Chiloe - Week 22

14th - 15th February

At 8am on a horribly grey, cold and rainy day, we walked to the port to catch the boat from Chaiten to Castro, the capital of Chiloe. And we waited and waited in the rain until we finally got on the boat at 10am and we waited and waited on the boat until we finally got moving at 10.45.

The five hour journey actually ended up being eight but we had good, comfy seats and despite a bit of sea sickness for both of us, the journey went quite quickly. It was a strange feeling coming up to the island on the ferry. It was the first place have been so far that reminded us of England. The countryside was very similar to Devon/Cornwall, rolling green hills and grey rainy skies! We walked through the continuing rain (it had not stopped all day) to a nice hostel called El Mirador, dumped our stuff and headed straight out for seafood which Chiloe is famous for.

Chiloe is a small series of islands off the coast of Chile (about half way up) which is famous for its houses on stilts and churches made by the Jesuits missonaries trying to convert the locals to Christianity, as well as the seafood. The island is only 110 miles north to south and has a different feel to the rest of Chile. The indiginous Mapuche indians have managed to keep their unique culture even when the Spanish finally conquer them. They have a rich folklore with many mythological animals and spirits. They have witchdoctors and believe in a small ugly man known as El Trauco, who can hypnotise girls leading them into the forest, from which they return pregnant - all sounds a bit dodgy to us!

Then we took the bus across to another little island to a place called Achao which has the oldest church in Chiloe built in 1730.

Books we read: East of Eden, John Steinbeck - really good yarn