The quirky and quaint Island of Chiloe

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Hola todos,

The Island of Chiloe saw us travelling in the company of Christian and Marij for much of the way. Amidst the grey skies we tried our hand at hitch hiking again - this time with much more success. The local chiloteans were very accommodating and gave us quite a few lifts to various corners of the island.

Chiloe was quite a different landscape to where we have been used to with few mountains and wide pastures, little towns with wooden churches and lots of shingles on their houses.

Throughout our trip across the island we amassed around 50 different shingle photos as somewhat of a collectors habit to amuse ourselves in the sleepy little towns.

The towns themselves consisted of usually one of the famous or if your just a small town less famous churches of chiloe - posters of which can be bought if required to capture the memory. Many of these churchers are made of the wood of the resilient and old Alerce trees which live to over 3000 years old. (see previous blog) As a result they pretty much withstand the very rainy climate of chiloe, yet they seem to suffer often from the perils of fire. Many have been burnt and rebuilt numerous times.

That brings me to one of the other very important responsibilities in towns with houses and churches built of so much wood. The Bomberos - your local firefighter. We arrived in Chonchi on the morning of a 150 year aniversary of the Bomberos with much pomp and fanfare. We watch the celebration for a while and for once the chilean speaker spoke with a enough pregnant pauses for use to understand some chilean spanish.

Well time moves on and so did we as we headed north up the island taking amusement where we could find it as the weather moved in on us. In face since Coiayqhue we have been feeling that the colder weather was finally going to put a limit to the hiking and other activities we had planned in the Andes. So as a result we have pushed further north with speed into the Lakes District, our next adventure.

Nicko and Rinske

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Photos

The Chonchi cemetery
The Chonchi cemetery with a magnificent full-colour replica of the local church proudly erected over family graves.

Autostop!
Finally a lift! Hitchhiking our way around the small island of Lemuy with Christian and Marij entertained us for the day.

Castro
The still waters off the town of Castro, Chiloe.

Iglesia
Chiloe is reknown for its impressive churches in an architectural style unique to the area.

Castro
Whilst these stilted houses are unique to Chiloe we quickly decided not to eat any fish or seafood after wondering where all the sewage goes....

Bomberos de chiloe
150 year aniversary of the Bomberos of Chonchi in Chiloe

More shingles Nicko!
I took it upon myself to photograph all the different types and colours of shingles found on Chiloe. Another unique feature of their architecture, this is one of my favs.

Pink lady
Perhaps this walk should be taken more often???

Bread anyone?
Seconds after taking this pic we were surprised when she asked passers-by for bread!

Quiet contemplation
A fisherman awaits the turning tide.

Push harder!
We were actually trying to photograph the kingfisher on the prow of this boat when the owner walked in and began heaving his boat into deeper water. You can see by the grimace on his face!

Another GI lost in action
Little is it known that Chiloe was a training ground for paratroopers in the second world war

Gold!
Unfortunately we didn't find the pots of gold at the end of the rainbow but it was pretty cool to see both ends plunging into the sea.

When is a sleeping bag not a sleeping bag?
When its one of these!!! In my hunt for a warmer sleeping bag I found the unconvential alternative that allows you to get out of the tent without having to pry yourself from your cosy bag. Unfortunately folks, I didn't end up purchasing this one - though the amusement factor was almost worth it!

Comments

[james st. james]

doin' it all for free
great blog entry. i'm glad you liked chiloé. just as a sidenote (you may already know this) every single firefighter in the entire country of chile works on a volunteer basis. i think it's the only country that does this. i don't exactly know how they're funded (there's something for you to investigate) but the firefighters themselves all work for free and are very well respected in chile. cheers!