Valparaíso: El Plan, the 42 Hills (Cerros) & Viña del Mar

Unlike almost every other Spanish colonial city in South America, Valparaíso could never be laid out on a neat checkerboard grid. Hemmed in between the deep blue curve of Valparaíso Bay and a steep coastal amphitheatre of forty-two hills (cerros) incised by winding ravines (quebradas), Chile's legislative capital and premier nineteenth-century Pacific seaport grew upward in tiers of timber, adobe, and brightly painted corrugated iron. Recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 2003, the city is best understood through its two vertical levels and its seaside neighbour across the bay.

How Valparaíso Is Organised: El Plan, Los Cerros & the Coast

• El Plan (The Flat Waterfront Strip): Narrowed to just a few blocks between the docks and the base of the cliffs, El Plan is divided into the historic port quarter of Barrio Puerto and Plaza Sotomayor in the west and the commercial district of El Almendral in the east (where the 1912 Mercado El Cardonal, the National Congress of Chile, and the long-distance bus terminal stand, linked by vintage green-and-cream 1952 Pullman trolleybuses).
• Los Cerros (The Amphitheatre of Hills): Rising abruptly behind El Plan, each hill functions as its own village reached by nineteenth-century funicular railways (ascensores) and painted stairways. The two most famous hills, Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepción, form a walkable labyrinth of cliffside balconies (paseos), murals, cafés, and Anglo-German mansions, while Cerro Bellavista and Cerro Florida hold the Open-Air Museum and Pablo Neruda's house La Sebastiana, and Cerro Artillería guards the western headland.
• Viña del Mar, Concón & the Casablanca Valley: Eight kilometres northeast along the coastal electric railway lies the "Garden City" of Viña del Mar and the coastal dunes of Concón, while forty kilometres inland toward Santiago spreads the cool-climate wine route of the Casablanca Valley.

Practical Tips for Walking the Hills

Instead of climbing straight up from sea level, do as local porteños do: ride a historic funicular such as Ascensor El Peral, Ascensor Concepción, or Ascensor Reina Victoria up from El Plan, then walk horizontally and downhill along the interconnected cliffside promenades.