Chile: Valparaíso to the end

After Boco, we were lucky to get a ride to Viña del Mar, where we got a local bus to Valparaíso. I think it was my first (and only?) sighting of the sea from the land during my trip.

Carolina gave a me a lovely tour and we went up and down hills, either by foot or on funicular.

 Yes, public education!

Going down is fine,

 going up nearly killed me.

We rode the funicular (like an elevator) down from this particular hill. The city has lots of hills and so lots of stairs and funiculars.

I only looked at these steps with lovely tiles but had no intention of walking up them after the last set.

 The main square, on our way to lunch, before class.

The port, where we tried to figure out exactly how the cranes moved the huge containers in the background. There are stray dogs all over this town (actually, all over everywhere I went. One followed us immediately on the first day in Santiago after we left the hotel).

Somehow, we made it back to Santiago in time for me to take a quick shower and get dressed to teach a jiseung class that night. I loved this group of ladies, and some really did manage to finish tiny baskets either that evening or by the next.

The next day, I had lunch with departing guests from the conference who were on their way to Lima to visit Peru (if I had the time/funds, I would have done Machu Picchu, too). Then our indefatigable host Wonjung escorted me to another neighborhood to visit a printshop that has connections to Cleveland, Aguafuerte Taller.

Sanding an aluminum sheet for the litho press downstairs. This upstairs space will eventually turn into a gallery space.

This is the process of hand calandering paper. A LOT of muscle. 

When I arrived, at least three people were at work. The back presses and tables, and the middle flat files, were all built by owner Iván, whose grandfather was a furniture maker. When he got into trouble, he'd be sent to his grandfather's factory, which turned out to be much more of a blessing than a punishment.

Here, Iván works with a student. Tamarind trained, he is super ambitious and has lots of goals for this site. He spent 3 months in Cleveland as a Creative Fusion artist and learned more about how to run a printshop as a business since he already knew how to do the creative side of the work.

My apron was all tangled but I swear I know how to lace the ones that cross in the back and was very happy to meet a printer who agrees that aprons should not hang from the back of the neck!

I took an Uber early to campus (there was a LOT of confusion as to where to drop me off. I insisted that I NOT be dropped off at a cafe and kept on saying "school" and "university" to indicate that I needed to get to a campus, not a random street corner) and hung out outside and in a gallery space before my final class began.

It's always good to chase a jiseung class with a joomchi class because the success rate for the latter is much higher.

The next day was my last, which involved breakfast with Carolina, packing, lunch with Wonjung, and a quick trip to the pre-Columbian museum. I love these quipu, knots used to record.

After I left, I took the metro to another neighborhood to get final gifts and spend my remaining pesos, but then ended up on a train that ran semi-express (it wasn't rush hour, I swear!), so I got off at a new stop and walked in the wrong direction in very hot sun for a while before turning back. I hung out some more with Carolina before the taxi came to take me away to the airport. I slept for about 5 minutes on the first 9.5-hour flight, paid for an hour of sleep in a private room at the Atlanta airport, and was wiped out on the final leg back home.

I think I took monster naps for at least 3 days after I returned and finally got back to normal only to meet daylight savings alterations. And in less than 2 days, I drive east for another trip!