Dalcahue

So now I have come to Isla de Grande Chiloe, which is very different from Patagonia!

Firstly it has been warm and sunny.

So Chiloe is Chile's second largest island and is on the west coast. It's considered to have quite a different culture to the rest of Chile and a different type of countryside as it rains much more here than in the rest of Chile. It has a strong mythological history which draws on influences from the Hulliche people who lived on the island. One of the gods that Chiloe historically believes in is a female God who lives in the sea and seduces cows. Of course.

As I was crossing on the ferry to Ancud, my first stop, and the sun was shining, I was reminded of crossing to the Isle of Wight on the passenger ferry! Strange. This was accentuated when the bus drove past fields and trees on the way to Ancud from the ferry port, very English scenery greeting me- apart from the sunshine and occasional colourful house.

The hostel I stayed at in Ancud was called Los 13 Lunas and was super nice, massive beds, all wooden interior, a terrace looking out to the sea, a garden with hammocks and a slack line, and a barbecue area! For the first evening I wandered around Ancud a little bit, bought some food. I walked along the sea front and watched the sun set. It was beautiful and really peaceful. I felt super relaxed and like I was on a holiday.

The next day I decided I wanted company for the day as I had spent a lot of Punta Arenas alone, and basically surprised a random girl at breakfast into joining me in my exploring. Her name is Paulina from Berlin and she was great. We went to a church museum which shows all the different churches as little models and how they are joined together, and a museum of Ancud which was in Spanish but still very good. There are somethig like 14 churches in Chiloe that are UNESCO protected, all made of wood slotted together in various ways. It's actually super impressive.

We then wandered around to a beach, up to a fort that isn't a fort, and I got interviewed for some kind of local TV show, requested to be in English (phew). Paulina threw me at them when they asked for the interview and pretended she didn't speak English despite being fluent. Great. It was a bit cringe. I imagine I am now famous in Chiloe and everyone will be asking me to sign their underwear etc.

I spent some time lazing in the hammock and then had a terrible dinner of chicken sausages (I have literally no idea why I bought these) and pasta, its terribleness accentuated by a group cooking an entire sea bass stuffed with exciting things next to me.

Some people barbecued downstairs and ate macaroni cheese really late while I joined them, stealing bits to make up for my chicken sausage nightmare earlier. We went out to a club playing the dreaded reggaeton music. This is the music that is played everywhere in Argentina and Chile and is impossible to explain but is basically awful. A notable part of the evening was when Paulina tried to find the club whilst in the club- because she's from Berlin she thought we must be in just the bar and surely the club must be upstairs or something.

The next day I won at hangovers. I got the bus to Castro with the monster bag after reading on the sea front for a bit waiting for it. After checking into the hostel I wandered around the town, ate some super oily and good churros filled with dulce de leche, gained 5kg immediately, checked out the main square and UNESCO wooden church- which was super cool inside and a cheerful yellow on the outside- and went to look at the palifitos and have a coffee in one of them. It reminded me even more of the Isle of Wight, looking out of the windows onto the water. The cafe was tiny and cool with lots of random cacti in the windows and a big sofa. I had my new fave thing, a cortado, and felt fancy as I flicked through a book on Van Gogh.

The day after I went to a local festival/fete in Nutoco. This was so great as it was basically all locals or people visiting from other parts of Chile on their holidays. They had stalls selling the classic Chilote 'artesan' items which are all made of wool, stalls selling traditional and local foods, a little stage where they played the accordion and performed traditional dances and dragged the audience up to dance in pairs on stage, and a games area filled with old wooden games like stilts and skipping. Me and a French girl called Marine from the hostel ate Curanto (a ridiculous pile of clams/chicken/pork/mussels), a type of bread (made by mashing up potato, flattening it and spinning it on a huge rolling pin above a fire), and I had 'mote con huesillo' which was peach juice and grains drank/eaten with a spoon and was completely up my street food/drink wise.

We watched an apple squisher make apple juice with an insane enormous wooden contraption. Afterwards we went to check out the local town, Conchi, which was nice enough.

The next day I headed on my tod to Achao, a town on an island off the island of Chiloe :P It was pretty small and by the sea. My first issue was how insanely desperate I was for the loo and I accidentally saw most of the town in the first ten minutes while I frantically looked for a toilet. The Spanish words for left and straight ahead are basically the same, which meant I couldn't find a bathroom for aaages and considered a classic behind-a-tree pee...but luckily didn't have to resort to this.

I wandered around the beach for a bit looking at the fishing boats and accidentally fed a small stray dog some cheese from my lunch. It then became my dog buddy for the next half hour. You don't need to own a dog in South America because all the dogs are your dog.

I then got back on the bus to Dalcahue. It is still a mystery to me how you pronounce this. I saw a sign for a garlic festival which further cemented in my mind that this is the Chilean Isle of Wight. The town is nice with lots of artesanaries and sun and boats on the sea. I went into a coffee shop and one of the people I'd met in the Ancud hostel was in there! We had coffee and I stole his cake. Fwends!

My last night was a bit weird. I had this idea to camp in the national park and do a long walk one day and visit Las Amuellos, which is basically a wooden pier that everyone seems to go mad for, the next. After I got to the park, set up the tent and set off I was absolutely exhausted- serious fatigue set in. I got to an epic beach about 1k from the tent with huge crashing waves and a long desolate shore. I then lay down and slept for an hour. Then I got kind of randomly annoyed and booked a hostel in Puerto Varas for the next night. That evening was lovely as I ate dinner on a pontoon looking out onto a lake, and wandered through easy paths in the trees for an hour and a half or so. They were peaceful as the groups from the daytrips had all gone home.

My plan to go to Los Amuellos also failed as I just could not get up. Its TOTM so maybe I am bleeding out all my energy (sorry). Anyway I guess I will have another little amble about and then get the bus back. Not been a total failure but not exactly what I planned!

1- Ancud
2- melodramatic Jesus
3- church in Castro
4- palafitos in Castro
5- Dalcahue
6- a pile of wood and puppies in DalcahueRead more