We arrived in one piece, or at least Rawson did, into Puerto Montt, fetched our Peugeot 207 and were off. It was about a 45 minute drive south to the ferry to the island of Chiloe, our destination for our first couple of days in the region. We took the car ferry with just one other car across the bay, along with lots of seals, to the small port of Chacao, the main arrival spot for Chiloe. Chiloe is one of the oldest Spanish strong holds in Chile. The initial Spanish settlers were forced onto the island as a result of constant attacks on the mainland by the Mapuche Indians. The Mapuche were known as some of the fiercest indigenous people in South America and were able to prevent the expansion of the Incas any further south than the Bio-Bio river during the height of the Inca empire. Hence the islanders have developed their own culture a bit unique from the rest of Chile. Being removed from the rest of Chile’s development for quite some time, most of the island and surrounding smaller islands are quite provincial. This has resulted in an extremely quaint area. The homes of Chiloe are all built from and heated with wood. The wood industry is prime here. The down side of this is that, in the evenings, the valleys are all filled with chimney smoke. However, the upside is some unique and beautiful architecture.
So we arrived off the ferry and headed down the island to the capital, Castro. Charlie and Bryan were pretty hurting at this point, as they still have not slept except on the plane (recall they had been out dancing in P. Arenas with Bryan’s cousin the night before we departed). We rolled into town, parked and started looking for the perfect spot to settle for the night. We stumbled upon the Blue Unicorn and it called out to us. It’s similar to a Victorian in San Francisco that might be in the Castro, wooden, pink and deco art. We decided it suited us perfectly. We got rooms in the top floor of the inn and as it’s the off season we were just about the only ones in the place. The rooms were overlooking the bay with individual balconies and the views were just stunning. We immediately took a nap. Upon awaking we headed across the street to grab a bite. It was Rawson and Charlie’s first taste of the locos which are Chilean abalone. Bryan’s dad is known for being “loco for locos”. We were so-so on the locos. We had a nice meal and headed up to the town square for a look and an ATM. Side note on ATMs in Argie (NOT Chile as Bryan insists on pointing out). The Argie ATMs restrict you from taking out the amount of money that you actually want to take out at once. Really they are using it as a way to double charge you. You can take out the maximum amount more than once but they charge you the ATM fee each time, bummer. Anyway, we checked out the town, grabbed some Pisco, cola and wine at the store and headed back to our balconies to check out the sunset. We finally made a good decision on eating and skipped dinner.
We headed to bed early and set the alarm accordingly in order to catch some good sunrise shots off of the rooms. Sadly at 7:00 the light had already come and gone, so we snoozed. We did love the place so much, however, that we decided to stay an extra night. So we took a slow breakie and then headed out for a nice drive in Isla Quinchao. This island is totally undeveloped and only fishing villages and pasture land. It was just what the doctor ordered. We took it slowly and took the opportunity to test our amature photography skills. We took mostly back roads and some of them wouldn’t have been recommended for the Peugeot for sure. Actually, short of the one north-south road, there are only gravel roads. So, taking it slow is really the only option as Bryan and Rawson opted out on letting Charlie practice his rally car driving again. It was a blast. We stopped in the small village of Delicias halfway down the island for lunch before heading to the end of the island. Literally the end of the island as the road (all gravel roads for most part) ended at the beach. On the way back up the island, we did our best to get lost and test the extreme capabilities of the Peugeot. But it was along one of these random road excursions that we met an older gentlemen climbing up the hill from his village (unknown little spot) back up to his house. He looked at us askance as we were driving by so we slowed to say hello. We were as interested to chat with him as he was to take a break from his climb. The charming ol’ timer was almost 90 and had fought in the Chilean-Bolivian war of ’41. Bryan expressed his appreciation for the man’s sacrifice while pondering what war that had been. We’ve encouraged Bry to brush up on the Bolivian-Chilean conflicts which date back to Chile taking Bolivia’s coastal stretch back in the late 1800’s. The Bolivian navy has since practiced maneuvers on Lake Titicaca.
In route back to the ferry, we hit up a waterside ostras shack in Curaco de Velez. Ostras, or oysters, are farmed here and these were very fresh and shucked right in front of us, one by one as we ordered them. The entire region is renowned for its shell fish (mainly muscles, clams and oysters), but unfortunately they have been completely shut down by Red Tides this season as 2 people died and a third almost died. We rolled the dice with the farmed Oysters which we had been told were still safe. Guess they were! We drove back to the ferry along another road and sailed back to Chiloe for another fab night at the Blue Unicorn watching the Chile-Peru World Cup Qualifier match. Stunning sunset and stunning victory for Chile!!! Chi-chi-chi, le-le-le! The game was great, especially as Chile creamed Peru, but the 5 car victory parade was the highlight. We considering getting out there in our Peugeot, but didn’t want to overwhelm the traffic system in Castro. Chiloe isn’t exactly a metropolis. Off to bed, we’ve got a busy day tomorrow.
Monday’s alarm was set a bit earlier in order to catch the color of the sunrise on the bay we missed the previous day. We got a couple of shots but nothing spectacular. After breakfast and packing up we headed south on Chiloe to check out the other side of the island. There are 150 churches on the island of just 23,000 inhabitants. They were recognized as World Heritage sites (UNESCO) in the 70’s and the Chilean government has done a good job at protecting and keeping them in decent condition. Of course, with that many on a 100km long island, some are in better states than others. We saw a lot of them in 2 days.
In route to the ferry back to mainland, we stopped off at a renowned little oyster shack for a oyster lunch; literally about 20 each. Perfect light lunch and apparently also Red Tide free. After the ferry back to the mainland, we picked up the permission from Budget Car Rental to allow us to take the Peugeot into Argie, and off to Puerto Octay. We almost stopped off in a town closer to us but we’re glad we drove the whole way to the small peninsula, Centinela, off of Puerto Octay, in the extreme north-west of the lake. Our cabana was part of a beautiful estate right on Lake Llanquihue, overlooking the Osorno Volcano (completely unobstructed views). Our original plan was to sleep there and get an early start on Tuesday to drive the region and then head over to Argentina for a few days. We loved it so much we decided to spend Tuesday driving the circumference of the lake and spending a 2nd night at Centinela. The drive was stunning. This region has a heavy German influence which can be seen in the architecture as well as the food. It’s quite beautiful and the kuchen is delish. There is something similar to English tea time here called “Onces” (pronounced ‘own-say’). “Once” is the Spanish word for eleven. This tradition came about long ago when the miners would take their 6PM break and sneak a Pisco shot. The Pisco they drank had an 11 on the label, so their code for let’s get a quick shot was “onces”. That developed later into a late afternoon tea with German kuchen, or cake. So, “Once” is basically tea time for boozers.
Ok, we made it back to Centinela around 6pm and watched the sun set from the dock on the lake. We had the hostess build us a nice fire in the lodge prior to dinner. We decided that since we were the only ones in the inn we’d like to take our dinner in front of the fire, so they set a table up for us in what would traditionally be the large common room or game room. The hotel had originally been a summer home for 3 families in the early 20th century. It was stunning and had all the old charm of a German manor house. We were literally the only guest there (SIDE NOTE, come here in the off season to really get the deals and escape the main tourist rush; high season ended like 2 weeks ago, so now has been perfect). The property was great and we were so glad to be there a 2nd night. Early to bed, Argie border crossing is early tomorrow! Buenas noches.
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