Seal at Valdivia
After a 8 hour bus trip to Valdivia, we instantly felt the warmer climate as we stepped-off the bus - it was a bit nippy at Puerta Varas and Chiloe!
Valdivia is a pleasant town, although much of the classic colonial architecture was destroyed in the 1960 earthquake (we have been to so many places near the Andes that have at some point been almost entirely levelled in the last centure), but still retains some attractive buildings and some of the replacements have not been like of the eyesores that we have seen in other parts of Chile.
One of the real attractions that we have found here has been the seals that live (in total freedom) just a few feet away from the colourful "Mercado Fluvia" (fish and fruit market). There is floating platform upon which they are usually sprawled-out upon and fed by many of the fish merchants of the market with fish-heads or unsold stock They also catch fish in the river and judging by their immense sizes, they don´t do too badly! We spent quite a lot of time (like many other people stood on the waterfront) watching them lark about, eating, wrestling eachother off the platform and doing quite a lot of sleeping - although they didn´t seem to stay still for very long!
