From Santiago, head due West and you will reach the sea in about 120 km's and the town of Valparaiso.  For a long long time Valparaiso was one of the most important ports along the Americas West coast.  Ships sailing around the Cape Horn would have to stop here, often for repairs, but mainly to restock and that meant that it became an important and wealthy city.  The opening of the Panama Canal sort of screwed things up a bit and Valparaiso went into decline.  Over the next decades it turned itself into a fascinating city of color and hills and is today a magnet for artists and photographers alike who some here to capture the weirdness that you can find on very corner, on every street.  For us it was just great to wander the hills and stare at the contrasts; color and graffiti, beauty and ugly, rich and poor.  It's easy to see the wealth that was once here in some of the colonial buildings that still stand and to see the Ascensor taking the rich up to there lofty mansions that overlook the bay.  The whole place is that pretty and unique that UNESCO have had it incorporated into World Heritage status in 2004, that means its gonna stay this way for a long time.  We only had 2 fulls days to explore so that's what we did.  Following the guidelines as indicated in the excellent Valparaiso guide we went up and down, in and around, forward and back through the better and more interesting parts of the Historic center and just above it.  Walking without camera at the ready should be a crime here because each and every corner bring something else to go wow at and anything less than a 64 Gig card will leave without any room left to take even more snaps.  However it must be said that down on the flat level it's nothing that special and really rather dirty and disgusting.  If you come here you need to spend your time in the hills.
Not long to go now.  Tomorrow its off to another place that's been calling me for years.