Valparaiso is basically the port city for Santiago, about 60 miles to the west. Guidebooks describe it as the most distinctive city in South America. Dave and I, and other tourists we talked with, would describe it as a dump. You can tell that Valparaiso was a major city a century ago, before the Panama Canal existed, when it was a major port of call for ships rounding Cape Horn. Now, however, that glory is long faded. Here's a view out over the harbor.
As often happens in travel, the really interesting sights are things you didn't even plan for. Just out of Santiago we stopped at a gas station to check the tires on our rental car. Some incredibly bored but imaginative employee created what must be the world's largest milk crate castle...
Before we headed to Valparaiso, I had read in the Lonely Planet guidebook that there was a big annual pilgrimage to the town of Lo Vasquez happening the next day, on Dec. 8th, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Lo Vasquez is about 30 miles west of Santiago, and since we were driving the day before, we figured we might encounter some of the pilgrims. We were right. They were driving, biking, and walking by the thousands on the highway in the full summer sun and temperature in the 80's. In the picture below, one of the people on the right is carrying a shrine on their back, as did a number of people that we saw.
All along the road, the whole way, they were walking. Young and old, men and women, even some strollers and wheelchairs! In the picture below, the human caravan extends all the way down to the bend and beyond. We even saw a couple of people carrying crosses (!!), which would make for an extremely tough journey.
We speculated that the folks in the truck below were also heading to Lo Vasquez. This would be better than walking, but still probably not a fun way to drive...
We finally drove by the sanctuary, which looked unassuming enough.
Near the sanctuary, a fly-by-night city had apparently sprung up, with tents, stalls, vendors, etc.
Once we had gone to Valparaiso and passed by Lo Vasquez again, we saw the same stream of people, this time coming toward us as seen in the picture below. It was an inspiring sight. Here in the USA (and much of the developed world, I think) we are too comfortable and too infrequently take on such religiously inspired challenges of the flesh and mind.
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