Day 17 – 25 Jan – Valparaíso

We went on the artists studio tour in Valparaíso today.  (Note that my high school Spanish from 1963 remembered how to pronounce it with the accent in there right place: Val Para Iso.) I found a Facebook post from someone who had taken the same tour the day before and used it to make sure I had the names correct. Here is that post:

“SPECIAL DAY TO  SHARE IN VALPARAISO….private art visits to home/ studios of Gonzalo Ilabaca( his house & studio was EXACTLY where you wanted an artist to live!)husband & wife artists, Herna Freiburg & Jorge Martinez Garcia – & Alvaro Miranda, who is also an inventor- all totally fascinating. Ended with Pisco Sours overlooking the city …still conducting my taste test …stay tuned….#mylife #bettertogether #welivetoexplore #welivetotravel#artgallery #dare #curiosity”

Back to my blog on the excursion. Anyway, the first house/studio was that of Gonzalo Ilabaca.  It was a 1916 house with several rooms with his paintings.  He described what he was doing and where he was when he painted it.  He talked in Spanish and the guide translated for us.  Here is is with his paintings.

After about 45 minutes we headed to the studio of Herna Freiburg, who did etchings.  She showed us the process of engraving the metal and eventually making the prints  They make 50 prints of a given metal negative.

\The third studio was that of Alvaro Miranda, who taught art at the university, painted and made mechanical devices, using his 3D Laser printer.  

After that, we got back in the minibus and went to a funicular (aka incline for folks from Pittsburgh) and went to a restaurant for a snack before heading back to the ship

We then returned to the ship to pack up our bags. We had a last dinner at the restaurant on the ship and then went back to the room, finished the packing, left our bags outside the room, and went to bed around 10 PM.