Chile
Santiago • Valparaiso
April 2019 • Chile's two largest cities are like Los Angeles and San Francisco. Santiago sprawls in a valley between two mountain ranges, the air often hazy with urban exhaust. Valparaiso is perched on a cluster of vertiginous hills overlooking the Pacific, its air churned by cool ocean breezes. Santiago has larger arts institutions; Valparaiso has a more vivid street canvas: murals, graffiti, brightly painted whatnot. Valparaiso is a leftist safe zone; Santiago is the beating financial heart of South America's most stable economy, as well as home to a grueling museum about the Pinochet era. The most notable difference between the two cities and their California cousins: Santiago and Valparaiso are only an hour apart via bus.
