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Published: February 3rd 2009
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I mentioned towards the end about my wallet going missing in Puerto Montt. I didn't however mention that I did get the tent and camping equipment I needed, so it was time to head to Chiloe, where my camping adventure could begin!
The ferry across the narrow stretch between mainland Chile and Chiloe was pretty cool, and we spotted a few seals frolicking in the water, as only seals can. Our bus then took us to our destination, the small town of Ancud on the north coast of Chiloe. My first revelation about camping is that instead of being in the centre of town, like you are with hostels, you have to walk out with all your bags to your campsite. This inconvenience was however tempered by the fact it was less than half the price of a hostel. Cool beans.
We'd arrived quite late, so after setting up camp (easier said than done) all the shops had shut, so we had to find ourselves a restaurant, which wasn't in the initial plan. The only place we found was serving completos, which appears to be the national dish of Chile. This consists of a hot dog topped with tomatoes
and avocado, and is actually pretty good. After this, it was time to retire to the tent for the night.
The next morning, I awoke to find the inside of my tent damp, which was strange as it hadn't rained. It appears the ventilation is particularly great, and I was now being rained on by the condensation of my breathing during the night. Not a great start for a tent that's got to last me at least 2 months! After drying out, myself and Chris headed down into town to get breakfast and figure out our days plans.
These turned out to be getting a bus to Chepu to see a drowned forest, then walking the magnificently named Sendero de Chile to Puñihue, to see the penguin colony, before finding a way back to Ancud. Unfortunately, the next bus to Chepu wasn't until 2pm, and as it was now 12pm, we decided to try and hitch it. We did manage to get a lift (on a bus) to the turning to Chepu, but as we started walking down the dusty track, battering horseflies left right and centre, it became obvious that there wasn't much traffic in these parts.
This didn't matter though, as we could keep walking, and the bus would pass us at some point right? Wrong! A local farmer we passed told us it didn't actually come this way at all. Bugger. Luckily, a car did pass, and they gave us a lift to Chepu, where we had a welcome break from the horseflies at a cafe, and checked out the drowned forest, which was really cool.
And so to the Sendero... ah the Sendero. We found the sign, and started walking down the way it seemed to point. It soon was evident that our lovely sendero was little more than a dusty track, and it seemed to us to be overly romanticised by being called the Sendero de Chile. 14 not overly pleasant and uphill kilometres later, we arrived at the end of the track. This is where we found a map, and discovered something truly horrifying. We hadn't actually walked the Sendero de Chile, which is a lovely coastal walk, but actual a little side road which runs nearby it. Darnation
Double darnation was that we were too late to go to the penguin colony, but we did get to check
out the beach, which was quite nice. Less nice was that there was no way back to Ancud, but after briefly thinking we were stuck, we found some locals who wanted to head that way, so shared a taxi with them. This turned out to be a great stroke of luck, as there was a food festival on which we wouldn't have known about, and they took us up to try some local specialities, including my favourite, Anticuchos, which is essentially a lot of meat on a kebab stick. Great.
The next day, we were heading back to the mainland, so it was time to pack up my (condensation soaked) tent and get the return ferry. Next stop was a lake regarded as the most beautiful in the southern lake district.
Stewart
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Verónica
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Agradecimientos
Steward quiero agradecerte ,pues con tu hermoso blog das a conocer mi bello país. Yo no domino muy bien el idioma inglés y por eso no he hecho algo como lo que has hecho tu. Todos los lugares que muestras en tu fotos los conozco y también algunos de Argentina, pues con mi esposo e hijos acostumbramos a acampar por ahi en Verano en nuestros viajes. Te felicito y espero seguir disfrutando de tus viajes. Saludos de Chile!