Chile’s Valparaiso port, an open air graffiti and mural art gallery

Chilean artists Sammy Espinosa (right) and his wife Cynthia Aguilera finish a street mural in Valparaiso, Chile. Photos: AFP

Hundreds of graffiti artists have turned the Chilean port of Valparaiso into a gigantic open-air art gallery, with colourful pictures of surreal human faces, marine animals or even huge owls.

Elias Street is typical of Valparaiso with its narrow sidewalks winding up and down Cerro Alegre hill, itself a tourist attraction.