Niebla-Valdivia (Chile)

Valdivia is a port city and the capital of Chile's Valdivia Province and the Los Rios region, with urban population around 150,000. Valdivia City is located at the confluence of three rivers (Calle-Calle, Valdivia, Cau-Cau), and approx 15 km (9 mi) to the east of the seaports Niebla and Corral. The city covers land area approx 42 km2 (16 mi2) divided into 19 districts. One of the districts is Niebla - a small port town (at Valdivia River's mouth) with land area approx 1,6 km2 (0,6 mi2) and population around 3000.

Cruise ships visiting Valdivia usually anchor/dock at either Puerto Niebla or Puerto Corral (but mainly at Niebla), from where passengers are transported via buses to Valdivia City (approx 15-20 min road travel). The access from Corral is via ferryboats (to Niebla). Both Corral and Niebla were established by the Spaniards (in the 17th-century) as fortified seaports to protect Valdivia City. Their current-day economies are based mainly on commercial fishing, aquaculture, port services, tourism.

Both Niebla and Corral are part of Valdivia Port (locode CLZAL). Part of the city are located on two islands (Teja, Las Animas) and connected via two bridges: Calle-Calle (to Isla Las Animas) and Pedro de Valdivia (to Isla Teja).

The town (1552-founded as Santa Maria la Blanca de Valdivia) was later named after its founder - the Spanish conquistador Pedro Gutierrez de Valdivia (1497-1553), who was also Chile's first royal governor (between 1540-47). At that time, Valdivia was Spain's southernmost town in the New World/the Americas.

The city's current-day economy is largely based on forestry/wood processing factories (wood pulp and paper manufacturing, agroforestry, silviculture via eucalyptus and Columbian pine plantations), metallurgy, shipbuilding and repairs (Asenav/ships, Alwoplast/catamarans- and yacht-building), agriculture, aquaculture, food processing, brewing industry Kunstmann Beer production), trade, tourism (hotels, restaurants, cafes), higher education/universities (Austral de Chile, Arturo Prat, San Sebastian, Santo Tomas, Los Lagos).

The city is served by Pichoy Airport, located approx 32 km (20 mi) to the northeast of Valdivia by road. The airport serves only domestic flights (operated by the Chilean airlines JetSmart, Sky, and LATAM) all connecting to Santiago de Chile's international airport Arturo Merino Benitez.