We finished our stay at Parque Futangue
and headed out to Valdivia. We spent 2 days in
Valdivia and sadly Kathleen got sick upon our arrival.
The good news, if there is any to be found about an
intestinal illness, is that it passed in one day.
Since we had already signed-up for 2 two nights in Valdivia,
it did not impact schedule. Being sick while on travel
sucks, but happily we were in a hotel that did not require
us to do anything other than just existing and the problem
only lasted one day. After the issue "passed" we
motored on to Lago Villarica and found a
great place right on the lake.
The photos below are what we saw.
Parque
Funague was a private park and very, very nice. The food
was great and the accommodations were first-rate. Above is
the common area for the hotel. I thought that the idea of
using K+E surveying tripods as the base for lamps to be
creative, but was surprised that there were so many of these
available. Back in the day, K+E was the creme-de-la-creme
of surveying equipment and was super-pricey.
We sat
in the bar for drinks and the seating was actually
comfortable. This was quite a switch since in most places,
style triumphs over function when it comes to furniture.
From our seats we had a great view of the mountains.
The
center of the dining room had a very stylish fireplace that used
real wood. The wait staff was attentive and maintained the
fire which kept the room nice and warm.
It was
overcast and starting to drizzle as we left. A look back
at Parque Funangue provides a feel for the
ruggedness of the nearby hills.
We drove
along the north side of Lago Ranco and near
Futrono we got an unobstructed view of the lake.
We
arrived at our hotel in Valdivia and it was still raining.
The Hotel Naguilan was right on the river and the
outside bar area still had a jib crane from "back in the day".
There
was a commercial marina just down the river from the hotel.
While we
were unpacking luggage, a small trawler came past the
room. Note the crew member watching us from the boat.
The
hotel is at the far right in the photo above. There was
another commercial marina on the far side of the hotel which was
noisy during the day due to boats being serviced.
A closer
look at the commercial marina the following day after the
weather cleared. There are a significant number of
trawlers moored there. Sadly, Kathleen got sick from
something that she ate and spent the whole day in the hotel
room.
Once
Kathleen's illness abated, we decided to head out and get a
better look at the surrounding area. Above is the hand
winch which was part of the jib crane on the hotel's dock.
I asked
Chat GPT for the name of the best restaurant in Valdivia and it
told me it was Parria Thor on the other bank of
the river. We asked the hotel to call a taxi and then headed out
through rush hour in downtown Valdivia. When we arrived at
the restaurant, we spotted some rowers making their way along
the river. Dinner was excellent, we had a tomahawk rib eye
steak and creamed spinach. The steak was prepared "a
punto" (medium rare). We had the waiter at the restaurant
call us another cab and we returned back to the hotel for the
night.
The rain
passed over night and the morning dawned clear and warm.
We left the hotel in Valdivia and headed west to the ocean at
Niebla. All the tourists were herded into a parking lot
next to the castillo, so we locked the car and headed out on
foot. Our path took us past the local fire station where
this vintage equipment was on display. This is a Nissan
"Junior" truck. The sirens were the real deal (all 3 of
them) so I am sure that everyone in the town of Niebla heard
them coming.
This
in-service truck is very similar to Thor, our Mercedes
1017A. This truck is an 1120 and a 2wd, but has seating
for a whole squad of firefighters.
We headed to the Castillo de Niebla, also known as the Fort of Niebla, which is a historic Spanish fortification located in the coastal town of Niebla, approximately 15 kilometers from Valdivia, Chile. Constructed in 1671, it was part of a defensive network established by the Spanish during the colonial era to protect the Valdivia region from potential maritime threats. From the entrance area, we got a nice view of the river. Note the tug-barge combo hauling aggregate in the top-left of the photo above.
From the
crest of the ramparts, we could see the grey volcanic sand
beaches of Niebla. The water is cold, so there were not
many beach goers.
From the
crest of the fort, we could see the faro (lighthouse) and across
the river to where a large freighter was unloading cargo.
Looking
to the south, we could see some of the original parts of the
fortifications.
These
canons were made of bronze and therefore not capable of
shooting a projectile very far. Bronze would only
sustain moderate internal pressures before explosively
disintegrating, killing the gun crew. So, the charges of
the canon needed to be carefully controlled.
We
left Niebla and had to travel back through Valdivia on our
path to Lago Villarica. We came to an
overlook that gave us a view of one of the many rivers in the
area. Note in the photo above the regular spacing of the
trees in the center of the photo. This area has been
used for industrial forestry and when trees are replanted
after harvesting, they are planted at regular intervals.
The forested area in the distance, however, is virgin and
therefore irregularly spaced.
We
traveled quite a distance on back roads until we got our first
view of Volcan Villarica. An imposing
sight at 2821 meters in elevation. While still snow
covered today, if this warm weather continues the snow will
not last more than a week or two.
Kathleen
got us a room at the Park Lake Luxury Hotel
right on Lago Villarica. The rooms were very nice, every
room and a lake view from their private balconies.
A view
of the hotel from the lake side.
We
walked down to the lake front to check things out and saw
other private homes on the lake front. It doesn't suck
to be rich.
We
decided that we would drive to the ski area on the side of
Volcan Villarica. As we got closer, from a mirador, we
could see the rapidly melting snow and puffs of steam coming
from the caldera at the top of the peak. The steam
coming from the caldera is clearly visible in the photo
above. We continued on the dirt road until our little
2wd rental car could take no more. A series of deep ruts
ended our upward motion. Since discretion is the better
part of valor, we turned around at the obstacle to de-risk
getting stuck and damaging the vehicle. We headed back
down the mountain into the town of Pucon.
A
short video of the steam eruption is available here: Villarica
Steam (no sound) This will be a .mov file that will be
downloaded to your machine, double-click it to play (likely
located in your downloads folder or show in a top bar of the
browser where double-cliccking on the icon will open the
video.
In
Pucon, we found a place to park and went to Playa Grande for a
look-see. The beach sands were dark volcanic ejecta and
were getting quite hot in the afternoon sun.
The
local vendors had amassed a large amount of rental gear for
the tourists. Everything was for rent: chairs,
umbrellas, towels, bathroom visits, paddle boards, pedal
boats, etc.
Most
of Lago Villarica was surprisingly boat-free. We saw a
few paddleboarders and one ski boat but other than that, the
lake was calm. Mostly, it was families with children
having fun in the water and sand. Kathleen and I were
hungry, so we ate at a beach bar and had an awesome fish
sandwich prepared using fish from the lake. It was very
tasty. When we finished lunch around 4pm we headed back
to the hotel for chores and cocktail hour.
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