Valparaiso, Chilé

Written by ponsager

This old (the oldest in Chilé!) port city looks like it was deposited by a titan tornado and painted with the rainbow that followed. It’s famously art-covered walls (and doors, fences, steps and other paintable surfaces) are the main attraction, but the city is a show stealer all on its own. Buildings are packed like Tetris blocks over hills of all shapes and sizes, no grade too steep to fit just one more house. Make that two. So, empanadas in one hand and camera in the other, I spent two days climbing stairs, riding ascensors, climbing more stairs and squeezing through alleyways to see the grand exhibit in all its graffitied glory.

Here is the street my hostel (maybe the best if my trip!) was on. Why use concrete roadblocks when you can use plants? They’re way prettier..
One of the many, many stairways climbed that day.
Stacks of buildings. Check out the one on the top left. You do what you gotta do to fit that new sofa I guess…
If you look carefully you can see the hills continue up into the fog and out of sight.
The sky was playing a very monochromatic counterpart to the city today.
Love the color scheme and how it stretches across the different surfaces.
Also a really cool use of the building!
Another set of stairs I really liked (before I started climbing them).
I think this is the single biggest one I saw. I have a feeling getting the proportions right has got to be alot easier said than done!


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3 thoughts on “Valparaiso, Chilé”

  1. Insane! Never seen anything anywhere in the world where the entire city scape is your art studio-museum. The colors, the talent,the humor, the ingenuity…I love it. Absolutely amazing.

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  2. The city has happy vibes – it makes me smile : ) Our inner city graffiti-ists have a lesson or two to learn about what constitutes artwork on walls! Looks like a fun place to be!

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