We do manage to scrape ourselves out of bed the next day and make our way down for a 10am breakfast. It's quite generous, different colours of bread, ham and cheese, a flask of hot water, even a yoghurt and some melon each! The big plasma screen on the wall plays Disney's Robin Hood in Spanish, but it turns out Sarah has never even seen it in English.
It's a busy morning for us. We need to check our bank accounts, check our running totals and get our flights changed. We need an extra three weeks or so to give us enough time in Perú and Bolivia, the two cheapest countries on our tour, plus to fit in the glamorous football of Uruguay v Northern Ireland in Montevideo on 30th May. Ahem. I throw in a phone call home too, just to check up on my folks and make sure they haven't killed each other. I place an order for a mince steak tart for my tea on my arrival with my Ma. I'm going to need it.
Valdivia is a funny shaped town. We walk one way and end up in the other. Typical. After wandering for a while to find somewhere to get some lunch, we eventually settle on a Mexican place we had spotted the day before.
It's nearly berry season here in Chile. No picking these with my Dad this year!
Typical unexciting street in Valdivia
We passed this on the initial drive in on the bus, and Sarah and I were reminded of Antrim for some God-unknown reason.
Likewise, this reminded us of Antrim Grammar
The local 'tech'
A big Jesus on the wall.
Petrol prices for those interested. Currently at $920 to the £1
Here's the fun little Mexican place where Sarah got a load of chimichangas and I got pollo azteca.
I'm missing a filthy moustache, I know it
Aztec Chicken. Pretty good.
Lets see a little more of the city of Valdivia...
We eventually made it to the costanera. It was gloriously hot by this point, as we pondered along, discussing plans for when we return to Norn Iron and what sort of jobs we would have, whether we would go travelling again, how to make a lot of money in a short space of time. All that sort of thing. We didn't come to many specific answers, though the word 'Manolo' was thrown around quite a bit.
We sat and watched kids in pedaloes and kayaks making their way up and down the Rio Valdivia, every so often a speedboat would head out to help someone back in. The occasional sea lion would rear a head out of the water to see what the craic was like, before slipping back under the waves.
We got bored of having a serious conversation and decided to carry on down the riverside. Good thing we did too. We came across a big fish market that Sarah had forgotten to tell me about, and at the side we finally got our fill of sea lions (and vultures).
We stood for ages watching this guy, who has both the best and worse job ever. He is the chap who sweeps down the short quay alongside the fish market, going through the fishy debris and throwing our edible parts to the sea lions, whilst binning the rest. It is gross and disgusting, but the video we took shows him virtually sweeping fish in the mouth of a waiting cow.
This is a black cormorant, it didn't stand much of a chance of gleaning much from these scraps.
Vulture!
That kept us occupied for a good while. We wanted to check out the rest of the town before we departed the next day for Pucón.
This big grey tower features a Foucault's Pendulum.
Around the corner in a small gallery we found this quirky exhibition of famous works of art reinterpreted into tapestries by local artists.
We stopped off for one more beer in a bar / nightclub that had just opened its doors, but the beer was awful, Sarah had a poor feeling in her tummy afterwards, so we headed back towards the hostel. The single road out of town was chock-a-block at 6pm, horns-a-honking and police officers looking somewhat disinterested. We called into our local Unimarc supermarket for supplies. I was distracted by this stand of Waitrose products which I cannot even buy on the island right beside the island where they are made.
Another evening spent updating blogs and emailing folk, Valdivia was fine but we weren't exactly sure what all the fuss was about this month, especially seeing as we couldn't find many of the tourists who were supposed to be taking over every bed for a hundred miles! All except for the one chap who tried to sell us a parasol and wanted to know whether we came from the north or south of Ireland. Unusual.
PS - we have learned some curiosities about the English and Spanish languages during our time here. For example, in Spanish you have a parasol and a paragua, or umbrella. So you have a 'for sun' or a 'for water'. Which is exactly right, all things considered.
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