A week on the island of Chiloé

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Just wanted to say sorry that it has been such a long time since updating my blog, but due to some problems with the blog's website and just having too much fun in Argentina, I haven't got around to it lately 😊

So after a few days in Pucón, I broke off again from my Quebecois friends and headed to the city of Puerto Montt for the sole purpose of buying a passage on the Navimag from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales, a three day journey to the south of Chile. At the Navimag office, I was notified that the boat would be leaving two days behind schedule which really didn't bother me at all since I have no schedule to begin with. Off to the bus station to buy another bus ticket to the town of Castro on the island of Chiloé. Luckily since buses run so frequently here, it was absolutely no problem to find a bus that left within a half hour. So after another few hours on a bus, with a ferry ride over to the island of Chiloé, I made it to Castro in the pouring rain, something which I heard is very common in Chiloé. Found myself a nice single room at Residencial Cordillera for $12 a night and made myself at home since I figured I would be here for a few days.

My first day in Castro I didn't do very much as I thought I may have been coming down with a cold.... not a problem because it was pouring rain again. Luckily, one of the only other tourists on the island seemed to staying in the same place as me so it gave me someone to talk at the hostel. The guy, a Brit, used to live out on the island with his family and is visiting his family for the summer. They don't have enough room for him in their house, so he is staying at the hostel for the summer.

Luckily in the whole week I spent on the island, I had three days of sun. People say that I was very lucky. One day, Samuel, the British guy and I went to the island of Achao to check out the oldest wooden Church on the island of Chiloé. Everything on the island is built of wood because there used to be no connection to the mainland to bring over any material to build with, so the people used the natural resources of the island. Gives the place a lot of character I gotta say. Not sure exactly why, but when people built houses out here they built them right on the water with most of the house supported by wooden stilts. Pretty cool and really colorful! Besides that, my time on the island was spent relaxing, finding out my boat ride to the south of Chile was cancelled 😞, visiting the national park on the island with some other travelers, and enjoying some Chilean wine while watching Canada lose to Chile in the under-20 soccer championships. Felt quite strange watching the soccer match happening in Toronto where the weather looked so nice because that day in Chiloé it was cold and all it did was rain. I had to question myself why I was not back in Canada enjoying the nice summery weather.

So as my boat ride to the south was cancelled, I decided to book a ticket to fly to the south to speed things up as I had been waiting around for this boat for almost a week. Next stop: Puerto Natales.

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Photos

The Panamerican Highway
Suppose to go as far north as Alaska and ends at the the southernmost town of Chiloé

Plaza in Achao
The church is the oldest wooden church on the island of Chiloe

Palafitos
Palafitos = Houses on stilts

Cathedral in Castro
The cathedral is completely made of wood, just like everything else on the island.

Interesting bridge
Shaped as a boat and only just wide enough for the bus to cross it.