Valparaiso, Chile

Valparaiso is a small town on the Pacific Coast, it's famous for it's coloured buildings and steep streets with tiny furnicular railways (called 'ascensores') climbing the hills. It's an important cultral centre, Pablo Neruda had a house here, a busy port and the National Congress of Chile meets here too. It also seems to occupy a special place in Chilean hearts.

Sadly many of the ascensores were damaged in the 2010 earthquake and are under repair, but the historic quarter is a Unesco World Heritage site and is very pretty. This picture is taken from the historic quarter looking across the city where the houses are piled one on top of each other.