Dream Trip 2009

Great Travel Moment

I took this photograph in the beautiful port town of Valparaiso, which is the bohemian capital for Chile's artists, writers, and poets, including the world-renowned Pablo Neruda. Though the city has seen more glorious days, its colorful clapboard homes and run-down Victorian mansions still possess that antiquated Renaissance spirit. The creative energy could be seen and felt everywhere with street art on practically every wall, step, and curb -- it was contagious. I climbed the steep hills of the city, taking pictures of the rich visual stimuli that bombarded my senses. Here, everything is washed over in a delicate patina of time and history, each peeling layer of paint revealing yet another story of what once was and still stands. The city beckoned the artist in me, an aspiration I had long entertained but never fully pursued. The ink started flowing from my pen that night.