Travels with Grammie, part two

Our next stop in the “show Grammie Chile” tour was Valdivia. First stop, the fish market. Berto was very happy to show Grammie the sea lions. The two of them went from one part of the pier to another watching the sea lions. Meanwhile Lisa trolled the stalls for fish that are available in Boston. After snacks of ceviche, grapes and blueberries, we settled on a sierra. For some reason we have not been able to figure out, sierra are rarely found in the Castro market yet they were selling for 1,500 pesos ($3) for a whole 3 foot fish in Valdivia.
On our second day we took advantage of having our own car and headed for the coast and the small towns of Niebla and Corral. A bit of geography is needed here. Valdivia is about 10 miles inland from the Pacific ocean, reached by two navigable rivers. The surrounding area has a wealth of fish, fresh water and good land for growing things. In other words, if you were a country in 1600 to 1800 looking for a safe harbor after rounding Cape Horn, Valdivia was perfect. After losing Valdivia in the mid 1500's to indigenous Mapuches, the Spanish returned in 1597 with soldiers, engineers and priests to take back and hold Valdivia. On the coastal cliffs of the Pacific they built 17 forts and batteries to keep pirates, Dutch, English and a combination of all three, from entering the river to Valdivia.
We started the day at the fort in Niebla, high on a bluff. Lucky for us a tour guide used us to practice his English and gave us a complete tour and history lesson. Berto was wowed that 40o year old cannon could shoot a ball 2 km away. Lisa was awed by the tales of 60 foot high tsunami waves after the 1960 earthquake.


We then took a boat across the bay to another hill town, Corral. (Time for another photo of Berto and Grammie enjoying a boat ride!) The Corral fort was harbor level with replica canons poking out of the walls. No helpful tour guides here. But after shellfish lunch and wine for one group and enough time sitting be well behaved for another group, we did not miss a history lesson.

After two days in Valdivia we returned the rental car to Puerto Varas and took the bus home to Castro. Ahhh, it was nice to have our own wheels and the liberty to go where we want and when we want. But when I settled up the accounts, a compact car + gas cost about $80 a day. Riding the bus would give Grammie a more authentic Chilote experience, after all.

Coming in on the bus what about the only thing that resembled our mid winter entrance to Castro. Mid February Castro was sunny, crowded and so warm we almost called it hot. The annual Folk life festival had visitors from all over Chile.
Castro's sensationlist local paper estimated that 60,000 people visited the fair. For the first time I believed La Estrella de Chiloe. (side note: Read La Estrella and you will think someone got murdered everyday till you go beyond the headline and find out they are rehashing something that happened 2 years ago. http://www.laestrellachiloe.cl/matriz/index.html). We showed marcia the Chiloe fine cuisine of roast lamb, smoked pork and potato cakes.
After lunch, Roberto and Lisa took a horsey ride. OK, Lisa wanted to ride a horse and she persuaded Roberto to go along so she wouldn't look like a stupid adult be led around a fair ground on an old mare. Berto now wants to ride Aunt Annie's horse.

Out in the main mall of the fair, local rural folks were demonstrating Chilote ways of doing things. Basket weaving, split twig caning, separating wheat from the chaff on an old machine that threatened to suck in and chop up stray children. Sheep shearing, pig butchering, wooden boat building. The boat builders actually were from the boat yard in Nercon. While we were chatting with them they said they recognized Roberto and Lisa from when they toured the boat yard. (see Berto's blog in January) Over by the cider press, Mike discovered a fellow Cal grad using his liberal arts degree to the utmost.
Unfortunately the Cal grad's English had gotten a little rusty over the years so we spoke Spanish. Berto suggested that perhaps the man was not really from Papa's college and he had just bought the hat at a used clothing store in town. We all hushed him at the thought that someone would actually send the blue and gold to Goodwill where it might end up in Castro.