Things to do in Valparaíso

Located 112 km northwest of Santiago de Chile, overlooking a wide bay of the Pacific Ocean, Valparaíso has a population of approximately 275,000.

It is an important harbor and industrial center, as well as one of the largest cities in the country. It offers a variety of beautiful and picturesque places, such as squares, hills, neighborhoods, fishing coves, beaches, avenues and streets full of nooks and crannies, which present visitors with landscapes full of grandeur and beauty.

The harbor Valparaíso was famous from the beginning, when the sailing boats performed the trip from Europe to pass Cape Horn, before the construction of the Panama Canal. It was the gateway for hundreds of German, Italian, English and Spanish immigrants in the beginning of 1900.

The contemporary history of Valparaíso is closely linked to the figure of the famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and vice versa. Tired of the hustle and bustle of Santiago, the writer found in this city an unfinished house, located on the Florida hill, with a wonderful view of the sea, where he thought he could "live and write in peace". He named it La Sebastiana in honor of its builder, Sebastián Collado, a Spanish who, after searching a place where he could cover all of Valparaiso with his eyes, began to build this house with the intention of living in it when his children got married. Unfortunately, Sebastián died. Neruda decided to put that name explaining that "even though Don Sebastián hasn't made any verses, he was a poet of construction".