Twenty four hours in Valdivia

You know a town has a bit of a tourist retention problem when upon checking into an overpriced hostel you're offered a hefty tome outlining all the 'exciting' things to do around town. Valdivia was exactly such a place.

Punta Arenas had had it's enthusiastic tour guide who rattled off museum after museum to a newly arrived backpacker who had made the mistake of asking what there was to do around town. Granted it was me who thought it was a mistake as I tried to keep my opinions to myself and focus on putting my thoughts down in digital format.

What most of the towns of Argentina and Chile had shown us was that no matter how glowingly the guidebook describes a town, chances are we'd be disappointed. You see a 'European' feel just isn't the same as a real European town.

And yet here we were strolling around Valdivia which allegedly “just may be Chile's most attractive and enjoyable city.”

Set one at the confluence of three rivers and surrounded by wetlands the city is actually very pretty. On top of the river cruise there's forts at strategic points towards the ocean which together are the largest Spanish fortification in South America. So in our 24 hour stay we probably didn't give the town enough of a chance. But then again, that's not why we came.

Every day the city is host to the Feria Fluvial, the fish, meat and produce markets set on the bank of the river. And each day fat sea lions come out of the river and grunt begging for food. Competing with them are a stack of birds who try to grab any of the scraps the vendors throw towards them.

Arriving in the afternoon, we thought we'd have to wait until the following morning to catch the action. But as we wandered along the bank of the river we found a group of sea lions resting in the sun, probably after a long day of 'fishing'. 

Is that not the cutest face you've seen in a while?

 Of course, this is what 'fishing' looks like!