In Mr Palins footsteps - Isla Chiloe!

After a beautiful 6 hour bus ride south through the Chilean lake district, we arrived at Puerto Montt where we would catch a bus across the the Isla Chiloe. My slight obbsession with all things Michael Palin related (see his Full Circle series!) has meant this is one of the places I was most keen to visit in Chile, and I was very excitable as the bus reached the end of the mainland and boarded a very for the half hour jaunt across the sea to the island. By this time it was pitch black and the stars were unlike anything I´ve ever seen, thousands and thousands of them just thrown like splatters of paint onto a black canvas. Another 45 minutes or so driving and we arrived at our first Chiloean destination, Ancud, on the north of the island, found our amazing hostal Mundo Nuevo on the seafront and fell asleep early looking forward to the next day.

Now Chiloe is infamous for its rain, and even when it is not raining you can usually be assured of a hazy wet mist rising from the sea and claoking much of the island. This just adds to the character of the place! So imagine our surprise when we woke and drew the curtains to be greeted with a beautiful red sunrise, clear skies and sunshine. Perfect weather to take on teh island by bike! We hunted down a rental shop, grabbed some snacks and set off. After half an hour or so we came across a long but totally secluded beach, where we had great fun riding along the chasing the tide. After our earthquake encounter in the North, our hearts dropped to our stomachs when we heard a warning siren echoing across the island as we sat on the beach all by ourselves! BUt have since come to realise that towns check theire alarms much like you check a fire alarm in an office, every week. It just always seems to happen when we are there, and it gets me every time!!

We dragged ourselves away from the beach and continued our ride along insaneley hilly roads, much to the amusement of many pasisng drivers, though our exertion was rewarded with great views and a wonderful way of seeing the island away from the cities, which reminded me a lot the farming areas in cornwall, with rolling hills dropping away to the coast, and small farms with sheep and goats wandering around. 7 hours later and absolutely knackered but glowing after a great day (and also slightly sunburnt), we returned to Ancud and headed out for the infamous Chiloe dish, Curanto. This is almost like the equivalent of the biggest mixed grill on the menu in england, but being an island, half made up of seafood like clams and mussels, and makes your eyes absolutely pop out of your head when they plonk it down in front of you! Needless to say Phil didn´t dissapoint, polishing the lot, and I wasn´t far behind!

The next day we took a local bus out to a desolate beach on called Caulin, where we spent the day chasing flamingos, black necked swans, and all sorts of other crazy birds that habitat there. It was a much more authentically Chiloe weather day, but the mist added to the slightly bizzare quality of the day on our own on this huge grey beach with a load of bright pink flamingos!

Our next stop in Chiloe was the island capital, Castro, where we stayed in a great place called Hostal Cordillera where we had a sea view, a double bed with proper duvets, cable TV and a great living room with open fire place ran by a lovely women. We visited the National Park of Chiloe hoping to spend a day trekking but turned out a bit dissapointing - only very short really developed paths and no where to really go exploring. We also headed to a cute little town called Dalcahue which had a little market selling hand made arts and crafts where I bought some great slippers (which make me look a bit elf likk but keep
my feet warm!). It seemed like the perfect little place to while away a Sunday afternoon and indulge in some more Chiloean seafood, but alas our bus back Norhwards (and hopefully warmer weather!) was calling us and so we left Chiloe ready for a good 22 hours of bussing ahead of us, our destination Valparaiso.

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