Think there are people on those stairs?

Decorating Valparaiso’s twisty hillside roads and main streets is more graffiti than I have ever seen in my life. I wrote previously about graffiti in Buenos Aires, but Valparaiso rewrites the book on this artform. There’s a bit of ugly scribble - almost none of it as overtly political as in Argentina - and a seemingly endless amount of impressive graffiti art. Several-story tall people, brightly colored animals and made-up creatures, shaded stencilwork, geometric designs…

These aren’t small pieces dashed off under the cover of darkness. They’re intricate, labored-over art pieces done in a graffiti style. This artwork is such a part of the city that there’s an outdoor graffiti ‘museum,’ though most of the pieces highlighted along this windy walking trail are older (15 or 19 years take their toll quickly on paint here) fading and less impressive than much of the newer artwork.