Valdivia, Chile

To paraphrase an old saying, “Into every trip some rain must fall.” Today we got that, both figuratively and literally. Today we arrived in Valdivia, known as the “Venice of Chile” because of the myriad of rivers that meet there. While traditionally settled by the Mapuche people, the area was settled extensively by both the Spanish and Germans. In fact, as we anchored, we could see some of the old forts through the driving rain. We had a choice — we could either tour the city (in the rain) or we could take our chances and travel out to the Coastal Mountain Range and hike along the Oncol Trail which would take us up the highest hill in the area. Theoretically, we would get panoramic views of not only the coastline but also the nearby volcanoes of Villerica and Osorno. The theory was good; the reality something else. First, the bus (which was too large for the road (trail)) we were on got stuck multiple times, requiring all the passengers to get off in the pouring rain, By the time we got to the trailhead, it became pretty clear that we didn’t have enough time to reach the summit and, even if we could have, we would have seen pretty much nothing. The guides did their best to keep morale up, but people were having none of it. Sadly, we got back on the bus (and off multiple times to get the bus back on the road) and made our way back to the port. Ah well, you can’t win them all!

Arriving in Valdivia and looking out across some of the Spanish forts.

This is what we had hoped to see…

Instead, we slogged single file through the mud until it was determined that we had run out of time.

The highlight was this big tree that had some historical story behind it, but at that point most people had checked out.

The real highlight was finding this giant “escargot on the hoof.”

One of the biggest lowlights was having to get off the bus multiple times to lever the bus back onto the road.