Don't stop moving!

5 days after arriving, after some delays and uncertainty, I'm finally leaving Valdivia. It's been a spectacular start to what's kind of an epic trip.

Beginning with the journey down in the pickup with the capoeira boys from Conce it's been nothing but fun. Lots of capoeira, a good amount of climbing, and ample banter - seems to be the mark of good Chilean company. We arrived at the capoeira school in Valdivia for the opening meeting and the exams for those who were going for the next level.
Next step - typical Valdivian cuisine: crudo. Basically raw meat on toast. Not really my cup of tea but I'm not one to snub a local delicassy. Turns out the meat itself doesn't actually have a lot of flavour but rather provides the fatty base to absorb the flavours of the other veggie sides. 

Valdivia is a curious mix of German and Chilean culture, with Bavarian architecture and a thriving beer culture thrown into the mix. Only natural that we should all go for a drink after. The capoeira groups are all from the same school, following the same mestre - a Chilean who lived in Brazil for the majority of his youth and launched the school. So most of the more advanced guys had trained together at some point before meaning that it was kind of a big reunion for some.

In the evening we headed to Niebla, across two rivers and an island, where we would be staying over the weekend; a beautiful house on the coast just a couple of minutes from the beach. Mattresses and blankets for all meant I got a much needed sleep (a sort of party the night before I left had prevented that the previous night and the 90° angle of the backseata in the pickup made sleeping impossible). The rest of the boys got up to start the party at 5.30 to go pick up our last member who had travelled down by bus overnight. Motivated. I made the executive decision to stay in bed.

Saturday was the main event - mestre Paris and mestre Dadinho from Brazil plus the teachers from Valdivia and Concepcion all gave a class, then the final roda and the presentation of the cordas (ropes) to those who took exams. It was an impressive display of skill and endurance, leaving me feeling motivated and excited to learn more. It was also interesting to see a variety of styles and techniques, but it seems to me that the keys is to get good flow. It doesn't matter if you can do a backflip if you can't integrate it into the game fluidly. I've got a long way to go, but now I have all the more reason to get involved.

Back at the house, even with a 5 minute limit on showers it took us a fair while to get going again and eventually get to the BBQ that the leaders of the Valdivia group were hosting. There I got talking to a Spanish girl who also happened to climb, and provisional plans were quickly made to head out on Monday. We didn't hang about long until we were heading out again to a club, where a very vulgar but entertaining, female comedian was playing. Once I got the gist of the show, I was happy to be able to laugh in the right places and get involved, although I think the guys were almost embarrassed that I was laughing at some points given the nature of the jokes! (Though probably relieved that I didn't ask them to explain).
After that brief respite, we proceeded to dance like crazy for the rest of the night, drawing on reserves of energy that are only accessible after a few piscolas (pisco with coke)!
We were all famished when we finally left the club and stopped for sopaipillas (a kind of fried doughy thing - typical Chilean street food) on the way back to crash with the guys from Valdivia.

The morning was slow. Unsurprisingly. We eventually made it back to Niebla to shower and change, then to a large indoor food market full of stalls selling traditional food, mariscos and with a band playing cueca - Chile's national dance. Then down to the beach to practice capoeira moves in the sand, where fallling hurts less. It was a quiet evening as some of our group had left to get buses back to Conce for Monday, so I brought out dixit to fill the time, making for a nice chilled way to pass the evening. They all loved the concept so that was a winner!

Monday morning was equally as slow. Chilling in the house, in the garden, leisurely practicing some moves and climbing the trees in the back garden. We went back to the market for lunch, then headed to meet the others to go and explore a new bouldering zone on the beach with some local climbers and some new recruits. I was thrilled to get up on the rocks, finally able to perform at something I'm reasonably good at after watching the guys excelling at capoeira. It was nice to be able to offer advice. I spent the whole afternoon with a silly smile on my face and couldn't help feeling a little proud when all the superfit guys around me were complaining about sore fingers and forearms. Moving along the beach it was back to capoeira on the sand, meeting some others who had gone ahead. Climbing had kind of finished me... After a few handstands a resorted to napping and learning to play berimbau (a capoeira instrument made of bamboo, wire and a gourd for a resonator).
All knackered, we were heading back to Valdivia (via the market for food- which failed miserably to satisfy my craving for something fresh). The remaining two conce guys were leaving in the morning I concluded that I would stay another night in order to meet up with Rodrigo and co as they headed south the following day.

After the goodbyes and some internet fiddlings, I went to see some of the centre of Valdivia. Despite having been there nearly 4 days, I'd only seen snippets of the centre. The riverbanks were full of sea lions, despite it being freshwater. They're huge, smelly, and bad tempered. But regardless interesting to watch, so I did that for a while, then found a shady spot in the grass and had a nap. The Spanish girl had invited me to go try out the new climbing wall in the afternoon, which turned out to be owned by another Spaniard - those guys are mad for their climbing! The boulder was well equipped and well laid out, and the owner was super friendly and helpful, offering me a tea on arrival since I'd got there early. The bouldering was interesting, and I was thrilled to find I could do some ceiling  routes that I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to complete just a few months ago. There was also a wall of sport climbs, which I tried one of before we had to leave to get to the capoeira classes on time. The teachers can't be late! I took advantage of the kids class to go get a snack, then joined in with the adults. Fortunately it was a fairly relaxed class, in light of the weekend, but nevertheless I learned a lot from it regarding handstand control and trying to link together movements.
We finished the evening with a meal in one of Valdivia's landmark bars (which I've unfortunately forgotten the name of) in pleasant company. A great end to a great day.

Sealions in Valdivia

I had the best sleep yet last night, and slept nearly 10 hours! Very much needed. I hung about in the house for the morning, trying to work out how to meet up with Rodrigo, then spent the afternoon wandering Valdivia and managed to connect all the places I'd been to. I crossed onto the island with the intention of visiting the botanical garden, but then remembered that the back of the student union gets used as a climbing wall, so I headed round there. I wasn't disappointed. I met some nice locals, climbed a bit, shared some chocolate almonds and chatted in Spanish to a foreign looking girl who had appeared before we discovered that we were both English. She was also doing British council and was from a small village in Yorkshire, making for a fair amount of incredulity and an instant friendship. Or it might have done if I hadn't then got a call saying that Rodrigo and co were en route south and would be passing in 40 minutes. Cue a lot of confusion and the end result was that I should get a bus and meet them in Puerto Varas. I headed to the terminal and managed to get a seat for 40 minutes later. To kill the time I went outside to play in the grass, practicing handstands, headstands, cartwheeling over some stray dogs who had come to play, and climbing around in a tree, safe to say I attracted some intrigued looks and seemed to have a small audience of others who were sitting around waiting.

Having expended some energy, it was time to leave, with new friends and new motivation. Next stop: Puerto Varas.