Valparaíso's funicular elevators — the ascensores — are one of the most distinctive urban transport systems in the world. Built from the 1880s onward to connect the flat commercial district with the hillside neighbourhoods above, they are short, steep, and wonderfully anachronistic. At their peak there were 30 of them; today fewer than half a dozen operate regularly.
The most reliable is the Ascensor Reina Victoria, which climbs Cerro Alegre. The Ascensor El Peral connects Plaza de Justicia with Paseo Yugoslavo on Cerro Alegre — one of the most atmospheric climbs in the city. The Ascensor Artillería drops to the Naval Museum and the waterfront of Playa Ancha. Fares are minimal. The experience of riding up in a wooden cabin that looks to be on the edge of mechanical failure, while the bay opens below you, is one that stays with you. Even the broken ones are worth looking at: their wooden machine rooms are objects of melancholy beauty.