Pancake Tuesday All Over The World : Valparaiso : Day 2 : Tues 4th March

A certain amount of rationing of photos of street art will have to happen today, otherwise you'll be here until the end of time.

If there is one thing Sarah has been sure did not slip my mind, it's that today is Shrove Tuesday. People throughout the English-speaking world (I assume) will be making some variant of pancakes today. We shall not be about to let them down, hanging around in South America be damned.

Today's plan : walk the length of ourselves many times over, and take a streetcar.

This is the Concepcion and Alegre districts of Valparaiso, those best known as they are the UNESCO World Heritage sites (great views, no poor people, etc etc).

The view from Paseo Gervasono is pretty good.

Likewise Paseo Atkinson.

There on the corner is that big green church. It looks like the usual sort of church. We venture closer, and meet a guldering Brian-Blessed sort of pastor, who urges us over the threshold. Turns out he's half-Swedish, half-Irish, from the USA. Rattles through an introduction to this high-German speaking Lutheran church. Built at a time when Catholicism ruled Chile, the church was not allowed a steeple or cross on the top. Naturally, the Germans who had been invited to colonise southern Chile realised the unfairness of this situation, and hence rose to through the ranks of power, whence they changed the law and, thereafter, Protestant churches were allowed steeples and crosses. This was the first Protestant church to have such accoutrements.

Fantastic church it was too. It was built by German shipbuilders, so the beams you see here are single beams of wood slowly bent into shape. You've got some psalms in high-German round the walls too. 

We haven't been in many Protestant churches in South America, but this one reminded Sarah of Loanends Presbyterian Church, and she was happy,

For those reading this in Hull, your kinsfolk are the proud craftsmen who built this fantastic pipe organ which, until a week or so ago, was the oldest working pipe organ in the town.

The Pastor was a real character. He pointed out a number of key German sites in the town, including (but not exclusive to) the Club Alemania, which has a bust of Kaiser Wilhelm in the lobby; the Hamburg restaurant, which is run by a chap who manned a German submarine in WWII and settled in Chile, now in his 90s (it was a pretty fancy restaurant too, no way we could have eaten there), and German schools, with a curriculum indistinguishable from that of a school in Frankfurt.

'Tourism Is The Devil' apparently. But without it Valparaiso would be a town full of hookers and sailors and bums, according to the girl in our hostel.

Valparaiso Cathedral. We tried to see all the churches, just for something to do, but some of them were up rather unattractive side-streets.

Sarah spotted a nice wee restaurant so in we went. Lunch was a chorrillana, Coke, spicy salsa and bread. Yes, we are feeling better. We were also treated to some live music by a chap on a guitar banging out local folk tunes. For a quid tip he was good value.

The bar was a bit Chiloé-themed, which suited us, however...

Not sure there was anything too traditional about these wee men!

Not a church, an hospital run by nuns.

Avenida Argentina was the big ugly strip down the west side of the city. A few monuments, sure, and the Congress Nacional, but that was about it. A good place to catch a streetcar though. We had been told the west end of the city was famous for its street art, with an annual competition for the best piece, so I wanted to get a look. Not entirely as good as we expected, but a couple of classics.

Those coloured houses on Whitehead seafront look a bit average sometimes...

One of the best pieces I've seen.

Another church, this time dilapidated. I guess this is the church for the politicians...

Big copper statue in the middle of Avenida Argentina. Not bad, would be better if it had turned green though.

Found these very curious brown-brick houses which reminded Sarah of Stratford-Upon-Avon, but made me think of Germany.

Get bored walking around this part of town which isn't very attractive and has a few down-and-outs hanging around, and we decide to take the streetcar back to our end of town, a couple of kilometres away. Its $250 a trip, about 30p.

Eventually a large lady gets on with this little dog, which I'm guessing is the most loved dog in the whole world. It kept falling asleep when the streetcar stopped at traffic lights, then woke up startled and petrified when we started to move again.

Off we get, off to the supermarket we go, and in tribute to the people who say 'There are no people riding horses on the streets of Chile', here is a photo of a horse tied up in the town centre. Firstly, here is a photo of that orange cafe house that we took photos from earlier in the day.

That is that. Except its not. We get our flour, milk, eggs, lemon and jam, and back at the hostel we make pancakes. Delicious, traditional pancakes. A German girl says 'oh you are making pancakes'. 'Yes, its Pancake Tuesday' we say. 'Ah, and tomorrow is Pancake Wednesday?' she says laughing. 'Ummm. No.'