Valdivia

This post is long overdue!  Last weekend a group of us volunteers got together in Valdivia, a city a bit south of Angol.  It's at the intersection of three large rivers, near the coast, so there's a lot going on there and it's very maritime-y.  It is apparently known for being always rainy, but we got lucky and had beautiful weather all weekend!  Which gave us a chance to explore and see how beautiful the city and the surrounding areas are.  Valdivia is the capital of the Lakes Region, and sure enough there are lakes/bodies of water every which way once you get outside the city.  I wish I had visited it earlier, I loved it!  The only downside I can report is that when I say the city name in my head, it's always to the tune of the "Activia" jingle...

But pictures!  Most of the things to do in the city are on or very near the riverfront, and our hostel was just a few blocks away so we mostly just mosey-d around towards whatever caught our eye.  Here's the lovely plaza and its gazebo, a giant map of Chile and a Foucault pendulum on the riverwalk, and the market.

Most of the map is further up-this is taken from me standing at the South Pole.
Did you know Chile claims territory on Antartica?  

it's a pendulum that shows the rotation of the earth!

yum?

this was a permanent 3-level craft market

We also visited a brewery outside of the city, for Kunstmann beer. You would think that I would have learned to like beer by now, but still no.  Instead I appreciated the creepy German mannequins...

(I am only the photographer here)

what is going on here?? it's the Sound of Music gone horribly wrong

I would like to meet the person who set these mannequin poses. those are definitely gang signs

And then my friend and I went on a submarine! It's docked permanently in Valdivia as a museum open to the public- you can tour it for only $4! It was pret-ty cool, we got to see the whole extent of the submarine and learned a lot.  This sub, the O'Brien, was built in the 70s and used by the Chilean navy, but never saw battle because Chile has not gone to war since then.  Our tour of 13 people all had to wear life-vests (in case we fell off while walking along the top, which I did not do) and hard hats (in case we hit our head on the various pipes and gauges and doorways, which I did do many times). Our tour guide was hilarious, and spoke English pretty well so he repeated everything for us in between his Spanish spiels. When the navy was using the sub, it had a crew of 75 men, for up to 40 days at a time! And to prevent their location from being picked up by enemy sonar (theoretically, in training) they had to be quiet all the time.  I can't imagine spending 40 days underwater with 74 other people in a confined space.  Our tour guide pointed out the lights everywhere that are white during daytime and red at night--that's the only way the crew knows days are passing.  I almost had a panic attack just thinking about it.  But back to the tour--the tour was cool! Look. 

cramped

the awesome tour guide man

oh and I got to look through the periscope!!! super cool

the engine room. everything is electric b/c burning fuel uses up their limited oxygen supply,

communication station

Saturday night we all went out to a karaoke bar to help a friend celebrate his last weekend in Chile (chao, Zach!) and Sunday we took a bus out to Niebla, a little fishing town only about 20 minutes outside of Valdivia. We were going to take a ferry across the river to an island where there's an old military fort, but we had to catch our bus back to Angol so we just strolled along the docks instead. 

Valdivia served us well! I hope I get a chance to go back again : )