A place for Coming Together…with yourself and with others.
A Cultural Exchange Center
About Sumalao
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Spanish Version
What is Sumalao?
It is my home and a meeting place for friends and for friends of friends. Here I hope to make room for cultural-social exchange, from daily living together and from definite friendship amongst people with whom I share strong affectionate ties, as I do with my Chilean and foreign friends, especially the Japanese… amongst whom you shall be made most welcome.
All this in a comfortable, tranquil, gratifying and harmonic atmosphere, favorable to relaxation and rest, within a framework of concern and respect for the natural, social and cultural environment.
A 12-year intensive experience living in Japan, teaching about Chilean and Latin American culture and lifestyles, and my job as a Spanish teacher at several universities in Fukuoka, Japan, permitted me to learn some interesting things about that country, its people, culture, lifestyles, and by contrast, also some things about ourselves. What I have learned I hope to pour into my new home, chosen not only through inspiration, but also because the moon bathes in the river… unclothed.Where is Sumalao?
The so-called "Valdivian forest" serves as a surrounding for the physical space made up of a typically southern wooden construction with the comforts of a modern home, roomy and gracious, which, unlike traditional hospices, permits fluid interrelations among its guests.
The house includes private and social spaces which guarantee personal privacy and also the warmth necessary to interact in-group.
Sumalao is situated geographically on the road to Niebla, a coastal community 12 kilometers from the city of Valdivia, which has easy access. Valdivia, itself, is located 850 kilometers south of Santiago. It is a community of 140,000 people, with a university of 10,000 students, which converge from different parts of Chile, but especially the South.
The city of Valdivia offers cultural, social, tourist and gastronomical opportunities. Likewise, the landscape and habitat of its surroundings are propitious for the enjoyment of native forest, beaches, ocean, islands, lakes and rivers -- chief among them, El Calle Calle -- an exceptional, navegable river with the greatest year-round volume in all of Chile.
What do we do at Sumalao?
* We are running, at 100%, out Guest accommodations, even for extended periods of time, including completely equipped full room and board.
* We have the necessary infrastructure for realizing culturally orientes events, such as: small concerts, plays, arts and craft shows, dinners, etc.; meetings for personal and social development, either private or community-related.
* We conduct tourist-oriented activities, such as: visits to sights of relevant natural beauty, historical sights, ecological sights; community-related socio-economic and cultural events, for example, craft centers, fishing villages, forest, flora and fauna reserves, centers for artistic and folkloric development; museums, clubs, etc. We shall also introduce you to the local cuisine, including wines, confectionery, etc.
* We organize fishing excursions and water sports; adventure tourism, trekking and camping; skiing and mountain climbing observation of flora and fauna, etc. We have available "Home-style Chilean Hospitality tours" for long weekends; other one week or 10-day tours for visiting the Valdivia area, the Southern Lake Region and/or Chiloé.
* We can arrange a "Summer Spanish School" (and Japanese) for young people of different nationalities, emphasizing not only on the theoretical aspects of the language, but also the living experience of the people who speak the language, through day-to-day coexistence with them.
* We will also have available Cooking classes, whereby we will include basic cooking courses, traditional and international courses, for youth, students, community groups, Chileans and/or foreigners.
* We will organize and develop Workshops for teaching various arts and handcraft techniques, and growing techniques, including production, marketing, import/export (ceramics, paper art, weaving, embroidery, confectionery, origami, theater and literary wotkshops, flower and vegetable gardening) at the community and private level.
* We will realise and/or participate in projects for the protection and development of the native forest (and everything which that entails), in combination with domestic and/or international institutes or groups which hope to instill respect, care, love and sustainable development, among the community or among the guests.
We speak English, Spanish and Japanese.
Cordially,
Mónica Alvear
Hostess "Sumalao" House
P.O. Box: Casilla 1161 Valdivia
Fono/Fax: (56-63) 282251
Valdivia, Chile
e-mail: kiricunchan@gmail.com
