Valparaiso, a historic town by the sea, saved Chile’s honor. The Chilean towns we saw so far did not charm us at all. Valparaiso however could. It is built on over 40 hills and wherever you look, you see colorful houses, street art and dogs. Also there are nice restaurants, bars and museums all over and in the middle people enjoying life and their city.
After discovering the city for our own we went on a Tour4Tips. Our guide was very passionate and gave us a good understanding of the town’s and the Chile’s peculiarities. She also solved the “21st of May” puzzle for us. In many cities there is a place named after this date and we finally now what happened…
On May 21st in 1879 during a battle at sea, Arturo Prat died as a hero for Chile. He was already retired when the navy asked him back. Chile was loosing the war against Bolivia and Peru and needed every man. He became the captain of an old, wooden Chilean boat that got attacked by a Peruvian one. Knowing that the ship would sink he told his crew to jump on the Peruvian boat to kill them all there. Unfortunately only he and two other guys jumped, as nobody else heard him. One guy fell between the boats, the other got shot right after landing. Arturo went to kill the captain but got shot on the way there. Some governments would just have kept quiet, but not Chile. They made a big story out of it and in the end, his dead motivated tons of Chileans to join the army and fight for his cause. One reason they won the war and could claim the Atacama desert theirs.
Another funny story is about the fire fighters in Valparaiso. The first station was build by the British but they had no money for a pump. An American donated the money but requested to name it “American station” in return. After that, every immigrant group wanted to have its own station. Now they have 16 stations (German, Italian, Israeli, etc) in Valparaiso. The majority of the fire fighters are volunteers and to join you have to bring evidence that you have a connection to the country.
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