The South American Tour

by Annie S. Peck

The arriving steamers are as usual beset by a throng of boatmen, and wary must be the tourist who is not exorbitantly fleeced, unless he has a friend on board to guide, or one from the city to greet him. As the Chilian peso, of somewhat variable value, is generally worth less than a quarter of a dollar, the tariff price is not so high as it sounds; one peso for each person or considerable piece of baggage is a suitable fee, though much more is likely to be demanded.

VALPARAISO HARBOR

MONUMENT TO ARTURO PRAT, PLAZA INDEPENDENCIA

At the landing, arrangements may be made for the transport of the heavy baggage by cart, while you go with hand baggage to the hotel in a carriage; or a tram car may serve you. The hotels, the Royal, Palace, and Grand, are all within half a mile of the landing. The Royal Hotel, 65 Esmeralda street, which is sometimes full to overflowing, will be found amply satisfactory. The American proprietors, Mr. and Miss Kehle, have made it more like a hotel in the United States than are any others that I have seen on the West Coast. Located on one of the principal business streets, it affords excellent meals in several large dining-rooms; and handsomely furnished chambers, with modern equipment including red satin puffs for the beds in addition to fine blankets. The price is from 12 to 15 pesos and up according to the room. The Grand Hotel is said to afford similar accommodations at about the same prices. The Palace, a little cheaper, is well situated on the Plaza de los Bomberos, and others less pretentious, as the Colon, 87 Esmeralda, are called clean and good.

In Valparaiso, a city of nearly 200,000, it seems to be the fashion for the residents to reply, when asked what there is to see, “O, nothing at all.” This is by no means true, though at least twice as much time should be devoted to Santiago. First there is the large square near the landing on which is the handsome Casa del Gobierno. In the center of the plaza is a fine monument, The Country to the Heroes of the 21st of May, and at one corner near the docks is the railway station to Santiago. The air seems crisp and the city more European than any previously seen.

The business streets have many handsome buildings two or three stories high, a few even more, looking fresh and clean, since the greater part of this district was laid low by the terrible earthquake of 1906. A twelve-month of unusual shrinkage, of adjustment of the earth’s surface, and of consequent calamity was practically coincident with this year. In April 1906 occurred the catastrophe at San Francisco, August 16, the practical destruction of Valparaiso, and in January, 1907, the disaster at Kingston. Some buildings in Valparaiso withstood the shocks, but with the ’quakes and the resulting fires little of the lower part of the city remained undamaged. The upper town was to a great extent uninjured and the shipping in the bay received no harm. Few traces of the calamity are now left, as like San Francisco the town was soon rebuilt in a superior manner. While slight earthquakes are frequent they are not fearsome, as heavy shocks are usually half a century apart. Besides earthquakes, Valparaiso has experienced other calamities. Founded in 1536, in its earlier days it was three times captured and sacked by pirates; in 1858, it was destroyed by fire; in 1866, bombarded by a Spanish fleet; and in 1890 it suffered considerable injury from the Balmaceda revolution. It is to be hoped that after all these vicissitudes it may enjoy a peaceful existence. A stroll along the principal streets to the office of the American consul, Mr. Alfred Winslow, to the banking house of W. R. Grace, and to gaze at the handsome shop windows is the pastime of an hour or two. Between the hills and the water it is impossible to lose one’s way. The double-decked tram cars are an imposing sight, and rather curious objects are the women conductors. Having heard of these before arriving, I was expecting to see some trim young women, with possibly a coquettish eye turning at times upon some of the gentlemen patrons, as occasionally happens in some of our cheap restaurants; but no! Staid indeed are the women conductors in Valparaiso and Santiago, and far from handsome. Plainly dressed in a sort of blue uniform with white aprons, they are obviously of the so-called laboring class, of rather stolid appearance, perhaps the mothers of families, and closely intent upon their duties. It appears that during the war of ’79–’81, so many young men joined the army that women were drafted into this service. Performing it in a satisfactory manner they continued to be so employed though not to the total exclusion of men. They mount to the upper story to collect fares and in Santiago swing along the sides of the open cars quite in man fashion, though necessarily hampered by their voluminous skirts. Manifestly competent for the labor, less difficult than other duties like scrubbing floors, supposed to lie more within their sphere, it would seem that bifurcated garments, even knickerbockers, would enable them to perform either service more easily. If men and women were to exchange garments for a hundred years it is conceivable that the idea as to which is the weaker sex might be changed also.

A few car rides may be taken to advantage, the greater if sitting above; but among the natives of the upper class this is taboo, as the price is only half of that below; the fares being five and ten centavos respectively. A gentleman in Santiago remarked to me that although he preferred riding outside it would never do except in the evening, when he could not be recognized from the street or from the upper windows of houses in passing.

Not far from the Royal Hotel is the Plaza Victoria on one side of which is the Espiritu Santo Church, the most fashionable in the city, though with an ordinary exterior. A flower market is passed on the way, where beautiful roses and other flowers may be purchased in quantities for a single peso. The general market as a matter of course is worth seeing, especially in the season of fruits, as Chile rivals California in the excellence and variety of these, and surpasses it in cheapness. The fruits of the Temperate Zone, cherries, peaches, apples, pears, and grapes, luscious in quality and, they say, unrivaled in any part of the world, in their summer and fall, tempt the tourist on every hand.