I was on the last ferry of the season from Chaitén to Castro, a city on the island of Chiloé. I entered a different world. As the ferry approached the big island, there were many smaller islands we came past. There was so much life here! I saw towns everywhere. I’d definitely left the wilderness of Patagonia. I stared out over the water, watching smaller boats, the salmon farms and huge jellyfish in the water. It was quiet on the ferry and so was the arrival in Castro on this Sunday.
Chiloé’s traditional houses are the wooden palafitos, houses on stilts. My hostel lay across from them, just over the hill on which they’d built the city center, in the Gamboa area. The city has several viewpoints to admire the architecture and every day I saw daytrippers coming around to take photos. I was daytripping myself, basing myself in Castro for the cultural part of my stay in Chiloé. Luckily this was fairly easy to do in micros, which drive around the island all day. They are minibuses, where you pay when you exit. Some go very frequently, whereas other sections of the island are a bit harder to reach. I had a good time just riding them and staring out over the rolling landscape. The water never seemed far away. Again I was amazed by just how populated it was.
Churches
The island is famous for churches. I even went to a small museum about them in Ancud. The architecture here is quite unique. They build with wood and have special techniques to attach different pieces together. It’s like a complicated puzzle, but doesn’t need nails. The mix of indigenous and European traditions put 16 of these churches on the list of Unesco. Many of the buildings on the island have small wooden pieces on it, like the scales of a fish. Then they are painted in beautiful colors, which makes the look really unique. I managed to see a few of the churches during my trip. The nicest one was perhaps in Chonchi. A few years ago, its tower collapsed, but luckily it’s been restored again. This was also one of the few churches I could enter, although it wasn’t super special from inside.
Small towns, quirky museums
In Chonchi, as in all towns, you could walk along the coast and browse the shops and stands for artesania, or souvenirs. There is also a small museum in a house of normalist teachers. I still don’t fully understand what that means, but in essence it was a school for teachers. The building consists of an older and newer part and displays life in the old days with furniture and other items donated by the local population. Upstairs is a small exhibition with tools, mythical art and school items. After a short wait I was met by a very enthusiastic lady, who cheerfully shared the story of the museum. For part two she left me with her intern, who followed me around and explained some things when she saw me looking at them. Mind you, all of this was in Spanish and although they intended to speak slowly, they quickly forgot in all their enthusiasm. The most impressive part of the house was the fogon, a room with a massive space for an open fire, where people not only cooked and gathered, but also slept to take advantage of the warmth. As I left, they let me out the front door. It was a 2-part door, because local wisdom says this way witches cannot enter. Luckily I passed the test and left without a problem.
In the town of Quemchi I found another quaint museum. It was dedicated to the author Francisco Coloane, born here, but who aparently is very famous in France due to his travels. Although I’m not familiar with his work, there was another good reason to visit the museum. The house was placed there by a “minga”. In a minga all the town’s people, whether fisherman or farmer, come together to help with a big project. This time the project was moving this house to its current place, a few kilometers from where it was built. A documentary, in French with Spanish subtitles, showed how it was done. First they put the house on some beams and dragged it towards the sea with the help of bulls. Then they had to wait for the high tide the next day and came back to drag the house to its new location by boat. The bulls came back to pull it on shore and now it’s a museum. Fascinating!
Island sights
In the city Ancud I wandered around on a sunny day. As I strolled through the market with handwoven woolen items and other souvenirs, an older salesman started talking to me. When he learned I was Dutch, he enthusiastically started telling me about his love for languages. This in English because, he explained, he didn’t speak Dutch yet. He did learn Russian at 10 years old, just to be able to read a book in its original language. After my chat I visited a fortress, which was pretty unimpressive, saw a beautiful beach and stared over the landscape from a mirador. On this clear day I could see the mountain range and snow-covered volcanoes in the distance.
The next day the weather had turned, but I still enjoyed a day of sightseeing. I had lunch in a super local place, where some of the men were already sipping on glasses of liquor. I visited the island of Aucar, which is connected by a wooden walkway. I saw some dolphins swimming off the shore. I’d also been told there was a beautiful waterfall I should hitchhike to. As I walked away from the island though, I noticed a woman at the bus stop. She told me there might be a micro that goes close to the waterfalls. We waited together and were in luck. A micro showed up and dropped me off at the turnoff to the waterfall. After a quick visit I returned to the bus stop where a micro to Castro just drove by before I reached it. About 20 minutes later an empty micro picked me up, going to Dalcahue, where I could transfer to another one within minutes. I love when things just work out!
Exploring Chiloé has been a great mix of me staring out of micro windows, eating cake in excellent cafés, chats with other travelers, practising Spanish and just doing completely different things after many weeks on the carretera austral. There’s still the nature to check out, but more on that later. Hasta luego!
