Valdivia
Day 74, Fri Nov 12 Valdivia
Goodbye to Germanic town Puerto Varas; hola Valdivia, another Germanic town! It is a nice little University town. Checked in to a hostel run by an American lady, who used to be in charge of PR and admissions at the Univ Austral de Chile, one of the prominent niversities in town. It is a very nice hostel and comes with good breakfast. Good breakfasts are hard to come by in hostels in Argentina and Chile and is a cause for cheer. The thing that makes the hostel stand out is that it has a pet duck!
Off to the beach Playa de la Moliñas, to sit in the warm sun. There is a bit of shade from the wind. Then it is off to see Castillo de Niebla, oe of the 3 fords within spitting distance (all the European invaders wanted a piece of Valdivia). A pleasant hour with some lovely views to be had. They have plaques in Spanish and English explaining the various parts of the ruins.
Chinese for dinner! They advertise themselves as having the best Chinese food in Chile. The food was pretty good, but I am not sure about such bold claims. It might welll be that it is not false advertisement and that they are the only one in the country!
I had a bad throat, but the spicy sweet and sour soup cleared up my sinuses and did my throat a world of good. Back to the hostel where we sit around chatting, over a very nice bottle of wine, with the manager and a couple of Chilean girls, who are in town for a conference at the UACh.
Day 75, Sat Nov 13 Valdivia
Breakfast and off to the famed fish market. The sea lions at the fish market is what brought me into town. They were in display, the lazy sods! Some of them were huge. They didnt even have to work for food. A sort of symbiosis between them and the fishermen. The sealions bring in the tourists, the fishermen feed them. The fishermen and the tourists threw scraps of fish their way. They had some competition from the birds, but not much.
Chinese left overs for lunch – yummy! A feeling of restlessness hounds me and I walk around town, working it off. Managed to see a lovely church, a very pleasing tiny plaza and a nice little cafe. The town seemed really quiet for a Saturday afternoon, as people seemed to spend time with family.
Tags: Travel
Damu