Open streets :-)

The fantastic openness of the Chilean people is communicated all through the streets of Valparaíso. As well as the ever-open Museo Cielo murals, there are large photographic prints pasted up in various places around Valparaíso.  A poster advertised them as part of  FIFV, Festíval Internacioanl Fotografía Valparaíso, which must have been going on a while for some of the posters to have been so overlaid with graffiti and tags that they merged perfectly into their surroundings.

Another part of the vibrancy of the streets in Valpo is the animals, mainly dogs (who, amusingly as I noticed on the beach, enjoy chasing seagulls even if those seagulls and metres above them in the air!)   Chileans like keeping cats as pets so there are very few strays compared to dogs whose high numbers are apparently due to the ban in animal euthanasia in Chile.   Something I had never heard before is that in other countries (including the UK?) unwanted dogs and cats are put down if not re-housed after a short period in animal welfare homes like Battersea’s Cat & Dog home and that’s supposedly why we don’t have high numbers of strays (I definitely need to research the truth of this).  So Valpo has many street dogs, who can be seen curled up in various patches of shade on stairways and street corners.

A sign of Chilean kindness and generosity, bowls of water are left out on the streets for the stray animals and there are also bright and cheerful dog houses built  as ‘presents’ for the animals (‘regalome’) and often intricately decorated with mosaics and paint.

Throughout many of the dog-houses and other hand-made street installations there are signs of re-using glass, old bottle-tops and discarded bits and bobs.  I love this and got lots of ideas for re-using materials in kids workshops.  

Emma also gets excited by this aspect of Chilean life because sustainability and eco-conscious business are key points of focus in her own work.  Although household recycling is not facilitated with pickups like in the UK Emma did point our a system of recycling that is used here whereby anyone can bring recyclable materials to a shop that buys them back by the kilo and either recycles them or sells them on directly.  Apparently a lot of what would not be needed in Chile because there is a lot of it already (e.g. copper, Chile’s principal export) is shipped directly to China.  One great aspect of this is that is provides an income for people who might otherwise have no work.

As Emma pointed out, the many street vendors are there not because the economy is huge and people have a lot of money to spend, but rather because there are not necessarily enough jobs so people create their own jobs.  Varying in busyness and variety from day to day, the makeshift stalls that line many streets sell an huge variety of things: hats, sunglasses, flowers, watch batteries, drinks, cakes, toilet paper.  One girl who came through a bus was selling plasters in strips of 4 for 100pesos each (about 12 pence) as her way to earn an income.

One of the workers in the recycling shop was Osvaldo.  He chatted to us for a while explaining the system, then telling us about his son whose work aboard a ship is taking him traveling all over the world.  After hearing I was from Scotland he relished telling us about the mystic islands of Chile that touch you to your soul.   He asked for a copy of the picture of his shop so I dropped one off on my to the bus station this morning.  His face lit up and he waved me off with a take care and maybe one day we’ll meet again in Scotland! 

What a lot of love for Scotland and for strangers!

J