Normalky I like to visit cemeteries, not as a morbid thing but to check surnames and dates, ages, sometimes to reflect or remember those who have passed before us. They're interesting places.
On January 1st, we visited the original cemetery of Valpo, in a state of disrepair and decay that indicates they don't really care once you are gone. The irony is the gate is locked, there is a security guard and some German shepherd watchdogs. But the guard will let you in if you ask, must be the loneliest job in Chile, watching over the dead in an abandoned graveyard, a relic of its former glory, no one comes to visit. Save for a few better known local names, monuments are cracked, broken, left to disintegrate.
The irony is that there are three cemeteries, the adjacent one is the one for Los Disidentos (the unholy Protestants) which is in slightly better condition, mainly made up of English, German, Dutch etc., departed.
There is a huge iron wrought fence along with electrical wire between them to keep the heathens and agnostics out, as if the Protestants will rise from their tombs to march on the Catholics. Nothing like history preserved in a graveyard, all the while the city is rotting away around you (especially on New Year's Day when the aftermath of decadence is evident in the streets and passerelles or pasejos).
You can see from the photos what we're talking about. I hesitated to take some shots as it is just so sad to think that loved ones are buried in this place that should be such a serene and pleasant spot to sit and visit and is the total opposite.
I turned around and went back to get the photo of a small decorated Christmas tree someone had recently placed at a grave and shed a few tears as we left the place.
I don't know why it's so sad...it just is. It still is.
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