Round The World: Chiloé island - patchwork farms and wooden church steeples

Waiting for the ferry

On the Ferry with our car - yes, packed with cars & busses!

Our ride

As we planned to come back through the area at a later point, we left exploring the volcano for the moment and headed South, past Puerto Montt to a point marked on the map as Pargua. A tiny collection of houses you could have blinked and missed that was the departure point of our first ferry – to Chacao, Chiloé island. Beyond the view and the closely packed cars and busses – the ferry also boasted a WIFI connection! JP was thrilled and I had to laugh. Travelling the coast in Chile on a boat I did not expect that of all things!

Chiloé is Chile’s largest island. It has one good winding road that snakes down the island for a total of about 5 hours drive and from there various types of roads branched off, from farming tracks to dirt roads and tar tracks which lead to villages, minor towns and other ferry departure points. (There are a number of smaller islands surrounding Chiloé.) The island was a patchwork of farms, forests and the occasional church steeple dotting the landscape. Really picturesque. While still winter, there was a yellow flower taking over the landscape. I have a suspicion that it may have belonged to a weed, but it still made driving through the patchwork farms a lovely sight.

We were heading for the capital of Chiloé, Castro. But on the way we decided to stop at Ancud which was pretty close to where the ferry dropped us off. We spent a while trying to ask directions to the local fort. “Donde hay Fuerte San Antonio?” Then following a string of Spanish with a finger point in the direction we should go. I swear that next time I go to South America I’ll learn more Spanish! A little goes a long way, but more will go further.

Local charactors

The fort we found

The fort

It was cloudy threatening rain as we found our winding way through various one way roads (with the GPS trying to kill us by taking us up the wrong way again) up to Fuerte San Antonio. As forts go, it was alright. Maybe not the most impressive, but interesting. I loved the quietness of it all and the fact that it wasn’t crowded by people. The weather added to the mysterious feel of the place. It was supposed to be the last Spanish’s last Chilean outpost according to the guidebook. So, significant, with a number of cannons still pointing toward the sea.

We had one night in Castro. Castro is definitely the largest town on the island by a fair way with a population of about 30 000 people. It is split by a river into North Castro (with the church and Plaza de Armas) and South Castro where our hostel was. There is only one bridge joining the two. Effectively this is the bridge that joins the South and North of Chiloé island as the river seems to cut the whole island in two.

We visited the Plaza de Armas, the wooden church on this main square (stunning inside, reminding me a little of some of the churches I had seen in Brazil.) But the main reason for coming all the way to Chiloé was to see the palafitos. These are colourful houses built on stilts out onto the river. It turned out that our hostel was such a house. Beautiful and wooden and on stilts into the river. It had a glorious view of the river, other palafitos and the bridge that connected the island to itself.

Enterance to the fort - brrr - it was cold

Some of the back roads around Chiloé

Inside the completely wooden church in Castro - stunning!

We also decided to try a smaller ferry to another tiny island off Chiloé, Ilsa Lemuy. Again small farms and even smaller villages with winding really narrow roads. Very pretty! Once the roads had degraded into dirt and we had seen a church or two, we decided to turn around. Walking through a town or two we came across tiny general stores where we found some food and an old lady who greeted us both with a smile and a kiss on each cheek and happily babbled to us in Spanish.

The wooden church in Castro

Having taught English for a while in Buenos Aires I knew that absolute strangers would greet you this way, but I don't think JP was really prepared for it. South Africa it's not exactly common! She was lovely though and I think I got across to her that we were visiting from South Africa and staying in Castro. Not too sure if she understood me fully though.

View from our palafitos hostel

More Palafitos

We had been told that the dish to try on Chiloé was curanto, which is a supposedly pile of fish, shellfish, chicken, pork, lamb, beef and potato all cooked together. I have to say that we mutually found this the most disappointing dish that we had in Chile. The plate we got had substituted the beef with a spicy sausage and had no fish and instead of a mix of shellfish we got a pile of about 20 muscles on top of a boiled mix that to my taste had mixed the flavours into one big mess rather than complimenting flavours. The potato tasted like chicken, fish, beef. At least the wine saved the day though.

Our hostel - the yellow & red one

View of Castro

Map of Ilsa Lemuy, a small island off Chiloé

Churches of Ilsa Lemuy

Farmland

Roads of Ilsa Lemuy

The next morning we prepared for the long drive back up Chiloé island and back to explore the volcano near Puerto Varas. Volcán Osorno (2652m). Our next night was going to be in Valdivia, quite a drive up and we wanted some time on the volcano! So we aimed to leave really early, around 6am.

It was still dark when we got up. We packed our car quickly, but our hostel told us we couldn’t leave. Sure enough, the view from the balcony showed us that the bridge between north and south was blocked by a protest. It was rather loud and I had only vaguely registered shouting voices before. Tires burning and traffic backed up on both sides already. It was the student protest in action.

Back in Castro

We asked the hostel when it was likely to clear. The man told us, first the police come to talk, and then, he shrugged. There was no way around it, we just had to wait. So, instead of our early start we settled back into the hostel’s lovely lounge with a fire burning against the cold to watch what would happen and when it all would clear. The hostel was amazing, while we were waiting, they served us a yummy cup of proper coffee and fresh home-made bread! I have to say that this was one of the best breakfasts I’ve had on my trip to date.

Ordering our pile of muscles

After about an hour, the traffic started to move one lane at a time, the burning tires reflecting on the sides of large trucks and cars. Another half hour and we decided to enter the queue of cars crossing. The students had mainly dispersed and most of the fires were out by the time we crossed and wound our way up the island, across the ferry, past Puerto Varas and to Volcán Osorno (2652m).