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Published: April 16th 2007
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Finally arrived in Valdivia, Chile after a gruelling 9 hour bus journey - a 6 hour ride with 1 hour spent waiting for services to clear the narrow road following an accident and another 2 hours at the Chilean border! And worse was still to come....
As not only was it nearly midnight and pouring with rain but we realised that we had forgotten to obtain some Chilean currency. So, after plan B, C, D and E, all of which failed, a very kind guy, realising we were gringo´s in trouble, gave us a map of the town and some directions, so we were able to work out how to get into the town centre and find a bank.
On the road, to say we stood out like a couple of beacons at sea is an understatement, but fortunatley we didn´t attract the attention of any unsavoury characters and finally found a bank with an ATM. We then made a quick dash for a taxi and to the best sounding hostel in the guide book - a large house that would not look out of place in an Alfred Hitchcock thriller - dark and uninviting surrounded by locked
wrought iron gates. It didn´t get any better once inside but it was late so we pulled out the sleeping bags once again and were soon asleep.
The next day we were woken bright and early by other occupants within the hostel stomping past our room (which was right next to the reception area). We weren´t too fussed as we wanted to leave asap, so after a quick breakfast we grabbed our packs, hailed a taxi and headed off to see this other place... a nice looking hostel we noticed in an advert on the map given to us by the chap at the station the previous night.
Hostel Rio de Luna - absolutely lovely, with extremely welcoming owners and very recently refurbished rooms, it´s by far the best place we´ve stayed in so far. And it´s location was ideal - facing the Rio Valdivia, a very tranquil sight to wake up to and just 10 minutes walk from the town centre.
After checking into the new hostel we headed into the town and the tourist info office, passing the local fish market, a tourist attraction in itself, as sealions congregate along the banks of the river
waiting/hoping for fish scraps. By the size of them it appears they get their fair share!!
After booking a boat trip for the afternoon we visited the Historical and Anthropological museums on Isla Teja, which surprisingly showed that the town has German roots having been influenced heavily by German immigrants in its early days. From there we took a short walk to see some of the remains of the Spanish colonial rule, unfortunately, in this part of town only small sections of the fortresses they built to protect the shores from invaders remain, namely the towers.
Anyway, slightly unimpressed we headed back for our boat trip.
We boarded a smallish boat and after a short wait headed off with our Chilean guide, fortunately, he spoke a little English so at least on this occasion we would have some idea of what we were looking at!
On route to a town named Punucapa we navigated the four rivers that surround Isla Teja, Rio Valdivia, Calle Calle, Cau Cau and Cruces. Along the way we saw the remains of buildings destroyed during the massive earthquake that hit the town in May 1960 - a whopping 9.7 on the
Richter scale - altering the course of the Rio Calle Calle and causing a tsunami that hit the shores of Japan with 30 metre waves.
We saw loads of different trees and grasses - very boring - and then arrived at Punucapa were we got off for a mini tour of the small village. Here we were shown the Chilean National flower named Copihue. Legend says that it gets its colour from the tears of blood that were shed by the Mapuche women, who climbed the trees to watch their men in battle.
The village is known locally for producing different varieties of apple and after being shown several apple orchards and given some of the local Cider to sample (looked and tasted a bit like Scrumpy from Somerset!) we finished off with tea and cake (huge slices, again) before boarding the boat back to Valdivia.
The next day the weather was not in our favour yet again, with grey skies and frequent bouts of rain, so we were forced to shorten our planned excursion. We had wanted to take a local bus to a town called Neibla then cross the river to visit a town called
Corral, which has a much larger Spanish fortress. However, after arriving in Niebla we saw the fishing boat which was to ferry us across the now turbulent waters and decided that it would not be such a good idea!
Instead we stayed in Niebla, a small town with not much going for it other than the remains of another one of the fortresses, although there wasn´t really much to see except a small museum and the old cannons aimed out to sea. So, we stayed here for a while then caught the bus back into town and our last night in Valdivia.
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