How can Valparasio have 5.6 million people LESS than Santiago yet be 10 times more chaotic? Traffic, people going in every direction possible, narrow hilly streets and a history as one of the most important port towns in Latin America until the construction of the Panama Canal. This is still an important port town and as such it is a bit seedy and edgy. Many buildings show thier wear with the battle of history, the elements and past earthquakes. It looks like an upgrade to the towns infrastructure has not happened in 50 years. Maybe thats what makes this town special, that and its memorable hillsides and thier creeky old funiculars.
Be Random - Get To Know Someone Random.
I needed coffee badly. I am so exhausted with instant coffee in the morning and today is one of those days. I went out hunting for a proper coffee house and nothing was going to get in my way. I found a brilliant (expensive) cappuccino on the edge of an Plaza Sotomayor and settled in for a while. An odd sight to my caught my attention. There were 3 shipping containers stacked on top of each other with a large quilt (?) hanging off of it creating a door type structure. Bolted top centre was a huge clock (Ikea could not compete) that seemed to give this structure some purpose. However, this Plaza Sotomayor is a gorgeous plaza centred around the remodelled Colonia Navy building, modern offices and cafes. This eyesore was completely out of place, but who am I to judge.
When I looked a little closer, ie: put on my glasses sitting on top was a guy just chilling and reading the paper. He was not bothering anyone, just chilling and everyone once in a while took a sip of comething from a paper cup. I wonder....
He was there the entire time I drank my coffee and made for a great bit of entertainment. Then he decided to get up and there was a serious power wobble and there were gasps from everyone around (I was not the only person watching him). If it was for the fact he balanced himself against the clock I would be writing about watching some old dude plummet to his death.
How could this get any better. Strolling over I found this was an area for art and artists. I guess reading is an art form now. I love artists. You can do the most stupid things and justify it by saying you are doing it for your craft. They were cooking, drinking and there was an actual security guard to prevent interlopers from going in and saying "what the F*** are you doing, I mean by saying hello.
Around the back I go only to find some guy sitting inside a hollowed out container playing guitar, to nobody. That is cool, just doing his thing for anyone who wants to stop an listen. The colourful quilt must have been his lightshow. Good times!
Off topic a bit but something else I found interesting today. This graffiti is well done and says it all.
My Interpretation
Top Tier- The almighty dollar
Second Tier- The rich who control everything
Third Tier- Religious leaders who are bought by the rich and have controlling influence over the masses
Fourth Tier - Business, Government and War, the money creators
Firth Tier - The middle class celebrating thier supposed success
Bottom Tier - The poor and working class supporting everything on thier backs.
This is a world issue and historically revoltions have started because of this seperations of classes. French Revolution, American Revolution and the Russian Revolution stand out. Dont think that it cant happen in our life time just because we have a few dollars in our pocket and a full belly. Change happens when people have had enough and it can happen anywhere, even in Canada.
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** Update**
Thanks to a travel buddy, Jaron Collis who saw my image above and put some historic context to it. "Its based on a 100 year old poster created by the industrial workers of the world"
A great version can be viewed here
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Anti-capitalism_color-2.jpg
Great work Jaron
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Thanks to a travel buddy, Jaron Collis who saw my image above and put some historic context to it. "Its based on a 100 year old poster created by the industrial workers of the world"
A great version can be viewed here
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Anti-capitalism_color-2.jpg
Great work Jaron
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