City Valparaíso, Chile
Cats in Valparaíso
A port of forty-two hills, funiculars, painted houses and street art, where the cats sit on the newspaper stands, the stairways and the murals, and the locals call them porteños like themselves.
Where to find cats in Valparaíso: The hills of Valparaíso, Chile: Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepción above the port, the funiculars that climb them, and the stairways between. When: Morning, before the tour groups take the murals, and late afternoon for the light on the painted houses. October to April. Why here: A city built entirely of stairways and painted walls, which is to say built for cats.
The short version
- Where
- The hills of Valparaíso, Chile: Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepción above the port, the funiculars that climb them, and the stairways between
- When
- Morning, before the tour groups take the murals, and late afternoon for the light on the painted houses. October to April
- How long
- A day for the two hills. Two if you like stairs
- What it costs
- The funiculars are a few hundred pesos. The hills are free
- Why here
- A city built entirely of stairways and painted walls, which is to say built for cats
What to bring
- LegsValparaíso is hills and the hills are stairs. The funiculars help but the cats are on the stairs.
- Coins for the ascensoresThe century-old funiculars are the city’s best transport and its cheapest. Ride every one that is working.
- A wide lensThe murals are the size of houses and the cats sit in front of them. Both fit if you stand back.
- Street senseThe tourist hills are safe by day. The others are not for wandering with a camera. Ask your host.
Why there are cats everywhere
Valparaíso calls its people porteños, people of the port. It calls its cats the same.
The port was the great harbour of the Pacific before the Panama Canal, and its money built a city of mansions on the hills above the docks, reached by funiculars, the ascensores, that have been climbing the slopes since the eighteen-eighties. Then the canal opened and the money left, and the hills decayed beautifully for a century until the artists came. Now the two central hills, Alegre and Concepción, are painted end to end with murals, and the whole city is a UNESCO site and a Chilean byword for bohemia.
The cats live on the stairways. Valparaíso has almost no flat ground, and the passages between the hills are stairs, ramps and alleys, with a cat on every landing and a mural behind it. They are fed by the residents, by the kiosks, and by the cafés on the tourist hills, and they sit on the newspaper stands, the mural ledges and the funicular steps as if they had painted them. A porteño cat is a cat with a view, and the view is the whole bay.
Ride the Ascensor Concepción, the oldest, up from the port, walk the two hills and their passages, and come back down another way. There are said to be more stairways than streets. Count the cats on the way.
The walk
From the port up the oldest funicular to Cerro Concepción, across to Cerro Alegre, and down the stairways to the flat. A morning, with the murals.
- From SantiagoBus from Pajaritos or Alameda terminal100 minBuses every few minutes, all day. The port terminal is a short walk from the flat.
- From Viña del MarThe Metro Valparaíso train15 minThe commuter line along the coast to Puerto station, by Plaza Sotomayor.
- From The portAny ascensor2 minSixteen funiculars once; fewer work now. Concepción and El Peral are the two to ride.
Plaza Sotomayor
The main square by the port, with the naval headquarters and the monument. Flat, which is rare. The funicular is a block away; the cats are up the hill.
A porteño, near the port, before the climb.Luiz Contreira, CC BY-SA 2.0 Ascensor Concepción
The oldest funicular in the city, from 1883, up from the flat to Cerro Concepción. A minute of rattling and a view at the top. Cats on the steps at both ends.
At the top of the funicular. It did not need the ride.breatheoutnow, CC BY 2.0 Cerro Concepción
The hill of the old British and German merchants, with the Lutheran church, the Paseo Gervasoni promenade and the painted houses. Murals on every wall and cats on the ledges in front of them.
Two porteños on a stairway. The city has more stairways than streets.macha.cl, CC BY-SA 2.0 Cerro Alegre
Across the passage to the next hill, more murals, the Palacio Baburizza museum, and the stairways down. The Pasaje Bavestrello and the stairs off Templeman Street are the cat highways.
The kiosk cat, Cerro Alegre. Papers sold from underneath.Zanatox, CC BY 2.0
Same numbers as the list. Worth keeping open on your phone.
The cats you will meet
Chilean port cats: tabby, calico, black and white, thick-coated for the sea fog, fed by residents, kiosks and cafés, and used to being photographed in front of murals. Sociable on the tourist hills, quicker on the others.
Stairway cats
On the landings of the passages.
The main population. Every landing has one.
Kiosk cats
On the newspapers and the counters.
Buy a paper from underneath. The vendor is used to it.
Mural cats
On the ledges in front of the painted walls.
Posing, in effect. Stand back for both.
Everybody says The cats are part of the street art.
Actually The cats were on the stairways before the artists arrived and will be there after. That they sit in front of the murals is a matter of ledges and sun. The artists paint around them.
How not to be the annoying one
- Stay on the two tourist hills with a camera. The other forty are neighbourhoods with their own rules.
- Do not feed on the stairways. The residents do, and the gulls are enormous.
- The murals are somebody’s work. Do not touch, lean or tag.
- Buy the paper from the kiosk whose cat you photographed.
- The funiculars are heritage and fragile. Ride, do not rock.
