The Life and Times of a Girl Named Adventure: Better Late than Never: Chiloe

Here is the better late than never entry about Chiloe:

So we upped and went to Chiloe. We left on Thursday and headed out in the morning for Castro, the capital of this Chilean island. We arrived in Castro with just enough time in the day to do a quick walk through of the city, in the rain of course, as suggested by our guide books. No, its not suggested to do a walk through in the rain…it is suggested to hit up some of the main attractions such as the artesania, the water front, the port and the eye catching fishing boats, in addition to the main plaza and the quintessential church. Naturally, it was pouring so we hurried into the church, Iglesia San Francisco- apparently one of the most striking wooden structures in all of Chile. Great! So we hurry in, failing to take notice of any of the signs outside of the church and we walk right in, me leading the way of course, and plopped down in a pew in one of the last rows. Whew, out of that rain huh guys? I look over to see the church, striking as it is, full of people…both dead and alive. It appears as though we have casually invited ourselves to a funeral service. Oh. Dear. That explains the glares. So with our colorful rain jackets, admittedly not very inconspicuous in a sea of black clothed mourners, we rushed out of the service, stifling our laughs and truthfully our embarrassment. We were those tourists. You know the ones I’m talking about. The ones that have no regard for what’s going on and start snapping photos before they realize…oh… this is a funeral. Woops? We made a quick retreat to the waterfront side of town and checked out the artesania with your basic hand made goods. The rain sucks, but the cool thing about it is that with rain, comes rainbows.

Waterfront in Castro

After walking some along the water front, catching a glimpse or two of some palafito type structures, we headed back to the plaza for round two with the church. Service being over, we entered, albeit cautiously, and it was indeed all it was cracked up to be. Following this, we felt our tumblies a rumbling so we made a quick stop at our non-heated hostel (yes I could see my breath while inside…freezing? More like frozen petrified Kelly can’t move kind of cold) to ask the recommendation of the woman who ran the place of a cheap and good place to eat. She referred us to the hostel next door where its respective owner cooked us up a delicious meal of salmon filet, choritos, salad, soup, and even threw in a shot of pisco with coffee to help warm us up! This was Erin’s first real alcoholic drink. And I got kick out of it mainly because she doesn’t drink alcohol or coffee…and this was both. What a champ! I’m so proud! Even though she wasn’t exactly thrilled at the prospect. Peer pressure remains the victor yet again, and in her words “ I couldn’t say no to the Mohawk!” ( the hostel guy had a mohawk…hahaaaa). After this dinner, which cost us all of ~$5 USD, we were all pretty beat and headed back up to our icebox of a hostel, caught the end of the Spanish version of Love Actually, and hit the sack.

Get "Happy"!!

We headed out early the next morning to Chiloe National Park. This park was beautiful and I was fully intrigued mainly due to the fact that I had never bore witness to ecosystems such as this. Truly remarkable. Mountains on one side, the pacific ocean on the other and tons of new cool trees, plants, flowers, and cats (cool cats- that would be us…) in between! We headed out to the beach side of the park and I lead an off trail expedition to the ocean, successfully navigating through land mine filled cow pasture and the sporadic body of water. Katherine, the horse whisperer, made a new friend and it started to torrentially down pour the second we reached the coast. Gotta love these Chilean winters. Rainjacket? Check. Rainpaints? Check. Umbrella? Check. It looks like I never change my outfit because I’m always donning my raingear. Style forgone in the name of dryness. Not too surprising.

Flores de Mechay

Oceano Pacifico: Parque Nacional Chiloe

Katherine the horse whisperer!

I don't know what this is...but it looked cool :)

Flores de Pelu

Sunken boat, Parque Nacional Chiloe

After the national park we, jetted back to the same Castro hostel food guy and enjoyed a delicious home cooked meal of seafood lasagna: salmon, choritos, and a creamy seafood sauce. Heaven in a pasta dish hopped on a bus to Ancud and crashed at a much nicer hostel. While the warm showers and beds were a pleasant change, we were met with the disastrous news in Ancud that the penguins that we had pretty much planned this trip in an effort to see, would not be migrating to the island until September. This is not a joke. Please don’t cry. I was really upset too, but we are going to make it through this together. Aka: I’m going back to Ancud and I will see pinguinos before I leave this country. Nuff said. So instead of heading off on a penguin expedition, the next morning we did a brief walking tour of the small fishing town, checked out the local museum and the Spanish colonial fort. The weather was beautiful which made me really like Ancud. The weather was super craps in Castro- and that could have a great deal to do with why it’s not my favorite place.

Anchor chains: Museo de Ancud

Moving on: so from Ancud we hit up the next spot on our list: Puerto Montt. The chef hostel guy warned us that Puerto Montt sucked, and he was right. Oh all knowing hostel chef dude, please forgive us for not adhering to your words of wisdom. So upon walking, briefly, around Puerto Montt and checking out the artesania and closed museum…we decided to pick up another bus ticket to the neighboring Puerto Varas. While a little touristy, Puerto Varas in the winter time was beautiful. A small town feel and yet so many things to do! We touched down at our home base hostel and headed to a great local spot for dinner, and while we may have splurged a little, it was so worth it. The food was great and the dish I ordered was literally called “Salmon in butter”. Good decision? Absolutely. Ice cream topped off the night and we fell asleep in warm beds for the second night in a row. What a relief.

The next morning we woke up, made our own Chilean breakfast- fruit, bread and manjar (dulce de leche), and cheese. We then set off for the town center to see if we couldn’t pick up a tour to the stunning natural areas around the city. The city is in such close proximity to two major volcanoes and borders the second largest lake in all of Chile! After much searching, we couldn’t seem to find any tours on Sunday (due to the fact that life shuts down in Chile on Sunday…)and I claimed that “we may or may not be kicking a dead horse here guys” until, all of a sudden, an opportunity presented itself! We stumbled upon a small tourism office and the woman advised us that only one company does tours in the winter on Sundays and she wasn’t sure if they would be operating today because it was a holiday weekend. With brochure in our hand we rushed to the tour office and much to our surprise there was one, and only one, tour option for the day. A van ride up to Volcan Osorno. It was going to cost us around $30USD, but it would be a 4 hour deal…so we said why not! Before we bought our tour tickets, we found the bus terminal and secured a night return trip to Valdivia. We then hit up the artesania which sported a lot of Lapiz Lazuli jewelry, which if I am correct, is a precious stone that is only found in the Andes. Following this, we had a spectacular lunch at a local café, Danes, and headed back to meet our van tour.

Iglesia Sagrado Corazon de Jesus: Puerto Varas

Lapiz Lazuli: Artesania, Puerto Varas

We eagerly took our places among a couple from Madrid and a family from Brasilia and headed off toward the volcano. We stopped once along the way to take pictures while the tour guide showered us with information about the local area, its development, industries, history, and fun facts about the volcano (one of which was that Teddy Roosevelt encouraged the Chilean government to create a park to protect the volcanos! Go teddy! You da man!). So as we approach the volcano our original thought that we would be just turning around and heading back to the city went out the window. Our van started climbing the switchbacks, bordered with snow banks, until we reached a quaint ski area near the top! Our guide announced that we would have an hour and a half here before heading back.

Cumbre de Volcan Osorno

Me: thrilled to be up close and personal with a volcano (Vocan Calbuco in the background but I'm standing on Volcan Osorno)

Of course, I flipped. Yes, it’s true. I am like a 5 year old when it comes to snow. Florida girl born and raised, I never had much of an opportunity to get sick of snowball fights, sledding, and the like. So my first instinct was to bolt out of the van and begin gallivanting through the untouched powder. And by this I mean, it was untouched because it was 3 feet deep. I sunk right in. and I loved every second of it. We made snow angels, I rolled down the hill like an idiot, and I was happy as Santy Claus. Winter wonderland. On a volcano. In Chile. Let that sink in. It was so much fun and although I was soaking wet and shivering, it was so worth it. And the $30.

Snow bank love <3

Heading back down the volcano

Volcan Osorno, Puerto Varas

A night time bus ride took us from Puerto Varas to Valdivia, where I was thankful to have the next day off. Thank goodness for that Virgin. Or in the words of Erin “Yeah, I’ll take the Virgin”.

La Virgen

Overall- fun trip, but I still wish it were summer time.

In other news: nothing too exciting to report. I had my first Chilean language and culture class and it’s good to have something sound on the schedule every week. Although, there is supposed to be another march tomorrow so I don’t know how very set in stone this class schedule is. Our professor even told us “Also class, if we have another event where there is tear gas has affected campus, which is likely, then we may be meeting downtown somewhere.”

Good to know that location, time, and frequency of class is variable. All things that I’m still growing accustomed to.

Marisol took me for a drive around Niebla, the small little coastal town about 17km outside of Valdiva. The views were breathtaking because the beach is about the opposite of what I’m used to. No white sand, beach volleyball, or surf shops. Instead there are cliffs, black sand, and fresh seafood empanadas. The best part is that Niebla is so close that the Micros go there. This means that it would cost me a little more than a dollar for a round trip ticket to the beach. Gotta love it. I can’t wait for the warm weather so I can go on the weekends. There is also an old colonial fort that I am itching to explore. And by explore I mean do some bouldering. Marisol told me that sometimes people climb the walls of the fort. I assume this to mean top roping because a few of the fort’s walls are natural cliffs…aka they are very tall. At least a pitch. Prolly more. Anyways, our drive was a sunset drive and I got to see the sunset over the Pacific. I didn’t have my camera with me but I did have my flip video camera so I did the best I could with what I had.

In today’s breaking news: Still haven’t gotten our carnets. I was really close to blowing up at the guy at the Civil Register place the last time we went. We are going tomorrow, so hopefully they are there. If not, I’m going to yell in English until I get my way. You all have been given fair warning. Once we get them we can start doing big girl important things. Like being temporary citizens of Chile. Wooo!

Now registering for classes? That’s a whole different giant entirely….

That’s it for now.

Ciao

Some pics of the river near our neighborhood and the city of Valdivia at dusk