Today we will stick around Villarrica. Maybe you have noticed, but we have been sticking to a more “natural-type” of tourism while in southern Chile, and today will be no different. Today we will go and explore the Toltén River.
What a view! In the above picture you can see the bridge we’re on, the bridge for cars, the Toltén River, Lake Villarrica, and finally the Villarrica Volcano off in the distance! Super beautiful. But, you may be asking why we have done such an angle. Surely we could have taken a nicer picture to make sure that we could more clearly show you everything we just described… But… we have our reasons, hehe. The reason is because showing you this bridge is the reason for this picture, the rest are just bonuses. But, why would we be interested in this bridge? Well… this is a two-part story.
Part number one is that the bridge is officially titled Rodrigo de Bastidas Bridge. We say officially because that’s what the internet calls it, but not what the locals call it, they just say “the bridge”. But, who is Rodrigo de Bastidas? He’s a Spanish conquistador who “defended” Villarrica from the Mapuche, who would eventually be killed in 1602. So, we can make a quick comment here of naming a bridge after a Spanish conquistador who would have likely killed many Mapuche in a region that is traditionally Mapuche…
Well, part two is in a similar vein, unfortunately. As we have previously told you, there was a military dictatorship in Chile between 1973 and 1990, and this affected the entire country. The way we see it here in Villarrica is through this bridge. As always, we will try to give you a bit of background to make you see why exactly this bridge is related to the dictatorship, but you may be able to put two and two together already…
So the coup d’état happened on the 11th of September 1973, and on the 12th of September a group of workers from the Panguipulli Timber and Forestry Complex (COFOMAP, in Spanish) tried to raid the police station in Neltume with the aim of getting the police force to rise up and defend the government of Salvador Allende from the coup. However, this did not happen. What these workers found instead was repression from the police. These workers were kidnapped, blindfolded, and their hands and feet were tied before being taken to this bridge in Villarrica. It was on this bridge that these 38 workers were killed and thrown into the River Toltén below. Their bodies were never recovered, and they would be counted within the many “disappeared” in Chile. Along the bridge there are little symbols of their memory, which you can kind of see above, but is more clearly shown below. We didn’t properly plan this, so they may be out of order (if there is a proper order), but here we go anyway.
From left to right: “The Trafún road… he would come here, he would come by truck… by tractor.” “He always traveled like that, with his dress shirt, his hat, and his briefcase.” “He would write… that’s why he would wear glasses. I can see him in things like these.”
From left to right: “All of the memories are here, in this house, on this street.” “He brought the can when we got married. Like the furniture, it’s things that one does not forget.” “He was always making things out of wood. All of one’s pain placed into these memories.”
From left to right: “We took this picture on an outing. I remember them sporty and happy with their friends.” “My son was ten years old when everything happened. He looks like his father… identical.” “They were always about parties, games, and football [soccer]. They played the guitar.”
From left to right: “During the summer I always remember making beach chairs… those old wooden ones.” “I remember him concentrated; his chips, his little box… his chess.” “With this house that he built I educated my four daughters.”
From left to right: “His dentistry things remind me so much of him that I don’t even know how to express it.” “They put up those plaques in his name. It made us happy because they remember him.” “Day after day they crossed the Basachico bridge…”
From left to right: “Dad made the spurs. He bought the windmill and then the thresher… we use them till this day.” “He was reading this book, that night, this page.” “The doll with the ribbon, the polka dots… some notes that my mom found.”
And the last one: “The violin is to simply remember his happiness, the hours dedicated to his study and to the music.”
It is not the usual way that we present things… but this bridge is not a “usual place.” As you have seen throughout our trips, we always try to convey as much information as possible about the place that we are visiting, and each of these plaques helps convey the history of this bridge and of Chile. We have not been able to find out any information (whether at the bridge or online) about the plaques on the bridge, but the way that they are written and what they say make us imagine that they are the memories of some of the surviving members of these men’s families. Probably many, many years after they were “disappeared.” If anyone knows any more about these plaques, as always, we’d love to hear and learn about it.
And, since we’re here and on the subject, just past the bridge is a big monument for the people who were killed and “disappeared” at this location. Sadly, Chile is dotted with such monuments to the memory of the people that the military dictatorship killed between 1973 and 1990. This walk is called the “walk of the wounded memory.”
The sign above asks “where are they?” and there was also a plaque right next to it on the larger memorial that read “in these names there are thousands of names. There is an entire community. There is human dignity.” You can really feel the pain of those that continue to search for the bodies of their loved ones when you visit these types of memorials in Chile. And this is further exemplified with the below mural that says “memory, justice, and reparations.”
The very last thing, just a little bit further, was a large mural. Now, we didn’t actually see a signature on the mural… but it has the same style as others we have seen that are from the Brigada Ramona Parra. This “brigade” was created in 1968 in the memory of Ramona Parra, and was created by the Communist Youth of Chile. As we said, we’re not sure if this exact mural was done by them or not, but it is in the same type of style that many of their murals use.
But, with that, we’re done walking along the “walk of the wounded memory.” Just past the bridge, opposite to the memorial, is a small park that we decide to go and explore. Hopefully it’s nice!
Although it looks like it’s a large park with paved walkways… that quickly runs out, haha. Most of the walk is on a dirt path that gets narrower as you walk in. But, that’s what we’re looking for, of course. The path also starts to lower towards the river, which means that we should be able to get some nice pictures. The water flows relatively quickly, but isn’t too cold. Unlike most rivers in Chile, the Toltén is born from a lake. Online it actually says that it is the only river in Chile to be born in a lake, imagine that!
As you can see, the place is very green as we are absolutely surrounded by trees and dense vegetation. It really is a pretty place. We don’t go too far, but far enough to make it down to the water a few times as we follow the path. On our way back we’re also treated to more picturesque views of the Villarrica Volcano with the bridge we were just on in the foreground.
We’re quickly back to the bridge, and walk just a bit more to see the “entrance” to Villarrica. This is how we entered Villarrica the other day as we arrived by bus from Santiago. You can see that even though this is a small community, there are a lot of cars that are coming to take in the beauty of summer in the south of Chile.
Since this is the entrance to Villarrica and there are these two bridges, you can imagine that there are other things around here as well. We see a second large sign welcoming you to Villarrica and a sign (that was kind of covered up) detailing that you are currently entering the “danger zone” for the Villarrica Volcano and what each level actually means. As we told you, we know that we are currently in the yellow level.
Then we start heading back towards the bridge and take this picture of a little grotto that has been made between the bridge and the park. It looks as though it is quite old. But we saw a few people visiting it while we visited the area.
And then it was time to start to head back. As you can see, the sun is starting to go down. And as the sun goes down, the temperature goes with it. It’s not cold enough yet to not take a picture of the Toltén River coming from Lake Villarrica and the Villarrica Volcano off in the distance though. Not a bad way to enter this small town, huh?
We cross the bridge again, take our last picture, and then walk out of Villarrica towards our accommodations. Not a bad day in Villarrica, but, much less packed than any of our other days in the Middle East, hehe. Not all days have to be go, go, go, haha.
And to finish off our day, as we walk towards our accomodations we eat a few of these black berries. They are absolutely everywhere in this region of Chile. Everywhere! They are a true invasive species that has been able to just spread like wildfire. Although bad (since it is a plague and all), it is rather tasty. Good night from Villarrica!
