by Adela Kelemen
Recently, my family and I took a trip down south. We went to many places and did many things. We learned about culture of the native people, the lives off the German settlers and much more. We visited new places almost every day. All in all, it was an amazing adventure!
We started of by visiting our friends, Ben, Ella, Charlie and Stephanie in Puerto Montt. They were staying on a farm owned by an American man. We had the “great outdoors” to play in and that is what we did. We played games during the day, games during the night, and roasted marshmallows over a fire. It was a lot of fun but we did not have much time there. We headed off to Chiloe for the night. Our original plan was for the four of us to go we whale watching. But, two more spots opened so Ella and Ben came along. We stayed the night at a cabaña (cabin) and got ready for an early wake up in the morning. The next day we drove out to the place that had the boats but when we arrived, our trip was canceled! =( So, we decided to kayak instead. It was not whale watching but we still had a good time. That was our last day with the K-Rads (Ben, Ella, Charlie and Stephanie). After we dropped them of we headed farther south to our next adventure.
That night we got a ferry that took us overnight to Chaiten. From Chaiten, we drove 4 hours to a place called Puyuhuapi. Puyuhuapi is a small town on the shore of a fiord. But we did not stop there. We went about 5 minutes up the coast to a dock. We got out of our car and got on a boat that took us to the Puyuhuapi Lodge. The two days there were our days of luxury. They had fancy dinners, thermal pools, and beautiful views of the fiord. We saw a melting glacier called the “hanging glacier” which was spectacular and got to go kayaking at dawn with sea otters and sea lions. We learned a lot about the culture of the native people living here and it was, all in all, amazing. When our two days of luxury were over, we packed up our stuff and headed out. We drove almost the whole day until finally we settled down in a campsite on the bank of the river Futaleufú. We set up camp and made dinner. We swam in the river and had hot chocolate in front of a fire. We were tired from a long day of traveling so we got into our tents and went to bed. The next morning, we made a friend who took us to see two kittens on the farm area where the camp sight was. The kittens were so ADORABLE!! One was gray and white and the other was a brown tabby cat. We packed up our stuff and got ready to go. We drove down to a place were we could go rafting. I was not old enough to go because their were class 5 rapids but my mom and I got to go zip-lining! It was a lot of fun and I videotaped it with my GoPro. There were great views as we zip-lined so I got some good pictures too. After my brother and dad did rafting and my mom and I did zip-lining, we hopped in the car, again. After a night of camping and a full day of driving and ferries, we got to Puerto Varas.
We arrived in Puerto Varas pretty late and we were all hungry and tired. We had dinner and headed to a little motel in the area. The next day Dylan would have to wake up early to get on a bus because his soccer started up and he could not miss any more practices. When I woke up my brother was already gone and my dad was at breakfast. I walked down stairs and had a delicious breakfast of kuchen, eggs and toast. Petrohue was our next stop. I had not gotten a chance to do rafting so I did it there. We were at a hotel so we got a good night of sleep and the next day was river rafting day!! My dad had already rafted so it was just my mom and me. We drove down to the place were they would pick us up and we got our gear. Then we piled into two vans and we headed to the river. When we got there, we did some practice and then we headed out on the water. It was a little cold but it was fine. And it was nothin like Disney World. We each had a paddle with which we had to generate power. The German woman next to me was not generating much power but the women in front of me was so it was really all about balance. At one part we all got out and did some rapids on our own. We would dive in sideways and then get on our backs. It was a lot of fun and before we knew it, the rafting was over. 🙁 After the rafting, we went back to the hotel. My dad made us a meal and me went down to the lake. It was supposed to be the most beautiful lake in the south of Chile but, personally, I have seen prettier. The next morning we checked out of the hotel. My mom had been “craving” a bicycle ride so we rented bikes. We rode 7 kilometers along Lago Llanquique, out and back. On our way back, we saw an adorable fox! We stopped to take some pictures and then headed on our way. Now it was time to go to Valdivia.
We had 5 days in Valdivia but it was our last stop. We went to our AirBnB house and settled in. We had some friends (my mom’s teacher Judy and her husband Gunther) who we spent most of our time with. We went and had dinner with them that night and some of their family came too. We had a great time and great food too. The next day was the city’s birthday. We went to a little parade and a celebration; then we went on a little tour of the area. But the best part of the day was the animal clinic. Daniel (Gunther’s son and Judy’s stepson) runs a pet hospital. I got to work there for a couple of hours. Their were puppies, cats and dogs there. I helped out with a lot of stuff like feeding and petting;). I also visited a house so an adolescent pug could get a check up. SO CUTE!!!! The power went out that day so we had a little problem with the doorbell. After that we had a small dinner and headed out to a music festival. But it was not so interesting so we headed back. The next day, Judy my mom and I went to visit one of the forts protecting Valdivia. We also visited a coffee place that used to be Gunther’s old house. It was cool to hear the description of the old house compared to the new cafe. After that we headed to this huge market with lots of little restaurant stands. I had two really long skewers of meat and they were so good! Then we went to a beach really close before we left. We had dinner with one of my dad’s old friends Francisca. She was about to adopt a baby. (Now she already adopted it!) We had pretty good food there. We were all a little tired so we went home. The next day me and my dad went to a hidden beach were we saw lots of cool things including shells, rock, crabs, little animals and kelp farmers. We climbed rocks and looked at tide pools. It was a lot of fun. When we got back, I went to the clinic and my parents went to a cafe. The clinic was a lot of fun and this time I got to see baby hamsters! They were so CUTE!!!