Well, let’s finish off our “tour” around southern Chile with a final day around Panguipulli. We wake up, get ready, and leave our things behind at our campsite. We need to figure out how to actually leave Panguipulli. We got off of the bus at the main square, but we haven’t really noticed any busses around there since. Luckily, while getting off we had asked the bus driver where the bus station was, and he pointed us in the right direction. Also, you can always ask the tourist information booth which is in the main square. Since Panguipulli is so small, we’re quickly at the bus station.
But… just before going in we obviously take a bit of time to go and look at the public art around the station, obviously. And around the station there is a lot of “artwork” with social messages.
So, in the first one the mural says “Let’s build a new dignified, feminist, ecological, and plurinational Chile between all of us.” The second is “Recognizing domestic work, child raising is also work”. The third is a mural of the bird known as the “seven colors” (mascot of the Panamerican Games). The fourth says “Between all of us, no more violence towards women”. As you can see (and have seen from previous murals around Chile), many murals in Chile have social/political roots. It really helps to tell the story of a country, at least we think so. The removal or non-removal of these same murals tell their own story as well.
But, we have to keep going so that we can actually sort out our day. We go into the bus terminal and start hunting how to actually return to Villarrica. We’re looking around, but many of these busses go to more “pre-determined” locations. Villarrica is considered a destination that is served often enough that it does not need a “pre-determined” schedule, mainly because the bus goes through Lican Ray on its way to Villarrica. So, we’re fine, we have time.
And what does it mean when we have time? Well, it means we can explore! Our travel friend decides to double check the busses while we take off and look around the neighbourhood. So he takes a seat here, but we only pose for the picture and then we’re off!
And you saw the artwork before the bus station, now prepare for it after the bus station, haha. Just beyond the terminal there is a little alleyway that goes up into the hills of Panguipulli, and we follow it up a little way because of course we would follow the “public art”.
Above, a mural depicting a Mapuche woman with a kultrung. Although we have pointed out some things from this mural before, it is worth pointing them out again. You can see traditional clothing on the Mapuche woman, you can see the kultrung with the traditional astrological symbolism on it, and you can see the phrase “marichiweu” which means “we will win 10 times.” We believe that this mural (and maybe others?) were painted as part of the ‘Third Meeting PanguiGraff “Ñuke Mapu”‘ which means “Mother Earth.”
Above the mural says “rebuilding a good life in the Wallmapu”. As we have said before, Wallmapu is the ancestral territory of the Mapuche, which Panguipulli is a part of.
We took a picture of the mural above because we thought that it really summed up what many people (including the Mapuche) have been fighting against in southern Chile for many, many years. We could be wrong as there isn’t a legend, but, this mural made us think of the Mapuche people who have been here since time immemorial and can be found on the left of the mural. Right to the right of them, is a man in a military outfit with a gun. We took this in two ways, either the military dictatorship or the continued military (and police) presence in the Wallmapu to protect the next part of the mural. At the end you can see the “exploitation” of the Wallmapu. You can see someone taking the water for themselves, poisoning the water and killing the fish, and chopping down the forests. This one mural sums up so many of the problems of the indigenous people in Chile, but it can unfortunately be representative for indigenous people anywhere in the world.
Along with the previous mural, this one says “free waters.” They mean the waterways, and as we have previously mentioned they are likely mainly referring to the hydroelectric and fish farms in the region.
And at the veeeeeery far back of the alleyway we see these two murals. These murals are obviously quite old, and that’s because they date back to the days of the “Estallido Social” (the “Social Explosion”). On the left we have “I Approve Dignity – to recover the social and territorial rights.” “Apruebo,” meaning “I approve,” is referring to the vote that was held in Chile on a new constitution drafted by a constitutional assembly in 2022. This referendum was one of the outcomes from the 2019 Estallido Social. Although there was much international press coverage to see if the new progressive constitution would pass or not, it was ultimately voted down and the process is to continue.
On the right we have a mural that says “Panguipulli woke up – trust in the people”. The “woke up” became a slogan from the 2019 Estallido Social where people would say that “Chile woke up” in order to take to the streets in protest against the government. Didn’t we tell you that murals in Chile are often social/political?
But, after taking a few more pictures and a few videos, we continue walking a bit further. We’re walking slightly up hill because we want to show you something… but then we turn around and are greeted by quite the view of Panguipulli. This alone makes the walk worth it.
You can see the lake down below with the beautiful hills surrounding it all around. It seems far, but it wouldn’t take us thaaaat long to get there. We continue a few more steps and turn around to look at this.
Well, nothing to it, haha. But the reason we wanted to walk to this was just to get some steps before our bus ride and to show you Salvador Allende Street. We’ve already told you a bit about him, but he was the President of Chile between 1970 and 1973. He was the candidate for the Popular Unity coalition and followed “The Chilean Way to Socialism” with many reforms aimed to help the people of Chile. However, he was overthrown in a coup d’état on the 11th of September 1973 by the CIA-backed Chilean military. So yes, we walked all the way up here just to tell you that little bit of information with a street as our background, haha.
We turn around and start heading back towards the bus terminal. Luckily we did because we don’t think we would have noticed this beautiful sight otherwise. Can you see it?
“Just” over my shoulder you may be able to see Villarrica Volcano. Imagine how huge it is that we can clearly see it from over 40 kilometres away. Super cool! And it reminds you of just how much these volcanoes have shaped the south of Chile. But, we continue walking towards the bus terminal. This brings us back to the murals we showed you at the start of our day, but this time we continue walking right along this beautiful street.
This also allows us to talk about another part of Chile’s history. We’ve been walking along this street because it is the street of the bus terminal… but also because we were looking for the above street sign. We’re walking along Gabriela Mistral Avenue. So, why were we walking along this street? For you, dear reader.
So, maybe you can remember all the way back to Santiago when we showed you a big building dedicated to Gabriela Mistral, but here we are again. She is a very important Chilean who was a poet, educator, and diplomat. But she is even more special because she was the first Latin American author to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1945. She was the fifth woman to ever receive a Nobel Prize. Funnily enough… it wasn’t until 1951 that she was awarded with the National Literature Prize in Chile.
As we are close to the bus terminal, we swing by and grab our travel friend for them to join us on the rest of our walk. He’s figured out our bus, and we have a bit of time left to keep exploring. And, of course, we do. In no time we’re back at the main square. Like we told you last night, we were able to confirm that the memorial we saw last night was indeed for Francisco Martínez, the street performer killed in Panguipulli which led to protests in the context of the Estallido Social.
We continue walking through the streets of Panguipulli and eventually arrive back at the shores of Lake Panguipulli. It seems like all streets lead towards the lakes that the towns are built on in southern Chile! (And we love it).
We don’t have much time to spend here as time is ticking, so we just take a small walk along the waterfront, enjoy the views, and then head back up through town. Again, Panguipulli is not big, so it doesn’t take us much time to actually get to the campsite. Here we slowly get our things, take down the tent, and get ready to go. Not looking forward to carrying all of our stuff again, but what can we do? It is what it is. We grab our things and start the walk back towards the bus terminal.
You’ve seen the centre of Panguipulli enough for my travel partner not to stop and take more pictures as we’re all carrying heavy bags, hehe. We eventually make it back to the bus terminal and sit down to rest.
Just kidding! My travel partner refuses and just walks around in circles around the bus terminal. He never gets too far in case he is called to quickly return to the bus terminal to catch our bus out of Panguipulli. We only walk a few blocks, but it’s enough to stretch his legs, get some steps, and see a couple things we had not seen before.
Like this old looking church and this “traffic jam” beside the main square. We didn’t even know that Panguipulli could get traffic jams! Haha. But, like we said, we could only see so much and walk so far without making everyone nervous that we may miss our bus. My travel partner eventually gives in and returns to the bus terminal. It was actually perfectly timed as the bus was just pulling in as we made it back! Who knows how long we would have had to wait for the next one! We get our stuff, and take this picture of the map showing you all of the places and things you can discover in this beautiful region of Chile.
But then it is onto the bus for us! According to the map the ride should be about an hour with our stop in Lican Ray. Not too bad. It will likely be a bit longer than that since we have to stop and start a lot as people get on and off along the way, but since we are at the start of the journey we are able to secure a seat for the whole ride.
Our bags are a bit annoying because of their size, but no one complains. Like we told you last time, we had to sit in the aisle because of our bags, so we didn’t get the window seat. But that’s better than some people that had to go standing for different lengths of the trip! Oof. We would not want to do that for very long.
But, we eventually make it back to Villarrica after an uneventful ride. We are picked up and then we are welcomed back to Villarrica with a traditional Chilean snack, watermelon with “toasted flour.” There isn’t much more to say than the name, so you can see what it is, haha.
It is pretty tasty, of course. But we can’t just stay put and eat all day! It’s 7 pm, but, we still have plenty of daylight left in the day! So, off we go to explore a bit more of Villarrica! First stop, the entrance to Villarrica and two monuments welcoming you to Villarrica.
But we obviously need to do a bit more than that. So… we walk back along the highway to this entrance. A little spooky, no? Haha.
Well, you can tell us if it was worth it or not with the view at the end.
It’s a little look off spot where you get a beautiful view of the Toltén RIver, Lake Villarrica, and Villarrica Volcano. Absolutely stunning. The look off is another thing… locals told us that the municipality hasn’t really been looking after it lately… so it’s not as nice as it has been in the past. But, it’s still nice! It just means that you may see some discarded beer bottles or other garbage while up here.
But, with that, our travel day is done! We go get some food and head to bed to see what tomorrow will bring! Good night from Villarrica!