Languid, cool-white fog envelops Valparaiso's crumpled ridges. Corrugated houses spill chaotically down her mysterious contours in rust and lurid paint.
The cold Pacific at her feet, dark moods of overcast confront the defiant joy of working-class lives.
The past intertwines with tomorrow's hopes in a seamless swirl of artistic energy.
Stretching across 42 'cerro's (hills) embracing a sheltered bay, Valparaiso may be South America's most intriguing city: a base for Conquistadors, plunder for Pirates, wheat sent to the California gold rush and a welcoming haven for ships surviving Cape Horn.
Square-cut stone edifices pay tribute to her banking heyday, crowding linear streets in the port-facing commercial centre "El Plan".
But romance still caresses the ridges above.
Over generations, fortunes were won and show-pieces built. The city's Fine Arts Museum is harboured in Palacio Baburizza, a florid Art Deco mansion on the slopes of Cerro Alegre.
Signs of substance are everywhere, but history deals cruel blows. Earthquakes undermined the city and its confidence; the Panama Canal redirected traffic away from Cape Horn; Military regimes and the swings of a resource-based economy crushed dreams of prosperity.
Today the chaotic jumble of history provides poetic vistas at every turn.
Writers and artisans keep company with dockworkers' families in the defiant tumble of neighbourhoods, embellished with artistic vision, palms and jacarandas.
Attracted by UNESCO World Heritage designation, tourists now flock to Valparaiso, staying in rebuilt mansions, or up the coast is glitzy Vina del Mar high rises.
They ride the rickety wooden elevators between neighbourhoods, shop galleries and corner stores, take boat rides through the busy port and stop for sumptuous meals featuring the freshest seafood from Chile's cool coastal waters.
History and colour tumble down Valparaiso's streets. Each corner and courtyard, staircase and elevator offer intriguing glimpses into the joy, mysteries, heartbreak, success and failure of lives lived at full tilt in a sensual city by the sea.
Retreating to the modern comforts of Vina del Mar or Renaca across the bay, we catch our breath, gaze into the false glitter of fading light and feel the sensual tug of Valparaiso's mysteries.
-30-
Pablo Neruda:
Valparaiso,
how absurd
you are ...
you've never
had
time to get dressed,
life
has always
surprised you."
**
