Day 25 13 de Enero, 2009


Chile is broken up into numbered regions rather than states or provinces. The area of Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas lie within Chile’s Region X and also includes the island of Chiloe, an archipelago more than 120 miles long and 40 miles wide. The island was visited by Charles Darwin in 1837 and his journal entries are published in the book Voyage of the Beagle. It lies south of Puerto Montt and is separated from the mainland by a 10 mile +/- channel leading to the Pacific. The island has about 155,000 people with two main towns, Castro and Ancud , a sprinkling of smaller pueblos and a large national park on the portion bordering the Pacific.The only way to get there is by ferry or small airplane. Everything that we read about the island sounded interesting.

Puerto Montt is considered the northern gateway to the Patagonia area. With our limited time, we chose to visit the island of Chiloe and not the mainland. Everything we read said that it was like turning the clock back 25 years and that proved true. It is an unspoiled area with the beginnings of tourism in its quaint, bare bones lifestyle. We had bargained for a guided tour of the area who took us from Puerto Varas through to Castro, the capital of Chiloe. Alphonso, our non English speaking guide, picked us up for the 130 mile or so trip to Castro. We worked hard to ask questions and understand answers as we went through the wet forests and fields of Chiloe .ending in Castro where there are many houses built on stilts and painted bright colors. It is a fishing city that is also involved in transporting of farmed salmon.

Below is a photo of Chris on top of the narrow superstructure of the car ferry. That’s the top of a semi truck next to her. Underneath her is the world’s narrowest snack bar. .

I leaned over the edge to take a picture of the snack bar patrons with their coffee and rolls squished between the side of the truck and the snack bar

I counted 6 other ferrys besides ours going back and forth and they don’t waste any time. We’re third in line to unload behind these two. They zip in to the concrete ramp, drop their loading ramp and everybody takes off. The ferry reloads immediately, the pilot goes to the other end of the pilothouse and the ferry takes off the other way. It’s beautiful.

Castro is a hub of activity for fishing boats with mostly shell fish and salmon boats hauling farm salmon from pens somewhere further south in the islands.
The photo below is of the fishing boats, all of which were made locally of wood. The third photo is of a truck loaded with plastic tanks of harvested salmon headed for the factories in Puerto Montt.

Back at the hotel, here’s Chris emailing in the evening with her Pisco Sour, the national drink of Chile.

The second picture is out the hotel window of the bay at low tide.

This poor photo taken through a window on a rainy day is an unidentified bird that was nesting outside the hotel. I’ll bet Rick Austin would know.

Speaking of tides, we were in Castro a couple of days after the full moon. I checked the local tide tables and the total high to low tide was 6+ meters, about 18 feet. It was unreal to watch. The fisherman use the tide changes for boat repairs. Pull it in to the shallows at high tide, wait a couple of hours, and you’ve got about 4 or 5 hours to get your work done. Here’s a photo of a large fishing boat on it’s side.

Below are 2 photos taken less than an hour apart. The boat sits on it’s side then is refloated an hour later. Every boat that we saw had a strake or runner along the lower part of the hull parallel to the keel. This kept the boats from rolling all the way over when the low tide left them high and dry.

We met a young touring German couple and the four of us split the cost of a harbor tour with a local fisherman. Here’s the rear of the houses all along the waterfront, locally called Palafitos. Built completely on stilts, but the fronts are on the street above. From the street they look like any other house in town.

The next morning it was time to head out for the local bus terminal. About an hour walk after breakfast and Alan caught a siesta in the terminal before that bus arrived. I know, it’s not a pretty site.

Click on the LOCATION link below for a map of Castro



Ciao from Castro, Alan & Chris