Oceano Pacifico

The town of Valdivia was founded in 1552 on the site of an indigenous Mapuche village by the first royal governor of Chile, the conquistador Pedro de Valdivia and named after himself. Set at the confluence where two rivers, the Cruces and the Calle Calle join to become the Rio Valdivia, it was to be a protected harbor and resupply port for ships traveling between Lima and Straits of Magellan. By the 1570's, Valdivia had a population of around 2000 (plus 4000 Mapuche) but the town was abandoned after the Mapuche uprising in 1599, along with all the other Spanish settlements in Chile south of Conceptión.
Forty years later, the Dutch recognized the strategic importance of the location from their colonies on the other side of the Pacific and tried to establish a fort here. But they were also forced to leave by Mapuche hostility. Embarassed, the Spanish, in 1645, sent the largest fleet ever seen in the Pacific, 12 galleons, to reoccupy the city. Spain established three forts at the mouth of the estuary at Corral, Niebla and on the island of Mancera, where they successfully defended Spanish interests until they were brilliantly captured by the British in 1820.

Determined to put our own feet into the waters of the Pacific, we set out west on the road to Niebla.

Bobbi Jo and Hanna soak their Tevas in the Pacific Ocean.

Henry, Joslyn, Richard and Susan

It's a long way to the next landfall.

Map of the opening from the Pacific into the harbor of Valdivia.

The guns of Niebla aim south across the entry to the channel. Together with the guns from the forts at Corral and the island of Mancera, they completely control access to the harbor.

From 1851, the Chilean government encouraged settlement here and large numbers of German immigrants arrived. They established industries in Valdivia and farms in the hinterland.

Here Joslyn and Henry are holding the beers!

The German influence remains to this day represented in the German language schools, the culture and at the brewery, Cervecera Kunstmann.