We arrived in Valdivia by bus after approximately three hours from Pucon. There was a bus that went straight to Niebla, the location of our 3rd Couchsurfing host called Felipe. On the way out of the city centre and out towards the countryside, the scenery just got more and more beautiful. Valdivia is located next to a long river estuary that leads out to sea and Niebla is further out to sea along that estuary, so we mostly followed the estuary until we got to Niebla which gave us some stunning views. We got off the bus and met Felipe who was very charismatic and welcoming. He lives in a beautiful house together with two other guys and two other girls, one cat and two kittens. It was quite an old house built entirely from wood with an amazing garden filled with flowers and a nice patio looking out over the estuary.
After chilling out on the patio while soaking up the last of the sun’s rays and listening to Felipe’s philosophical views, we went together with Felipe’s North American housemate called Matt to the nearby beach for a stroll. Niebla is located close to the mouth of the estuary so views of both the estuary and the open sea were possible. We went back for something to eat, so Felipe and Matt prepared a great vegetarian pasta with broccoli for us. We popped the wine and had a fabulous meal together with Filipe’s other housemate called Anna who arrived while we were eating. After food we enjoyed a game of cards with stakes! Victoria won the game in the end and we agreed that whoever won would receive a massage from each and every participant that lost. Shame as in the end she never got a single massage as everyone forgot :(
In the morning we had breakfast on the patio with beautiful blue skies and sunshine! An exceptional start to the day I say! We had pancakes with various lovely toppings including fruits, yogurts, jams and your standard sugar and lemon juice, yum yum :) I wondered around the garden for a while to absorb the wonderful beauty. It was quite overgrown, but it had a wild kind of touch to it. It even had a huge stone table made from a huge, single piece of slate. It really reminded me of the table that Aslan was sacrificed on in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe; A great garden ornament for those garden lovers. The garden was covered in long grass, flowers, the odd garden ornament and two young kittens playing. More pictures can be found in the gallery.
The plan for today was to take a chilled out walk along the coastline and explore the local area. We got down to the nearest beach and followed the rocky coastline around the headland. At times we had to remove our shoes and jump into the water at knee height to progress further. While crossing the tricky parts and having quick access to the camera, I decided to put the camera in one of my hiking shoes that I was carrying in my hand. Not the best decision it seems, as when I jumped off one rock to the next, the camera left the shoe and after taking air it crash landed in the super salty water for a few seconds before recovering it :( A bad move indeed, as this was our new two month old camera.
Well this was the final picture of the late Canon PowerShot S100; May she rest in peace. Gutted is the feeling, but she served her time well and produced some great hi-res images. She took 2945 beautiful pictures during her second occupation with us that bubbles down to about 0.10 EUR per picture. Not important really as the pictures are worthless! However, it’s an interesting statistic. We did a bit of research on the web and visited some nearby shopping malls to find a replacement. As we expected, the prices were ridiculous. Not worth buying a camera here and amazon in the US won’t even ship to Chile, if not the whole of South America. So if you ever come to South America, bring some goods to sell! You will make a profit and the customer gets it cheaper. Everyone is happy :) Good news is we have a backup camera! A Canon Ixus 60! Awesome, as the next few days in Reserva Costera Valdiviana will have picture opportunities that are not to be missed.
