Chiloe

From Valdivia I travelled down to Ancud, a small fishing town on the Chiloe islands, a group of about 40 small islands just off the coast of Chile. Found a really nice hostal to stay in, right by the sea. The evening I arrived I ended up going on a tour out to a little group of islands where 2 species of penguins live. The tour was really good as although our guide didn´t speak much English he made an effort to talk very slowly so I was able to follow what he was saying. Found out a lot about the history of the islands and the people from that area. They have a lot of traditions that are different from the mainland, all based around myths from the area. The boat trip around the penguin islands was really good, the evening is apparently the best time to go as thats when all the penguins come back to their nest sites. Also saw loads of other birds and wildlife including sea lions and sea otters.

The next day wasn´t so good. Decided to hire a bike a cycle around the coast to another small fishing village. The first part of the route was along a very busy main road and then there was 30km along a gravel track. There was also a quarry along the track so all day there were huge loirries going up and down this narrow track so ended up covered in dust and hit by stones. And the bikes didn´t have the most comfortable saddles, so a few days later I am still avoiding sitting down for too long. Although the village and beach that I made it to were very nice, it really wasn´t worth the effort of getting there.

The following morning I got a bus further down the island to the town of Castro. It´s another really nice little town which is best described as having rustic charm. Along the sea front are buildings called parfitos which are built on wooden stilts over the sea. Then there is a steep hill up to the town centre which has a lot of very unstable looking wooden houses all painted different colours. One of the main attractions of the area are 16 world heritage listed churches that were built by the Spanish in combination with local creaftsmen, using local wood, so they are all unique designs reflecting the traditions of the area. Spent the afternoon going to look at a couple of these. This was a bit of an adventure as it meant getting a few buses and boats across to other islands and we seemed to be far from the main tourist route, I think we only saw another couple of foreign tourists all day. Was a really nice day going to these remote little fishing villages, and finding some nice beaches. In the evening we came back to Castro and went out for dinner to try the local speciality, curanto. It basically has a bit of everything in it, a lot of mussels, chicken, chorizo, ham, potatoes and dumplings, all very nice.

Yesterday we spent the day at the islands national park. Had a really good day there, walked along a huge empty beach in the morning and then came back through the woods by a lake.

Today I´m getting the bus back over to the mainland to Puerto Montt. Just going to stay there overnight before getting on a boat to Patagonia. The boat trip takes about 4 days and I´ve heard a lot of mixed things about it, so don´t know what to expect. But I´ve stocked up on sea sickness tablets and I´m just hoping the weather is going to be good for it.