We took a bus to Esquel Argentina, and went to Nacional Parque Los Alerces for 2 days. . . the Lakes Region of Chile and Argentina is so beautiful - every valley, lake and stream is so different that we could spend many months exploring this region alone - in a few years maybe.
We then took a micro-bus on Jan 4 and crossed the border town of Futaleufu. We had been told that we could cross the border of Argentina into Chile, then catch a bus to Chaiten immediately. But, the information between countries has been dodgy at best. We ended up being stuck in the Chilean border town of Futaleufu overnight - this was terrific though! The town was gorgeous - nestled between Andean mountains. It was sweet, small, and beautiful. As it is Summertime here, we even found a few bushes that were laiden with ripe rasberries - YUM!
In the morning of Jan 5, we took another bus to the coastal town of Chaiten - another gorgeous little village under the mountains but right next to the Pacific Ocean. There is apparently great salmon fishing in the nearby rivers, but instead we chose to take the ferry to Chiloé (as there are only 2 ferries a week - Sat and Wed). We were told by a local that it had been pouring nonstop in Chaiten and the day we arrived was their 2nd day of sunshine in a month! We have been very lucky with weather in our travels.
So we took a ferry West to Chiloe - five blissful hours on a ferry. The weather was terrific and so clear that we had a great view of snow and glacier-capped Andean peaks. We dieseled into the southern town of Chiloe - called Quellón - a village where most people either work for the salmon aquaculture fisheries or they dive for mussels and clams. There is currently a redtide issue, so the fisherman were long-lining for a type of fish that looks like king mackerel. People also make money collecting seaweed, and exporting it to Japan - we saw a few families in their "Sunday best" collecting seaweed. As we really enjoy fishing villages, we spent a day wandering around looking at the boats, the people, and the salmon farms, and spent the night in Quellón. There are no nice hotels in this town - the guidebook describes all of them as filthy or falling apart - unfortunately we agreed with the guidebook. This is where our silk sleeping bag inserts come in handy... Beautiful and interesting town, but unfortunately, not a great place to spend the evening!
On Jan 6th, we took a bus further into Chiloe to the town of Chonchi. Having spent the previous evening in a hole and suckered in by a gorgous view of the bay, we decided to splurge and stayed in our own cabaña for a whole US$50 a night - yikes! Chonchi is another fishing village, but smaller than Quellon.
The artesans in Chiloe are knitters and weavers - so we have found some wonderful wool spun here in Chiloe, great hats and gloves, as well as ponchos.
Because it was Sunday, none of the 3 restaurants in town were open. Luckily, we had rented a cabaña with a full kitchen so we went to the grocery store and picked up some food for dinner. On the way back to our room, we bumped into a German couple who were also looking for an open restaurant. We invited them over for a "home" cooked meal!
On Jan 7, we took a bus to the capital of the island, Castro - to our suprise, there are almost 40K inhabitants here. The architecture on the island is qimple - lots of metal-siding on the houses and even in the churhes. The cathedral in Castro was very bright and simple in construction - very nice to visit. We won´t stay here too long - only to catch up on email and get a good meal before heading further North in the island. . .
We then zoomed over to Dalcahue from where we took a free ferry to the capital of the smaller island of Isla Quinchao, the town of Achao. Achao is a small, quiet fishing village with another old wooden church, built in 1730. We met a guy here, Philipe, who was on vacation from his usual petroleum company job in Punto Arenas - in Achao, he was working for the salmon fisheries supervising their divers. Over sunset and dinner, we learned from Philipe all about the poor practices of the divers here in Chiloe. We learned that most of the fishermen are not following dive charts or the rules of diving so many end up with "the Bends" (decompression sickness) or dying underwater. In fact, when we walked around Quellon, we saw a few young men who needed assistance walking because of diving "injuries".
From Achao, we traveled Northward to the town of Ancud. Here, we learned more about the history of the island. Two forts were built in Ancud to defend the shipping route around Cape Horn. The island had been the last supporters of the Spanish Crown in South America. The town was the site of the Spanish surrender of Chiloe to Chilean troops in 1826.
Chiloe is known for its tasty salmon and a dish called curantos (more-or-less a seafood stew) - see pictures above. In addition, the artisans here are reknowned for their knit and crochet goods with handmade and locally-dyed wool. Finally, the island had once been so isolated from mainland Chile, that there were no metals used in building construction - all boards were secured with wooden pegs. There is little evidence of this today, but we included a photo of a floor with wooden pegs above (from the church in Achao).
On the 9th, we traveled to and stayed in Puerto Montt - on the 10th we get up to Valdivia (a college town) en route to Santiago...
-L&A
