Penny and Bruce Go Walkabout: Valdivia

We returned to Santiago, and luckily for us, the apartment that we had before was available for the couple of days that we needed to get things in order for the next phase of the journey. We had made these arrangements back in January.

The washing machine went into full use, and we washed several loads of laundry. We cleaned our Antarctica gear, and packaged it all into a 25 kg FedEx flat rate box which we sent to Penny’s sister. She had very kindly agreed to return the rented items to the supplier, and to store the other things for our return in April. It cost US $325 to ship that back. A high price, but reliable and we needed to get those rental items returned.

The night bus to Valdivia was comfortable. We got the more expensive berths that actually make into beds. As before in Chile, we used Tur-Bus. We arrived in Valdivia and found the ApartHotel Casablanca where we had reserved a two-bedroom suite. They bring breakfast items to the room because they have no breakfast nook from which to serve it.

We also immediately bought our bus tickets to Bariloche for the following week. The connections are through Osorno. The direct service connections that show in the ticket agent computers arrive in Bariloche after the car rental offices close. So we had to book separate tickets to Osorno leaving very early in the morning in order to connect to a Tas-Choapa service between Osorno and Bariloche. We knew this would be necessary, because all of these schedules are on line and Penny had checked it all out.

Valdivia is a pleasant town that is known for its riverfront and for water sports on the river. It has been known for more than a century as a mecca for German immigrants to Chile, and so it is also famous for its breweries. Valdivia is also a gateway to the Chilean lake country. Except for the riverfront, Valdivia seems a pretty typical Chilean town. So…we liked it very much.

All kinds of traffic can be seen. The dog belongs to the horse cart driver.

Carabineros allowing citizens to mount one of their horses.

Valdivia street scene.

Riverfront market place.

Erika Lannefeld came down from Gorbea to visit us for a couple of days, and we had a nice time with her. We took a drive to Puerto Varas and Frutillar on one day. These are resort towns on Lake Llanqihue. On the next day, we shopped a bit in Valdivia and then drove along the coast toward Niebla. On Saturday, we took Erika back to Gorbea and visited again with Karina, Andreas, and Andrecito. They had been kind enough to store a box of summer clothes for us. We had needed to free up some suitcase space for the Antarctica clothes, but needed them back as we seek warm weather everywhere we go.