Valpaíraso Graffiti Tour

Sunday was our second day in La Viña del Mar, Chile. Our first activity for the day was traveling to Valpaíraso, a neighboring city, for a walking graffiti tour. Our tour began in the Plaza Sotomayor with a brief history of the city. We learned that the beautiful blue castle-like building located in the plaza is currently Navy Headquarters of the Chilean Navy and is called El Edificio de la Comandancia Naval.

El Edificio de la Comandancia Naval

We then continued the tour by going to the top of one of the hills in Valpaíraso and then walking down through the streets and seeing and learning about the graffiti.

In Valpaíraso, we learned that although graffiti is technically illegal, it is “legal” to paint on a building with the owner’s permission. I also asked the tour guide what happens if someone paints over someone else’s artwork. He said that it is very disrespectful and even can be dangerous to do so. He also said that people who paint over other people’s art without permission are called TOYS which means “tag on your stuff”.

Emily Helenius (left) and Sarah Bondar (right)

Claire Newman said her favorite piece was the mural on Hostal Acuarela by the street artist that goes by the name of Mono Type. The story behind this mural is that a couple coming to Valpaíraso for a graffiti festival had nowhere to stay and made a deal with the owner of the hostel to paint a mural for the hostel in exchange for a place to stay.

By Mono Type

One of my favorite pieces from the tour was a painting of an elderly lady painted by Ella and Pitr, a couple from France. The couple has a European style of graffiti. The European style of graffiti is known to use mostly black and white colors and occasionally some red as can be seen in this piece.

By Ella and Pitr

After the tour we had the opportunity to walk around and explore for a little and have lunch on our own. Hannah Kirby, Matthew Lawson, Emily Jansson, Claire Newman, and I chose to have lunch at a restaurant on a balcony that was highly recommended by our tour guides called Fauna. The view from the restaurant was incredible and Hannah said the lunch was one of the best meals she had eaten throughout the whole trip.

The three images above are of Valpaíraso

Valpaíraso is not like any city I have seen before. It is so unique and colorful, with graffiti artwork on every corner. I never thought of graffiti as an art until I got to see all these amazing paintings and murals everywhere with such intricate details, each having a meaning of their own.

Chickens for Days

Today, we toured Gallina Feliz, or in English, the Happy Hen. It is one of the few organic farms located in Chile (though its organic certification has been temporarily suspended due to nonorganic ingredients in the chicken feed). A two hour bus ride up a bumpy and endlessly curving road took us through the beginnings of the Andes Mountains and into farm country. This would be an interesting visit, and our first true farm visit during this program. Being very aware of the farming conditions in the industrial farms that dominate the States, I was keen to see if Chile held higher standards for their animal producers. While this farm fell short of my expectations, they do monumentally better than farms in the US. This can start a whole conversation on societal values and an understanding as to why the US industrializes the lives of animals more than other countries, who value the quality of the animals they produce.

The farm itself is worked on manually by eight employees, and started up about ten years ago. The owner of the land came to live at the property, but realized there was a high demand for eggs. Seeing a marketable opportunity, the owner began a chicken farm from scratch. There are 10,000 hens on site, producing one egg a day, and fed a plant-based feed. While some chickens roamed around, the majority were kept in small house-cage structures. Predictably, the placed smelled of farm animal and other unmentionable fumes, natural to the nature of the farm life. Gallina Feliz sells 90% of their egg production to retail, and the others are either thrown away or sold elsewhere. They plan on growing, as we saw them building another hen house, some 15 feet by 6 feet sort of size. Hopefully there is a second house in progress so that the hens can move more freely.

The littlest of the chicks

While visiting Gallina Feliz was a new experience, it made students wonder at the conditions at farms back home. My friend Kevin commented, stating: "I hope that the States are more regulated than here. Apparently, they treat their chickens really well compared to others, but it seemed like they didn't."

Another student, Vraajesh, said: "I feel the conditions were really poor. The farm was solely for business purposes and had no regards for the lives. But then again, that's how farms function in the animal business. The only plus side was that the chickens weren't being artificially injected with anything."

Finally, my roommate, Karine, said: "The US should consider adopting some Chilean farming methods. Having more local smaller farms around the US, allowing the product to be fresh and of better quality."

This business meeting was eye-opening, and made us think a little deeper than bottom lines in the business sector. It offered us insight to the food industry, and a business that has to feed hundreds of people. It is fascinating to learn how that works, the amount of work left to improve the industry, and realizing the real work we as business students need to focus on.

Patio Bella Vista

This afternoon after our business visit to AmCham we stopped at Patio Bella Vista for lunch and shopping. The bus dropped us off and we had an hour to explore and grab a bite to eat. A group of people decided to stop at The Pizza Factory where they enjoyed different kinds of thin crust pizza. Brian Forbes decided to try Hawaiian pizza for the first time! SIE has provided a great opportunity for each of us to step out of our comfort zone and try new things.  Another group ate at Puerto Bella Vista, were they enjoyed different seafood meals. They all left with very full stomachs.

A group of friends and I ate at Openbox Restobar overlooking the Patio Bella Vista. We have been very lucky with the beautiful weather for it allows us to take in the whole outdoor environment and atmosphere that this country has to offer.  At Openbox Restobar we decided to try the different selection of sushi options. Maggie Carbin loved the salmon avocado rolls and really enjoyed the lively area. From our table we could see the different shops and other restaurants in the area.

Beautiful Buganbilias flowers and view overlooking the Patio Bella Vista. 

 

Left Chelsea Doucette and right Katie Griffin enjoying their sushi.

Another group of students decided to spend the rest of their time poking around the different shops. The stores were all unique having their own individual flare with artwork and beautiful flowers throughout the shopping area.

Above is a photo of the artwork that lined the wall on one of the corners. 

Sarah Bondar and many other girls bought different jewelry items for themselves and for gifts. Dustin Braman and Mike Dalton bought themselves fanny packs to be more efficient while walking around the city.  Now we are off to our next business visit Gallina Feliz, after taking in more of the culture and beauty that Chile has to offer.

Cerro San Cristobal

After our business visit and tour at Universidad Católica Football Club earlier this morning, we all headed back on the bus for our next stop of the day, Cerro San Cristobal hill. This hill is located in northern Santiago and is the second highest peak in the entire city. The hill was named by Spanish conquistadors. Cerro San Cristobal is the location of a zoo and Santiago's largest public park.

Students riding the funicular

Funicular track

We exited the bus at the bottom of the hill, and were ready to make our way to the top. Luckily, Cerro San Cristobal has a working funicular, which transported us to the top of the hill. This meant we didn't have to walk all the way to the top. According to Matt Raggi: "a funicular is like a gondola". The path of the funicular was very steep and the ride to the top was not very smooth. Karine and Keighan were both a little scared on our ride up. However, the views were amazing.

Once at the top, there was a large area for taking pictures of the view. There were also many little shops for  souvenirs and snacks. Everyone was starving by the time we got to the top of the hill and many people bought empanadas. You can never have too many of those! At the peek of the hill, there is a 22 meter statue of the Virgin Mary, overlooking the city. Although the views were incredible, they would have been more clear had there not been a large landfill fire that occurred outside the city earlier that morning.

Virgin Mary Statue

Overall, it was a really beautiful and breathtaking site. Cerro San Cristobal was also the starting point of the Santiago cultural city game. After our small break on the peak, we were all ready from the next adventurous activity in the city!

View from the top