We had previously mentioned that the bus ride was about seven hours, but it was actually about 12 hours! It wasn't that bad though. Most long-haul bus rides leave in the evening and arrive in the morning, so it's easy to sleep most of the ride. Our bus left to Valdivia at 7:30 pm and arrived just past 7:00 in the morning.
We spent four days and three nights in Valdivia, and it was a great trip! We had plenty of delicious beer at the Kunstmann Brewery, and we got to see lots of sea lions (henceforth referred to as "lobos"). It also rains nonstop in Valdivia. When we turned up at the bus terminal in the morning it was pouring down rain and super windy. It rained hard again the next day and the last day we were there. We did have one warm, sunny day.
LOBOS!!!
There are so many lobos in Valdivia, which is a about 15km from the ocean but on several rivers. The lobos swim upriver and hang out on docks, boat launches, and wherever is comfortable. A lot of them hang out at the fish market, which is right on the water. They have a fence to keep them from coming into the market, but they know that if they hang out there, the fish sellers will throw the the scraps. It's pretty cool!
You can get ridiculously close to the lobos, but there are signs warning that they can be dangerous if they feel threatened. We got kind of close for pictures, but they kind of stink anyways, so we didn't want to get any closer.
La Cerveceria!!!
Perhaps the biggest draw of Valdivia is the Kunstmann Brewery, which produces perhaps the most German-like beer in all of Chile. Delicious!!! We were there for four days, we went to La Cerveceria three of the days. Carly tried nearly all the beers and I fell in love with their new unfiltered lager. One day I ordered a "mass," which is bigger than a large but smaller than a pitcher. It was about a liter of beer...or a liter of deliciousness as I prefer to remember it.
The food was also amazing! We ordered burgers on our first visit, but we didn't know they were so massive! Seriously, the biggest, bestest burgers in all of Chile. We also had kuchen de nuez (almond dessert), beer-flavored ice cream, and crudos. Prepare yourself for disgustingness: crudos are bread with onions, mayo and...raw meat! See the picture. We didn't know the meat was raw. I'm getting sick thinking about it. Yes, we ate it. It didn't really taste like much, but the raw hamburger texture really was disturbing. Apparently, crudos are a Chilean-German specialty in Valdivia.
Aside from the lobos and the beer, we did lots else. We visited several parks, including a massive botanical garden. We went on a four-hour boat tour. On the last day, we went to a small town called Niebla about 15km from Valdivia. We then took a 20-minute boat ride to the other side of the river mouth to a town called Corral. Niebla and Corral (plus several of the small islands in the area) have old forts with cannons that are more than 300 years old. The fort we visited in Corral was pretty awesome.
We stayed at a hostel. It was okay. We met a couple goofy Germans and several French people. Best of all, they had just rescued a little kitten. They named her Bowl. She was pretty whiny, but we liked her.
And to finish this post off, here is a slideshow of some random pictures!
1 comment:
Rodney likes steak tartar, raw hamburger! Yuk! We laughed at the little kitty crying...so cute!
Post a Comment