In transit

Farewell to Puerto Varas and on to Valdivia. For once, the bus timetable was not conspiring against me, and I had an easy morning getting breakfast and finishing off my packing before getting on a bus around 11am to head a few hours further up Chile to the port town of Valdivia. This has the reputation both of being one of the more pleasant places to live in Chile, and of being one of the most German places one is likely to find anywhere outside Europe, having been one of the base towns for German immigration to Chile in the 19th Century. My travel there was eased by reading "The Oxford Murders", a fascinating book by an Argentine author that got made into a film a couple of years back, and when I finished that relatively brief tome, by starting on a large volume that I can only describe as chick-lit - yes, I will read all kinds of stuff on the road, and I was surprised to find myself actually really enjoying a book that I wouldn-t have gone near with a bargepole back home. On arrival at Valdivia, it was only a brief 10/minute trudge across town to get to my hostel, after which I put a load of laundry in and headed off to get some food, ending up having a bargain meal of fish from down near the markets by the river.

Having filled myself up thus, I made a trip to the supermarket to get ingredients to cook again (my economy drive continuing apace!), this time trying something a wee bit different and deciding to make chicken curry. Although I couldn't get most of the individual spices, I managed to get by with curry powder, though I was slightly surprised that, having bought what I believed to be a chicken breast from the meat counter, it was actually both breasts still attached to the bones of the rib-cage, which was something I hadn't planned on. Still, it only added a little bit to my prep time, and I had several more Chilean micro-brewed beers to help pass the time, as well as chatting with Deep and Sarah (a British couple) and an American lass called Catherine. Cue a quiet night on the table on the patio.