that’s not been painted. We asked Gab (our host) whether there were any regulations on what colours could be used to paint a house, and he said,…
Pelícanos y leones marinos
A gloomy old day, no rain, just overcast and cool all day, a perfect day for working. Mid morning a siren went off loudly in the port, reverberating around the city and sending the dogs howling and barking. Hmmm we thought, could this be an earthquake about to happen? There was a mild shake or…
Becoming Porteños
A perfectly balanced day of working from the apartment, some grocery errands and a brief exploration of the hood and beyond – including a much needed haircut at A$10 each. A really nice experience despite some language difficulties, but Ants persevered and our requests were understood and meticulously carried out. A good haircut! (A short…
The other September 11
Today is September 11th and is marked here not for that terrible event in New York 2001 but for an altogether different one, no less sinister and disturbing. The 1973 Chilean coup d’état led to the rise of Pinochet and the army-backed junta, which violently suspended all political activity in Chile, ‘repressing’ all left-wing…
Down on El Plan
Before the Panama Canal existed, Valparaíso was the major port for ships travelling between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via the Straits of Magellan. Understandably Valparaíso (with its fog, hills and painted houses) was known as ‘Little San Francisco’ and ‘The Jewel of the Pacific’ throughout its golden age in the 19thCentury, though crucial for…
Travels With My Ant 