Carnival in Valdivia

Saturday 18th October 2014

With a heavy heart we vacate our cottage on Saturday morning and head to the bus terminal, where the super-friendly owner of the café serves us a lovely breakfast. The coach leaves on time but Villarrica disappears from the horizon without Johannes ever seeing the volcano. We will have to come back one day…

A pleasant 3-hour trip takes us to our next destination Valdivia, capital of the Los Ríos region appropriately situated at the confluence of the rivers Cruces, Calle Calle, Valdivia and Cau Cau which also connect the city to the sea. Valdivia is also called the Capital de la Lluvia, the rain, as we hear and notice later. After two fruitless attempts we find a nice hostal near the Costanera along the Río Calle Calle, make ourselves comfortable and then set out on our usual sight-seeing tour.

Among the must-see places are the docks and the sea lions, the mercado municipal, the distinctive houses built by the German settlers, the plaza and the Isla Teja. The helpful señorita in the oficina del turismo also recommends to visit the sea-side resort Niebla on the Pacific coast and we duly obey. On the way back we stop for dinner at the Cervecería Kunstmann, which is quite a tourist trap, to be honest – but visiting a brewery that makes beer according to the German purity law and then advertises it as ‘das gute Bier’ in Chile is almost mandatory for us.

When we return to Valdivia we get off the colectivo in the centre and are in for a nice surprise: the city celebrates its Carnaval de Primavera (spring carnival) and we join the locals lining the costanera and watch the colourful parade. What a great timing that we arrived in Valdivia this weekend!