Valdivia

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Hiya !



Following-up from our trip to Chiloe we spent just over a day in Valdivia, a city just few miles from the coast of Chile and a pleasant stopover on our way to Volcano Villarica and the city of Pucon.

The city, by contrast to the still more traditional life of Chiloe, has modernised his city and attracted a young population with a big university; yet it has not lost his soul and the economy there still remains centered around fishing and boating.

One of the most pleasant attraction of Valdivia is his fish market held throughout the day on the riverside, but it's not only to buy fresh fish or wonder around the many vegetables stalls that tourists wonder around... It is for the 10s of sea lions that are kept away from stealing the precious food by metal fences that attract everyone here. From early in the morning they wait for bits of fishes to be dropped by the fishmongers. The swim, they fight, they try yo climb over the fences, it is a true circus comedy. And what more than to come back early evening when they have all stuffed themselves and are fighting for the best sun spot on the platform. Priceless.

During our stay in Valdivia we also made our way via bus and a short boat journey to the city of Coral, to see the remains of what Carmen's ancestors (the Spanish) built centuries ago to protect the city, a fort that would be be regained by the Chilean early 19th Century.

Today, we arrived in Pucon and tomorrow we'll be going back into nature for a couple of days out in Huerquehue national park, no tent to rent here but after speaking with the Ranger's park administration we have been invited to stay up in the refugio for the night tomorrow. Nice gesture.

Besos a todos and speak to you in a few days.

Yoann

ps: Since my last post the video of the camp Itialiano gaz bottle explosion (in Torres del Paine) has been posted on YT so i have added it here; just to summarise, most trekkers are preparing dinner (including us with our beef stroganoff!), one of the other trekker's gaz cooker fell and started to burn out of control, everyone runs away, we call the ranger, the video starts as he arrives to out of the fire with the instiguisher...

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Photos

The fishmongers
Filleting the customer's selection!

Valdivia Market
A lot of bargaining going on

Valdivia fishmonger and the Sea Lion
This one was trying to climb of the fence, those animals are probably 300Kg each.

Niebla crossing to Coral
off to see the Spanish fort

Am ready
All that trekking does not make me bigger but i promise i eat well :)

Coral Spanish fort
Well not much mention of the Spanish around there. It's understandably all about the Chilean re-gaining it.

Bird swimming down
These are the fishes that do swim down to catch their fish, they can stay quite a long time under water it's impressive. This one got a good catch !

Fishermen diving
Local fishermen work in pairs, one in the boat, the other one dives, i could not see any oxygen bottles, it's all done through a tube as far as I could see

Valdivia Sea Lions
Sunbathing at the end of a long day. Fighting for space.

Valdivia Submarine
On the riverside, unfortunately we did not get a chance to do the visit.