Sunday By The Sea

Sunday morning dawned cool and dry in Los Molinos up the coast forty minutes from Valdivia. My first imperative after around nights sleep to the sounds of crashing waves was to a) brush my teeth or b) walk the impatient bloody dog. A) won out but it was close. 

It looked like a stray dog but she was just mooching around on the waterfront. I saw these dogs go to their gates to be let in when they felt like it. Rusty tolerated her on the beach for a while. His eye is healing nicely with me putting drops on it and shoving pills down his unwilling throat. Our neighbors in the completely unstealthy travel trailer were still sleeping. 

We had Los Molinos to ourselves!  Freedom! Except for the two local dogs annoying Rusty by being nice to him.  

Oh and there was rain in the offing, it turned out lots of slashing rain and wind. But first we walked. 

Sunday morning trash collection. I was impressed. 

Chilean campers stayed here in the turnout (“No Parking”) but we didn’t see them. 

This guy was waiting for someone to come open his gate: 

I didn’t get the doghouses; they were empty of dog but had cardboard on the floor with blankets on top, and where I used to feel bad for dogs outside in what seems cold temperatures to me, I’ve  seen Rusty spending lots of time, by his choice, curled up outside so I guess I need to be less critical. 

Personally I don’t see the point of having a dog if you don’t share your life with him but Chileans don’t all view it that way. “He’s from the United States?” they ask and I reply that he speaks English too. The kids freak when I ask them if they speak English and they shake their heads and I say: “He does.” They stare at him while their parents smile. Oh and please don’t steal the flowers. 

And then we drove out of town. I wanted to go back up the coast and see what might be what. iOverlander has lots of wild camping on the beach but that didn’t look appealing as the rain slashed down. We intended to drive the red line up the coast. Los Molinos is the blue dot.

In the end we got as far as Curiñanco when we decided to turn around. The drive was interesting and the coastline is wild. It was not what we expected so the drive was worthwhile.

If this isn’t technically Patagonia it feels like what I expected Patagonia to feel like and I fear we will have to get used to rain drops interfering with my photos through the windshield. 

Apparently this area is part of an indigenous freedom movement which likes to decorate bus stops with slogans demanding freedom for the Mapuche. 

I wondered if that was how the coast remained so pristine with no high rises or big hotels. And still no trash. 

I took a screen shot of some southern cities’ weather forecasts in Chile and Argentina. Summer is coming …

We are learning to enjoy this and are decidedly glad we have a van for a home. A tent or a pop top would be rough for tropical wussies like us. 

The blue sky is a product of the windshield sun shade. The sun was not available around Valdivia yesterday. 

We ended up camping two nights across the bay on the waterfront. 

We stopped for brunch in the parking lot of a ferry service that takes cars across the river mouth to the south. 

I couldn’t see much to visit on the south side of the river and the ferry was doing a pretty imitation of a bucking bronco in midstream. No boat trip necessary. 

Wind and waves. 

I thought this looked rather like the Columbia River. 

We planned a trip to a maritime museum but it is closed Sunday and Monday. Then we drove to the Museum of Anthropology which was supposed to be open. It actually looked abandoned. The sign said “Kiss and Go” which I liked. We paused to consider our next move in the big city of 150,000 people. Valdivia was not coming through for us. 

Layne wanted to take a river boat tour but that impulse died with the rain and wind. It was the city waterfront market that saved the day. Rusty and I stayed aboard and watched people huddling from the downpour. 

Layne gave me these pictures of her shopping for smoked salmon cheese and some other stuff. 

Back up to the coast to park for an afternoon of reading, writing my blog and movie watching. 

Life on the road in what may well be Patagonia.