Colourful cerros

Valparaiso was to be our home for Christmas. It is a coastal city made up of 42 cerros (hills) - a good test for the calf muscles (fortunately there are a number of funiculars - the oldest dating back to the 1880s) and the car's brakes! It is a port city that was very wealthy and international in the nineteenth century until the Panama Canal was opened when much of the shipping traffic was diverted. The city had a revival in tourism in the early 2000s and part of the city received UNESCO World Heritage status so that the historic centre is now protected. In an attempt to decentralise Chile from its focus on Santiago, Valparaiso is also home to the National Congress. 

We had treated ourselves to a apartment in a small hotel two thirds of the way up one of the two main tourist hills. A highlight was the roof terrace which was an excellent place to, drink in hand, admire the city at any time of day. 

The view from the roof terrace

Chileans celebrate Christmas by going to midnight mass and then heading home for present opening and a large meal with family. The 25th is spent recovering! So when we arrived early evening on the 24th December we dashed to the supermarket to purchase our Christmas dinner for the following day and then headed out to one of the few restaurants that was open for a traditional Chilean menu. 

We started Christmas day with a leisurely morning and then headed off on a tours for tips street tour (in an almost deserted city) to discover more of the history and included the port, the main square, some of the terraces and funiculars. 

The port

 Oldest funicular

Main square & head of the navy

In Chile the fire service is run by volunteers and in Valparaiso we discovered there are 14 small fire stations (due to the many hills, poor electrical wiring and sea breezes), all of which were founded by different communities. We saw the German, English and Italian fire stations.

The highlight of the city is the street art, it is not clear how it started, but now every corner your turn leads to a new street art discovery. 

A small selection of the street art

After walking up and down the hills it was time to prepare our Christmas day feast of...pizza, salad and pisco cocktails. Followed by Christmas day entertainment playing yahtzee - Jess was the victor of both games, but this winning streak would not last long!

Nick getting into the festive spirit (when I made the purchase it didn't occur to me that I would have to walk with Nick whilst he was wearing this t-shirt)

On the Monday we woke up to wet streets and a grey sky, the first rain of our trip! The grey sky only lasted a couple of hours.

To improve our culinary skills we spent the day at a Chilean cookery school. The day started with a trip to the market to buy ingredients with our teacher and 4 other students. We've had lots of delicious fruit since arriving in Chile. We were told that the fruit that ends up in the local markets, whilst tasty, is mainly the imperfect produce that can't be exported. The corn and broccoli in the market were enormous!

The market

The menu

Once back at the cookery school Nick was set to work stripping the corn to make the blended corn layer for the Pastel de Choclo (underneath there was minced beef, a lump of chicken, half a boiled egg, a raisin and an olive). I cut up the Chirimoya (custard apple) an ugly looking fruit with a texture similar to Chinese dumplings, but is really sweet - and I just covered in freshly squeezed orange juice.

We also each made our own empanadas using pastry made from wine, flour and eggs and Nick gallantly volunteered to make the pisco sour. The other dishes pebre (a finely cut salsa eaten with everything!) and palta rellena (avocado filled with palm hearts) were made by our fellow students. After four hours of preparation we enjoyed a leisurely lunch accompanied by a glass or two of Chilean wine.

Preparation

The finished products

After all that hard work it was time for a nap!

- Jess