Saturday Nov. 24
This tour was a bit of an adventure before it had even started.
I had booked a tour, earlier that week, to go to Chiloé and see the penguins that inhabit the islands on the coast. I paid online, and then got an email that night saying that the tour was not possible, then an email the next day saying that it had opened. The night before the tour, I received a message saying that due to tides, the tour to see penguins was unavailable and that we were taking a tour of Chiloé’s towns instead. That night, a different tour company offered us a much better price, but we had already booked with the first company and didn’t know if we could cancel last minute.
It all worked out, I guess. Saturday morning, a van arrived to pick us up on time.
Full of all Spanish speakers, the tour was in Spanish, which I didn’t mind. Chiloé, our destination, is an archipelago very close to Puerto Montt – it consists of one main island with other, smaller islands. The ride down was at least about two hours, because we were going to an island. We had to drive onto a ferry that took us across the channel.
We arrived at our first village to Chiloé, whose name escapes me, right after getting off of the boat. It was quaint, on the water, and had a church. We saw a lot of churches that day – from the outside. Chiloé is known for its old wooden churches – they’re protected under UNESCO as world heritage.
We then drove to Ancud – a city in Chiloé. We saw an old Spanish fortress and a museum.
The tour then took us back toward the fortress – and dropped us off at a fancy restaurant in a hotel. It was highly unusual that the tour would make us eat at an expensive place – but that’s how it went down. We sat down with some of the only other younger people on the tour – a medical student from Mexico and a Chilean computer engineer. Grumbling a bit, we ended up ordering at the fancy place, and the food was good. Not sure if it was worth it – I never dine in fancy places (unless someone else is paying) – but it was what it was.
We next drove through the countryside of the island to Dalcahue – a small town on the water, a little North of the capital. There we encountered an artisanal market full of wool products – it was really cool. It was the first time that I got the feeling that the products might have actually been hand made by the person that was selling them. Susi bought an elf hat (it is exactly what it sounds like – a long cap that resembles an elf, I supported the purchase, why not? It was cool). I bought a wool hat and more sheep related items. We got a little carried away and were the last ones on the tour to leave.
Next was Castro, the capital of Chiloé. It was known for it’s palafitos – houses on stilts that sit above the water. They were a cool sight – painted different colors, sitting side by side on the water. Most of them weren’t residential anymore – they were restaurants, gyms, etc. We also saw the cathedral of Castro – a big yellow wooden church on the central square.
We started heading back after Castro – by then it was already past 3-4, and it would take us about 3 hours to get back to Puerto Varas. On our drive back, we saw pudu the national animal of Chile, a small, adorable deer. We also saw a lot of sheep and cows in the green fields – it made me feel like we were in Scotland – especially because the day was a little cloudy. (I’ve never been to Scotland, but that’s how I imagine it)
We got back to the hostel and I was starving. So ready to eat. We made the same food for dinner as the night before – with enough to eat for lunch the next day.
That night, sitting by the fire, on the couch, we met a girl from Germany and Liza from Portugal. Liza had been traveling solo for four years – incredible. She talked about the surprising benefits of traveling alone, not just the freedom, but the fact that people are more likely to help you out (despite the dangers of traveling alone as a woman). Really interesting.
