Frutillar-Valdivia

It was slightly cold in the night because the beautiful slow combustion stove was in the hall. As in Puerto Montt, it also served for cooking. The old lady who served breakfast looked Germanic. There were many Germanic-sounding names for factories and companies.

I went to sit by the lake but there was a constant wind. A dog beckoned me to play with it by rolling in the grass. There were a bunch of Pentecostalists at the jetty. Frutillar hosts a music festival (page in Spanish) every summer and the logo is a downward minim with a stave line through it, suggesting the f of Frutillar. Very clever. It is probably very pleasant, but I was 3 months too early. There wasn't much to do so I decided to press on to Valdivia. I caught a colectivo to the highway at Frutillar Alto to spare myself an uphill walk.

The land by the highway looked like cattle country. Valdivia didn't look attractive at entry. First car spare part shops, then turning into shoe stores and so forth. Lots of shopping in the centre. And too much traffic. A foretaste of Santiago? There seemed to be a large number of young people. I think it was due to the Universidad Austral, one of Chile's seven original universities. The students had also injected culture to the city. I did not attract undue attention. Maybe they were used to seeing foreign faces. The plaza was under restoration, but the lights worked and came on in the evening. There was a lot of building activity: restorations, demolitions, and construction. People seemed to be getting ahead in the free market, wheeling and dealing.

I had a lunch of a club sandwich at Dino's. Nothing special. Later I had cappuccino and cake at a patisserie. Also nothing special. In the evening I bought some of those cheap bananas. The residencial's dueña  looked Germanic too. No hot water in the shower in the evening, hopefully in the morning.