Valdivia

Firstly, sorry for the delay in posting blogs, we’ve had some real tech issues with our laptop which are now sorted. The entry below was actually written weeks ago but we’ve only just been able to post.

Gutted, as we were only about a week behind at the time and now we have a lot of catching up to do, so they should come thick and fast now!

Day 1 – Small World

Time to move on again and after a very small and basic breakfast we headed to the bus terminal to catch a coach that would take 6 ½ hours to get to our next destination of Valdivia.

The coach journey was pleasant and enjoyable, giving us a chance to catch up with some blogging and do a bit of trip research as we watched the countryside go by.  It’s quite surprising how, as the coaches are pretty good in Chile, a 3 hour journey now feels like nothing and sometimes we even look forward to getting on a coach and having to do nothing but watch the scenery.

 

Arriving in Valdivia (Pronounced Baldibia) mid-afternoon, we dragged our bags down the road and found our hostel, which although basic (No En-Suite or towels for that matter) we had a spacious bright room.

 

Once we had done our usual thing of securing our bags to an immoveable object (with our trusty cable lock) we then headed out to explore the city.  After walking around for a bit we found the main square and promptly found a café/bar to sit down outside and have a couple of drinks.

 

Whilst sitting there we debated on whether or not to contact the Chilean people (this being their home town) who we had met some 11 months ago in Nepal and were also responsible for giving us an itinerary for Chile that we were currently following.

Deciding that we would drop them a quick facebook message when we got back to the hostel, we were then gobsmacked when Javiera just walked up to us and gave me a hug.  Javiera being one of the three people we had met in Nepal and she was just walking back from her work just around the corner. Quite amazing as this town has a population of 160,000!

Javiera was in a bit of a rush to catch a bus, we think, so after a quick hello and arranging to contact us to meet up the following day, she was gone.

Finishing our drinks we then headed back towards our hostel as we had seen a bar across the road that served food.  We had a couple of drinks and what Shell would only describe as beige food, we haven’t quite mastered the language or the menu’s yet.  All we do know now is if you order something with o’pobre in the title it means you get some beige lumps of meat, covered in onions and then a mountain of sickly looking chips over the top of it!

Day 2 – New/Old Friends

Today we got up fairly late as Shell was not feeling that great (must have been the beige food).  It most probably didn’t help that the shared shower either spat fire at you or tried to freeze you with a small tweek of the tap, no happy medium could be found.  Or the fact that she went flying on a slippery rug on the way back to our room, which attracted the attention of all the permanent residents on our floor and on looking at the scene might have concluded that Shell had thrown her electric tooth brush at the resident cat!!

We had been in contact with our Chilean friends Francisco and Javiera and we had agreed to meet up with Francisco in the square when we had bumped into his sister (Javiera).  So we went there and had a quick drink whilst we waited for him.

When Francisco turned up and after we had said our hello’s we took advantage of the fact we now had a good translator and asked him if he could help us sort out our blocked bank card problem.  We visited a couple of bank machines in the area but none seemed to have the pin service we needed, it would appear that we would have to go to a specific bank.

Giving up on the bank card, Francisco asked us if we would like to go and see a project he and his father were currently working on which was building a tourist hostel.  We walked to the site where the building was coming to shape and Francisco told us all about the plans and timescales for the work.

Arriving at the building site the construction was well underway and the first ten units were due to be completed and open around Nov/Dec just in time for the main tourist season.  Francisco showed us around the units which were almost complete apart from the painting and furnishings, they looked reallly good and spacious (one & two bed apartments with living room/en-suite bathroom and a small balcony each) it was a shame that they had not been open when we got there.  We both hope it’s a real success for him as he’s got future plans for bigger and better things.

After we had visited his project we then jumped in Francisco’s car and went to pick up Javiera as they wanted to show us around their city.  We drove across to one of the islands that is linked to the main city by bridges and we were taken to the local university where they had a botanical garden attached to it where the students could relax and study in nice surroundings.

 

We walked around the gardens for a bit and then were taken to a place where we could see the now infamous Valdivia bridge.  It was a draw bridge that had been constructed incorrectly that meant that one half of the bridge was permanently raised and could not be shut (which is not ideal for a bridge crossing!). Apparently, it would cost the government too much money to fix or demolish so at the moment they are just leaving that way for the time being.  So it’s not just London that has problems building bridges (Wobbly Millenium Bridge springs to mind!).

 

From here we were driven to a museum where we could get access to the river tow-path, where we were quite surprised to find sea-lion’s catching some rays on a nearby floating pontoon.  Apparently one turned up a while ago found the fish market across the other side of the riverbank (where they get scraps thrown to them) and decided to tell his mates about the easy pickings.  Now there is a pretty big colony in town, all lounging on the riverbank waiting for feeding time!!

 

At this point Francisco and Javiera had to return home so they dropped us back at the square and arranged to meet us again later in the evening to go out for a beer.

It was early evening by now so we headed off to a lively street that was suggested by Francisco where we went for a couple of drinks outside a bar and then found a restaurant where we managed to order some more beige food, pork chops and chips/salad, which was mildly more interesting than the o’pobre option!

We then met up back with Francisco and Javiera around 9.30 and were pleased to see that Francisco’s girlfriend, Stephanie (the 3^rd person we had met in Nepal) was with them.  We were taken to a lively bar slightly out of town where Francisco ordered us up various types of local craft beers for us to sample, which we were more than happy to.

During the next couple of hours we had a few drinks while I took the opportunity to try and practice some Spanish with them, whilst Shelley perfected her Spanish pronunciations of Valdivia, Catederal and Cafeteria, much to the amusement of our new/old friends.

A bit later on we were driven back to our hostel where we said our goodbyes and arranged to meet up the next day as they wanted to give us a tour of the coast and beaches, then headed off to bed for the night.

Day 3 – Padre & Roadtrip

Getting up late once more and having another horrible shower we then went to meet with Francisco as arranged.  He had kindly offered to take us to the bank specified where we would finally be able to unblock our bank card.

Francisco accompanied now by his dog, Meila (a small Jack Russel type thing that he rescued from the street) drove us for quite some distance into the outskirts of town in search of the bank we needed.  As we drove along it appeared that it seemed unlikely that the bank was where it was said to be.  After driving up and down the road for a bit with no sign of it, Francisco said we would pop into a nearby police station to find out where the bank was, we did and the police confirmed they had never heard of it!!

Thanking Francisco for his help he then dropped us back at the square as he had some work to do today, but we arranged to meet him later in the afternoon when he phoned us.

As we had a bit of time to kill we thought we would head down to the local fish market to have a look around and see if we could see any sea-lions.  Getting to the market we quickly spotted about 4 or 5 of them sat right outside the back of the stalls, on a small pontoon, pretty much with their knives and forks at the ready.

 

Leaving the market and walking along the river tow-path a bit further we came to another pontoon just off the riverbank. Here there were about 8 female and 4 male sea-lions all squabbling among themselves with the odd one being forced off the pontoon.  Also there were local small stray dogs in close attendance trying to attack the sea-lions as they tried to clamber from the water onto the pontoon, which was slightly concerning but we thought more so for the dogs as these were big sea-lions with impressive sets of fangs on them.

 

We could have sat there and just watched this soap opera for hours but unfortunately our tech problems raised their heads again as Shell’s mobile phone died (it now appears to have a one hour battery life), which meant that Francisco had no way of getting in touch with us.  We had no option but to return to the hostel to re-charge, but on the way home we checked out a couple of phone shops to see if we could get a replacement battery, without any luck (phone may be too old!).

Thankfully back at the hostel we managed to get back in touch with Francisco and we arranged to meet him a bit later in the town square.  When he arrived it was his dad that was driving and we were told that he was coming out for the trip, although he did not speak English. We were also pleased to find that everyone else, Javiera (who had taken the afternoon off work), Stephanie and Miela were coming along for the ride too.

Driving for some time we then started to hit some dirt roads that led towards the coast.  Along the way we stopped off at a local wood-carvers to have a look at his workshop and his goods, which were nice but we have no space for, also very much out of our budget!!  After about 10 minutes of trying to get the dog back in the car (she’s not exactly well trained yet) we headed off.

About ½ hour later we found ourselves in a lovely bay with rock arches and lots of sheep and cattle all roaming free around the place. The sheep were all nice and tranquil until Meila decided that she was a sheep dog, off the leash she proceeded to chase them all over the headland, scattering them everywhere, totally deaf to her owners efforts to try and stop her.

 

After a while Meila was finally caught and put firmly on a leash and then we had a little wander around the bay getting some nice photos.  Francisco’s dad checked at a nearby house he knew to see if there were any empanada’s for sale, there wasn’t so we headed off in the car again.

 

We followed a nice coastal road stopping at a couple of bays, including Mission Beach which was a very pretty little beach cove with small waves breaking across it, where a few more pics were taken.  It was great that we were taken on this trip as these were places we would not have found or visited by ourselves.

From Mission Beach the family had an idea to take us to a nearby fishing village where there was a food market where you could get some really nice food to eat.  Unfortunately, by the time we got there the market was closed (or not open that day?) so we just stopped to get a few photo’s before heading off again.

It was now translated to us that their dad said we could not visit Valdivia without visiting the one area that is famous for its craft beer.  We were taken to a large ale house that brewed a lot of the local craft beer, inside we were shown to a table and a large tower of one of the locals beers was ordered and then poured out by their dad.

Some sharing plates of food were ordered with another tower of beer, a different one this time.  When the food turned up unfortunately for Shelley about 75% of it contained or was wearing cheese, however she made up for this by eating, the beef chunks, chips and sausage pieces.

We sat there eating, drinking for some time, although their dad was a bit frustrated as apparently, he is very chatty and wanted to speak with us, but we did our best to try and speak to him the best we could.  But he kept himself busy topping up everyone’s glasses (especially Shell’s!!) and seemed very amused by my bad attempts at Spanish. Last evening I inadvertently made some comment about my penis instead of mushroom’s and now I had just declared to everyone that I had left Jersey for London because of my boyfriend, much to everyone’s amusement.  Francisco to me ‘Don’t worry my father is very broad minded!!’

 

It had been a lovely afternoon and Shell and I said to Francisco that we would like to pay for his Dad’s share of the bill as way as a thank you.  However his dad insisted to pay for the whole bill stating that his children’s friends were his friends!!  Also it was a shame that we were leaving the next morning as the dad wanted to invite us to his house the following night for a bar-be-que.  We have said it before but we must remember this openness and hospitality when we get home.  I also mentioned to Francisco that when we get back to London I will send his dad some English bitter’s to try as he collects beer from around the world as a hobby.

When we had finished eating and drinking we were driven and dropped off outside our hostel where we said our final farewells and thanks you’s to Francisco and his family.

We then went across the road and had a couple of cheeky beers before returning to the hostel for the night.