In our volcano overflight enthusiasm we skipped our stay in Valdivia. Not the prettiest town in Chile, but a fun fish market, lovely garden hotel and a good base for some interesting day trips.
Here's a pic of our hotel room and the garden - Los Renovales:
Our Room is the left hand side walk out to the garden (above).
We did a day trip to Niebla - where the river flows into the sea. It's about 24 km away by car or boat ride. Niebla is part of an elaborate system of 17 forts build by the Spaniards to defend the region. The British and Chilean nationalists took all 17 forts in one day by landing their troops and attacking from behind rather than from the sea, where all the guns were pointed. Maginot line thinking appears to be a constant human blind spot! As we arrived at the fort a nice young man (who was dressed in an officer's uniform) offered to take us on a tour of the fort (for tips only) - we agreed and asked him about his virtually accent-less Engish - turns out he's from Winnipeg! His dad moved to Winnipeg from Chile, where Emilio was born. He's in Valdivia at chef school and plans to move to Vancouver when he's finished!
The fort shown is one of the few surviving after an earthquake in the 60s - the earthquake was 9.5 on the richter scale and the tsunami it created hit Easter Island, Hawaii and Japan! - it wiped out whole sections of Valdivia and the surrounding coast.
The area is now a major resort hub with many cottages, campgrounds and restaurants. It's off season so the restaurants are hungry for customers and all have people beckoning you to their restaurant - we went to the restaurant Emilio recommended and the food was very good.
The above looks like Heinken is paying us for product placement!
And, of course, more crab chupe! But La Luna's in Punta Arenas is still the best!
The countryside is still pristine with little development. Gorgeous lakes, no boats, no crowds...just the occasional cottage. We loved to drive for hours until we found a comfy restaurant - the food was seldom exceptional, but always good.
Valdivia has a wonderful fish and vegetable market, complete with the obligatory bachelor bull seals scrounging for scraps. We do love seals!
Some of the following photos taken at the market have a pink tone due to the translucent red awning overhead. There's lovely produce (many things we didn't recognize) and fish so fresh it's still moving - following are a lot of food photos!
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