Churches of Castro Isla, Chiloe, Chile

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It’s Sunday and we’ve arrived in the protected waters off of Castro Island, our tender port for the day. We arrive in the Lido just after 6:30 to discover that the main buffet is not yet open (we later learn, that unlike yesterday, it opens at 7:00 AM today; although, the continental buffet is now serving. Sharon gets her chocolate croissant and I get some rolls, slices of ham and slices of cheese with some grapefruit juice. It’s our third morning at sea, and evidently most passengers have remained healthy, so we’re allowed to serve ourselves from the buffet. The hand washing machines still seem quite novel to us, you stick your hands in both holes, reaching in up to your forearm, then after a bit some tepid water begins to do an oscillating spray of your hands, and it warms a bit but nothing close to hot, and then a green light tells you that your hands are clean, it’s safe for you to remove your hands (just kidding, it’s always safe for you to remove them), and the spraying water stops. You then have two very soaked hands which can make it difficult to remove the paper towels to get them dry. And then you go and use the hand sanitizers anyway. On the first day the Captain (and he likes to talk over the PA a lot on this cruise) suggested that you grab a towel or two first, before using the sanitizers. He also informed us that he checks the counts of all of the sanitizers each day to make sure that people are using them (especially in the Lido) and that if we didn’t want another of his how important it is to wash your hands much, much more than just three times a day, we’d better use them frequently.





We gathered in the Showroom, and waited in line to get some water, which was rather late being set up. We’ll remember to take one from the room in the future, as they’re not providing chilled water and it’s not going on sale until just before the first group is ready to disembark. As it was, we were in the first group, but missed the first tender because of the slowness in getting the water. The arrival pier was one of the more primitive types consisting of a twenty foot wide concrete sloping surface that disappeared into the water. We learned that the tide level varies 22 feet and this simple structure doesn’t need to be readjusted or shifted or have any moving parts at all. We arrived on the low tide, so we had a considerable walk up the long sloping pier.



We got in our bus and all that was left were two seats together at the very back of the bus. As it turns out, these two seats were raised up about 8 inches and may have been the best seats on the bus; we certainly had a good view and more leg room. Many of the low lying houses are built up on stilts. In the tide pools mussels are a popular food source, but in a depressed market, there are more mussels to go around than takers. That’s when someone got the bright idea of feeding mussels to prisoners. Yum!!!



Our bus drove to a ferry, behind another bus, and was ferried to the other side where we went to Quinacho, and this being Sunday, it was their market day. Our tour guide was a former professional kayaker from Austria who had first come to the area for a kayak competition. A popular drink in the area is chi cha, or apple cider. We visited the Museum of Curaco del Valez, a small museum feature artifacts from the area, including old wooden presses used for making cider. We had some time to walk around before it was time to assemble at our bus. I started to be attacked by one, then two, then several large flying bugs. We thought they were bees at first, but they were black and blue, and some people thought they were quite beautiful. It was very hard to get away from then. All I can say is Sharon is not having the best of luck with the flying fauna on this trip, and one landed on her arm and bit her, drawing blood, and I think taking a chunk of her with him.



In Achao there has been a Jesuit residency that started in 1743. This incredibly crafted wooden church contains no nails. It stood for over 200 years before any restoration was done on it, and they had to get special craftsmen who could do the work. The ceiling was high, and in the interior, both sides of the church were lined with 8 wooden columns. All fourteen stations of the cross were spectacularly carved works of art (in wood of course). The wood making up this incredible place of worship is a type of reddish wood; but, not the same as the Northern California redwood. It is very hard and very durable, and unfortunately is now almost extinct. Many buildings have shingles made of this wood on their roofs; although, today corrugated steel is the preferred roof covering because it is light and doesn’t pose the hazard of heavy ceramic tiles in the event of an earthquake.



We stopped at a local restaurant to experience some local cuisine and customs. Everyone was offered a pisco sour, the Chilean national drink which is margarita-like composed of a sweet wine from Northern Chile mixed with lemon and lime juice. The drink was chilled, but not served on the rocks or frozen. The drink was quite strong, and I, having the added indulgence of Sharon’s drink, felt quite good for some time. We were served three small fried cheese empanadas, and three small seafood hors devours which were somewhat tasty. The empanadas were for the most part tasteless, and because they contained a miniscule amount of cheese were not even considered by Sharon. Given that empanadas can contain meat, or seafood, or even lobster, and are supposed to be quite tasty, these took me back to the lobster roll I has so coveted about seven months ago. Empanadas can also be baked, and these tend to be a bit larger.



While eating the “snacks” a couple of local families (we were told they worked in the hospital) put on a show of traditional music and dancing. The traditional dance of Chile is the quaka? This represents the rooster courting the chicken (I’m sure our friend Lin would have appreciated this since she insisted we have the Chicken dance at our wedding). It was very entertaining especially their children who participated. One boy who was probably about 5 was playing the horse jaw bone and really taking it seriously as he watched, what we suspect was, his father play the drum to get the beat.



We made our way to where the bus was parked, but it was all locked up and the driver was AWOL. The driver did come running down the street to open up the bus, and he was just a few minutes late. I’m just saying… it was a bit uncomfortable waiting in the sun, while an air conditioned bus was all locked up (especially next to a rather smelly trashcan).



After lunch we visited Dalcahue and its church from mid 18^th century. It was another massive wooden structure. We found refuge in the shade on the steps leading into the church, and before long I think most of the people on our bus were waiting for our bus to appear again. We were at the correct meeting place, but the bus was nowhere to be found until the exact minute of our meeting time, and then the bus pulled up, and around the corner, and found a place to park half-way down the block. People were commenting that this driver was really losing points from his passengers, and even the tour guide seemed to be wondering what was going on.



We returned to the Veendam, and Sharon couldn’t wait to get up to the grill out by the pool on the Lido deck, while I took my time, checking out the dinner menu, and picking up Sunday’s Sudoku puzzle, before heading up to meet Sharon. I tried the taco bar and made two tacos. We both had a much needed Coke. I was impressed with the variety of items available at the taco bar, and thought perhaps next time it would be a good idea to make a burrito. I spent some time working on the two Sudoku puzzles, one easy and one hard, from the New York Times. I’d heard that the Sunday puzzle is supposed to be the toughest of the week, though in the past I don’t remember that marking the possibilities was that much of a prerequisite. Today’s Sunday Hard puzzle was indeed tough, including needing to use a simple fish (X-wing) as well as finned fish to solve, and it was absolutely necessary to mark down all of the candidates, which is difficult on the tiny half sheet with two puzzles on one side that HAL provides. I’d recommend if saving paper is the goal, print the puzzles larger, even on the half sheet, or one puzzle on each side. Insufficient space is provided for the more difficult puzzles.



Team trivia was at three-thirty again today. So sorry, I didn’t mean to leave you hanging on what was built overnight, but once you hear what it was, you’ll probably say “Ohhh, like everyone on our team. It was the Berlin Wall. In this afternoon’s trivia challenge, we thought we might salvage some pride with the five-point bonus question (we graded the score sheet of the winners of the contest, who were kicking themselves because they hadn’t even considered our answer for the bonus, and they were sure we were right). The question was: “What part of the body do they cut off of adulterers in the Hindu world?” And right of the bat I can tell you, no, it wasn’t ‘that’ part. We didn’t know the names of the little dots on dominos; in fact, our answer was “little dots”. And I steered us away from the obvious answer for what US president was so concerned about his looks and his appearances to the public that he started growing a beard at the age of 11. The History Channel let me down here, figuring it must be Teddy Roosevelt because he was so concerned about his public image at a young age, taking extraordinary steps to transform it from that of a dandy to his eventual outdoorsman persona… alas, it was Lincoln. Even though (again from the History Channel) he supposedly didn’t grow his beard until after he was elected president. It was suggested by a young girl in a letter that he would look better in a beard. And both our teams got the final one point question wrong, “What type of Italian noodle means little turnip?” If you came up with tortellini, welcome to the club, but wrong… it was ravioli. Having trouble with that body part?... Let me make it easy: Choose from nose, ear, tongue, finger or toe.



On our way to dinner, we passed through the casino, which is closed now for the second full day due to local laws as we pass through these inland waters. Tomorrow the casino will also be closed, and I’m wondering if I’ll ever get to play blackjack again. I finally figured out what HAL has done, they have made a game that they call “Fun 21” with all sorts of “liberal rules” that clearly benefit the play on those extremely rare occasions when they apply. And they only ask one concession from the player and that is that blackjacks are paid even money (that is $5 wins $5) rather that three-to-two (where $5 wins $7.50). This one concession adds over 1%!t(MISSING)o the houses advantage, above what they already enjoy. In short, the player can’t win in the long run. This is the table that they offer players as a $5 table. For regular blackjack, the minimum bet is $10. I was expecting the Veendam to offer $5 blackjack, as the other smaller ships had in the past.



We shared a large long table with six other very well-seasoned travelers. For an appetizer I had the tomato and buffalo milk Mozzarella with Balsamic vinegar. Three fairly large slices of tomato were served, stacked one on top of another and each separated by a smaller amount of cheese. The amount of balsamic vinegar was a bit underwhelming, and a bit more would have been nice given the size of the tomatoes. For my second course I had the cauliflower soup, which was a nice pleasing soup that I found very tasty. Sharon’s real first course, the entrée, was a sirloin steak. She actually tried the lamb kabobs but was a bit spicy for her so I had to finish them up. I had the blackened tuna brochettes, and with the accompaniments, it was very tasty. Dessert was a chocolate torte which was a bit of pastry with chocolate ganache which was very very good.



We didn’t come to dinner until 6 PM because of our late lunch; nonetheless, we made it just in time for the 8 PM show. Featured was the award winning and internationally acclaimed Flamenco and Spanish guitarist Dimitris Dekavallas. His playing was amazing. He had an extraordinary career, including playing for the pope and as a guest with the London Philharmonic Orchestra when he was in his early twenties. Prior to performing, he was informed that the Queen was in attendance. Afterwards she wanted to meet him, and informed him that what he had played was her favorite classical piece. He told her that that was probably the only thing that they had in common.



After the show, we decided not to compete with the NFL addicts that have been impacting the Piano bar, and just call it a night. If you chose “nose” don’t let Sharon talk you out of it, as I did.

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Comments

[Janet]

All blogs!
Hey I just got caught up on your blogs. Glad I found them. It has been rough here but we are doing much better now. Have enjoyed reading about your trip and all the food you are eating and I'm surprised that Sharon ate watermelon. BTW the hand cleaning machines sounds real neat. Glad you having a great time. BTW we are suppose to have ice tomorrow morning. Enjoy your trip and looking forward to your next blog. Janet