Chile
Santiago • Valparaiso
April 2019 • Chile's two largest cities are like Los Angeles and San Francisco. Santiago sprawls in a valley between two mountain ranges, the air often hazy with urban exhaust. Valparaiso is perched on a cluster of vertiginous hills overlooking the Pacific, its air churned by cool ocean breezes. Santiago has larger arts institutions; Valparaiso has a more vivid street canvas: murals, graffiti, brightly painted whatnot. Valparaiso is a leftist safe zone; Santiago is the beating financial heart of South America's most stable economy, as well as home to a grueling museum about the Pinochet era. The most notable difference between the two cities and their California cousins: Santiago and Valparaiso are only an hour apart via bus.
![Santa Lucia Hill, Santiago](https://www.johnmikulenka.com/assets/images/travel/santiago • valparaiso/IMG_2181 copy.jpg)
![International Workers' Day, Valparaiso](https://www.johnmikulenka.com/assets/images/travel/santiago • valparaiso/IMG_2291 copy.jpg)
![Funicular, Valparaiso](https://www.johnmikulenka.com/assets/images/travel/santiago • valparaiso/IMG_2368 copy.jpg)
![Valparaiso](https://www.johnmikulenka.com/assets/images/travel/santiago • valparaiso/IMG_2269 copy.jpg)
![Valparaiso](https://www.johnmikulenka.com/assets/images/travel/santiago • valparaiso/IMG_2287 copy.jpg)
![International Workers' Day, Valparaiso](https://www.johnmikulenka.com/assets/images/travel/santiago • valparaiso/IMG_2345 copy.jpg)