Back in Chile

I crossed back into Chile today, and was treated to spectacular views the entire way. It´s amazing to have had lunch way up above treeline in the Andes with snow all around, and now to be sitting in a little coastal fishing town for dinner. The lushness of this part of Chile is incredible, I´ve never seen anywhere so green. The farms look beautiful and idyllic, and there´s all sorts of crazy birds around, which I don´t usually notice. This town, Valdivia, was crucial to the conquest of the country, and I´m going to go check out the old spanish forts by the river in the morning. It´s worth noting poor Pedro de Valdivia met his end here rather badly. The Spanish nobleman who founded Santiago, he was eventually captured by the Mapuche indians near here. The Mapuche were unimpressed with the Spanish lust for gold and their rape and pillaging of Chile to find it, so they killed Pedro by making him drink molten gold. The Mapuche were among the fiercest tribes in the Americas, there were areas near here still unsafe for Europeans in the mid 19th century. Considering the Spanish showed up in the 1540´s, that´s a long time to fight them off.
Anyhow, it´s mighty quiet as the students are gone for summer break from what turns out to be a university town, so I´ll head north either tomorrow night or Sunday morning.
ps I talked to some Israelis on the bus headed to the USA after this. I asked them what they looked forward to eating there. Their answer: s´mores.