Valdivia

Before finally going to Valdivia, we had to go back to Santiago and fly from there - of course not without bureaucratic hurdles. During the flight, we sat on the 'right' side and could see the Andes mountain range with its snow-covered volcanoes, such as Villarica, where we used to spend holidays with the children, in a tent by Lake Calafquen. Back then, we also experienced a volcanic eruption of Villarica and drove there at night for over 2 hours. Martin also once went on a mountain tour to Villarica. We noticed, however, that there is very little snow on the peaks in general, probably also due to climate change.

Many memories came back, our first years of marriage, the first community... The airport of Valdivia is located in the middle of nowhere, so we were happy when we could pick up our rental car, which also had its challenges.

We were very conscious of the drive through the beautiful nature, into Valdivia, over the bridge to Isla Teja. At a pre-arranged meeting point, we met Ursula, a close friend and substitute grandmother for our children back then. We immediately felt very familiar with each other again. Because of Corona, her daughters did not want us to have contact. So we only got the key to her beach house half an hour away. Behind Niebla (which means fog and actually proved itself for 3 days), there is the small village of Loncoyen, which welcomed us with sunshine. That was our home for a week, and it was a great feeling!