Valparaiso rises up out of its harbor into a bustling, modern port and skyscraper packed city and then up onto forty-five steep hills, each a maze of winding streets lined with colorful houses and post-colonial edifices.* It’s filled with fabulous street art. And street vendors are everywhere. The best way to navigate the city is by taking the funiculars, steep railroads with two counterbalanced cars that go up and down the hills. Valparaiso has fifteen of them, nine of which actually work. Near the top of one of these funiculars we passed a woman sitting beside a table full of copper jewelry (Chile has huge copper mines). She was one of dozens of vendors that we’d walked by that day, but something made me stop and look at her work more closely. Most of the pieces were made from fine copper wire that had been crocheted into chains and settings for crystals. It was pretty stuff, but not any prettier that the other handmade jewelry… Read More »