The Chile I was looking for!

Arrived in Valdivia yesterday arvo and went for a walk around town. First thing I noticed was there were a lot of smiling faces, this is what I imagined Chile to be. The weather had changed and it was a cold 11*. This is the oldest southern city in the world. In 1960 Valdivia was affected by the biggest earthquake in the worlds' history (9.5) and the 80ft Tsunami that followed wiped out the region (left 2 million homeless) and was even felt in Australia. Last night, I had my first pisco sour of the trip and a delicious chicken dish with some creamed spinach! But today was incredible. I headed off to find a couple of city highlights via the fish markets. However, on the way there, I nearly tripped over a couple of huge sea lions lying on the footpath. It seems they are everywhere and it’s hard to avoid their poop! That is until the team of council workers arrive to shoo them off and clean the paths, which they do every morning. This is the world's only freshwater colony of sea lions! (and they are nearly all male!)

It wasn't long before I found - the world’s most southerly example of a Foucault Pendulum (housed in a lighthouse), which visually demonstrates that the Earth spins about its axis. The swing of the pendulum stays on a steady plane relative to space and the Earth is the one that's doing the spinning. Interestingly, there is another in Paris and it rotates clockwise, however this one advances counter clockwise with each pass. Not far away from this fascinating object was a 300ft long Oberon class submarine which has been moored in the fresh water since being decommissioned in 2001 from the Chilean Navy.

But it was time to head back to the fish markets which was one of the most interesting places I have seen. There were hundreds of black vultures intent on getting a feed, and some very clever sea lions, who somehow managed to get through the fence and were feeding on the scraps of fish thrown their way. Some of these animals weigh over 1ton! The quality of sea food on sale was amazing and I think I have seen the world's biggest mussels!

I eventually headed back to my hotel via even more sea lions. But my phone started going off with a Tsunami alert - luckily I know enough Spanish to see that it was just a drill!