Historic Valparaiso Tour

 Valparaiso was never founded, but merely mentioned by the spaniards, in the sixteenth century. A small forgotten village at first, then the port of the kingdom’s capital, Valparaiso grew slowly, dealing with constant pirate attacks. Chile’s independence and the decree for free commerce, gave the initial impulse for Valparaiso to become the main port in the South Pacific region, with the Strait of Magellan as the only place of passage between oceans. It became an elegant and pioneering city, a commercial magnet, an attraction for people from Santiago, for rural peasants, and for immigrants from all over the world. A place where sailors came an left, where the delirious bohemianism was said to resemble the feel of being in New York. But after the oppening of the Panama Canal, after the invention of synthetic nitrate, banks and businesses started to close, and people migrated. Valparaiso’s high times lasted until industrial machinery came to replace dockers. Then  the definitive crisis began. The city starts to fall appart and poverty settles in. But Valparaiso has its strength, as has been proven, when being rebuilt after bombings, floods, devastating fire and earthquakes. Detained in its splendor, this city is valuable in the eyes of the modern, globalized world. Which seeks for the lost sense of community and the taste of worn down history, to be found in traces throughout its streets. Since 2003, the city of Valparaiso has been declared a Patrimonial Site of Humanity, and its residents have put in all of their efforts to see the port be reborn.