Light Enough To Travel: Weeklong trip to the Lakes Region -- Second leg: Valdivia

After a 4-hour busride southwest we arrived in Valdivia, a town founded in the 16th century by Chilean hero Pedro de Valdivia. The town and its outskirts boast stone fortresses from the days when the Spanish fought the native Mapuche people and other forces. The 150,000 inhabitants of Valdivia now make it a small, bustling modern city that is home to some of the most important universities in Chile.

We cruised the fish market (muy autentico!) and gazed at the sea lions swimming near the shore, waiting for some fish scraps from the mercado. In the drizzle we walked around the campus of La Universidad Austral and explored their botanical garden.

On our second day we caught a small bus to Niebla, a place barely noticeable on the map to check out one of the stone fortresses built high above the shore of the river. Interestingly, the 9.6 earthquake in 1960 nearly totally destroyed this fort, which was rebuilt in the 1990's (mainly as a tourist attraction, I would say).

Julia and I tried to leave Valdivia on Thursday, but the buses were unavailable due to the heavy holiday crowds. Our final day in Valdivia was windy and wet, with the high winds tearing off the window on the roof of our hostel. To keep our 55 year-old hostel owner from balancing on a 10-foot ladder, and for my own entertainment, I had the fun of doing some temporary window repair until a permanent replacement could be made later that day. We spent the rest of the night without electricity and played cards with our fellow hostel-guests to pass the time.