We bid farewell to Casa Kryenberg, Lucia and Juan Pablo and the city of Valpariaso and boarded the bus for the 11 hour journey south to Valdivia. The bus system in Chile is amazing to us Norte Americanos. You can catch buses of all shapes and sizes to nearly anywhere very convienently and cheaply. For our long trip south we choose the overnight "super cama" bus with the cush sleeper seats. Miles has become the supreme travel researcher in matters of transportation gaining expertise all of Chile's major bus companies, their fleets and routes. Chile being such a large country and distances between regions so vast that 12-22 hour trips are commonplace. We boarded the bus at 10pm in Santiago and arrived in Valdivia, considered to be in the northernmost portion of Patagonia, around 9am. Valdivia is a beautiful small city that lies at the convergence of three large rivers. Extensive wetlands were created as a result of the 1960 earthquake, largest quake ever recorded on the planet we're told at magnitude 9.5, which resulted in a huge tsunami that hit most of southern Chile. Valdivia is famous for it's fish market. We stayed in a cabana in the nearby small village of Niebla on the outer coast where we visited the ruins of two of the 16 Spanish forts that formed the last stronghold of the Spaniards on the Pacific Coast of the Americas. The Chileans defeated the Spaniards here in one of the final battles for independence. We were able to see a reinactment of the battle for Fuerte Coral which ended with the raising of the Chilean flag. There was also a folk festival taking place in Niebla while we were there where we were able to see music and dancing while the sun set over the beautiful estuary. Our stay in our cabana in Niebla was short as our destination was further south to the island of Chiloe. Yes, it resembled home here in many ways yet oh so different.
