Valparaíso Port Chile

Valparaíso in detail

Valparaiso, main port and second city of Chile, was once the centre of 19th century British naval and commercial activity on South America's Pacific coast. Its setting is dramatic beside the sweeping curve of a great bay screened by a circle of hills, with the modern lower city and rambling upper section linked by steep zig-zag roads and ancient funiculars. Little of the city's colonial past survived the pirates, storms, fires and earthquakes but some remnants of the old colonial city can be found in the El Puerto area surrounding the church of La Matriz.

Close by is attractive Vina del Mar, among South America's most popular and vibrant beach resorts. Mainly Valparaiso is now the gateway to Santiago located on a 1,706-foot plateau, with the Andes as a backdrop.  

Founded in 1542, Valparaiso was a small port trading with Peru until Chilean independence when it became a Pacific commercial and banking base for US and European ships rounding the Horn. The port started to decline with the advent of steamships and the Panama Canal and then the shift of banking to Santiago and the new container port at San Antonio.