Clear Days in Chiloé

City of Ancud

[18-21 de Febrero, 2014]
As luck would have it, Eli and I always seem to visit a rain forest during a period of rare sun. I never complain, trust me, but I do find that strange. Visiting the island of Chiloé in southern Chile was no exception. It was perfectly sunny and warm the few days we were there.

Countryside near Castro

The island of Chiloé begins where the mainland of Chile ends. That isn't exactly true (Eli likes to tell me when I'm exaggerating) but if you follow the Pacific Coast of Chile south you will eventually hit the large Chilean archipelago where you can no longer drive south without ferries. Inland, along the Andes, there is a stretch of land that continues into Southern Chile but there are fewer inhabitants here and one main road that eventually ends where the terrain becomes too mountainous to traverse. If you want to drive into Patagonia from Chile you have to cross into Argentina. So that is why I say it is where mainland Chile ends:)

The rickety but symbolic palafitos in Castro

A tourist who loved the low tide objects stuck in the mud

Our handy dandy rental

We heard about Chiloé from a few travelers but had already had our sights set on it from the recommendation Eli's brother had given. It's not easy to get to but everyone said it was worth it. We were curious about the rain forest and the similarity this island might have to the pacific northwest islands we love. It's rainy, windy and green... that's home! So we set out in a cute little rental car, crossed the Chacao Strait by ferry and took three days to explore the island.

Castro Church

We first went to Ancud, a city in the north of the island. There was a nice harbor walk and a cute little main square, but I guess I didn't take too many pictures. One of the highlights of Ancud was figuring out how to pay for parking. An attendant works on every street and tickets the car with the time they arrive. When you want to leave you flag down this person and pay. Sounds fine but what happens when their shift ends? What if you park overnight? Why is this more efficient then a machine? You can see the kind of conversation I was fortunate enough to have for the rest of our car ride that day.

Nercón Church, Castro, UNESCO site

In Castro we visited the famous palafitos- houses on stilts which I read the Chilean building code agrees is unstable construction (I might be exaggerating.) However these are traditional houses to this area and part of the intrigue of a community that moves at its own pace. There is a huge tidal variation around Castro so it was not uncommon to see fishing boats stuck in the mud in every harbor we passed. We hoped they weren't wanting to get anywhere soon.

Chiloé Churches
Another sightseeing highlight of Chiloé are the great wooden churches. Many of these were declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2000. Scattered around the island, we drove to see about 10 of them. The insides of these churches were beautiful. I of course would say that because I love timber construction, but maybe you'd like the nature inspired paintings on the interior if structures weren't your thing. My favorite design might have been the Nercón Church (above) due to its tasteful selection of the Tufts colors on its exterior.

Chiloé Church Exteriors

Corresponding Interiors

Chiloé Specialties
In Castro we went to a festival and tried some of the Chilean and Chiloén specialties. Here I am trying a Chochoca- a pancake like bread rolled up like a jelly roll and then grilled over a fire.

Chochoca

Cazuela

Eli had a cazuela which is like a homemade chicken soup. I think there might have been other meat in there, like pork, but I don't remember for sure. Just wouldn't be weird if it was chicken and pork, you know, the other vegetable. Below Eli and I are trying Curanto.

Curanto

Curanto is traditionally cooked in an earth pit covered by rocks and leaves. I don't believe anyone labored over a hot hole in the ground for us, but you can tell the seafood came straight from the ocean! Underneath all of this seafood is a helping of meat and potatoes which includes, chicken, pork sausage, pork loin and a few other mystery meats. It was filling and fun to figure out what you were eating- yum!

Parque Nacional Chiloé

Another big highlight to our trip to Chiloé was our visit to the rain forest. On the western side of the island is a large park called Parque Nacional Chiloé. Here, in the sunshine, we saw the vegetative displays of a well fed forest. Many plants native to Chile can only be found here, including the national flower of Chile, which is almost, but not quite this photo >
(I found out later it's not)

Eli is both a giant and a midget in this park.

I saw these leaves and wondered how many babies Anne Greddes would photograph inside.

Making friends.

The park included access to the beach. From here we were right back in Seattle and Puget Sound. I was sad for a bit, I'm going to miss "home" when we finally finish moving away :(

Swap this sand beach for a rock one and you've got home!

Years ago Eli's brother Alec visited Chiloe, and found it a friendly place full of beautiful trails and parks and in no rush for development. On our trip I battled (and I mean battled) dirt roads in our rental car and passed countless young hitch-hikers moving all over Chiloe to enjoy camping on deserted beaches. The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed, and Eli and I enjoyed stopping our car by the side of the road anytime we saw blackberries to pick. I hope that means not much has changed.