Chiloe Island is viewed as a cultural heartland of Chile, preserving traditional beliefs and ways of life. It is also a refuge for a large variety of exotic birds.
The map below shows Puerto Varas, which we were leaving, and the northern half of Chiloe Island (with Ancud), our destination:
A ferry is the only way to get to Chiloe (Chill-oh-ay) island on the Pacific coast of Chile. The short ferry ride gave us a great view of the Andes Mountains to the east:
From the ferry, our tour bus took us to Ancud, visible on the map above, on the north shore of the island. We made a stop at the harbor to some of the birds of the area:
A mother and chick:
or is it three chicks:
There are signs along the harbor describing traditional beliefs on the island that have not been completely abandoned:
The photo above shows Alex, our local guide, explaining the beliefs to us. Our hotel was a short drive from the harbor. Our trip leader, Sebastian, had been preparing us for days for how small the rooms are in this hotel. They are small, but in some ways, this was my favorite hotel of the trip:
a beautiful view from the deck:
a Spanish fort on the cliffs below:
a beautiful, rustic interior:
interesting wood carvings:
and models of the famous churches in the area:
The next morning, our bus took us to the east coast of Chiloe, and then a ferry to the smaller island of Quinchao, which is off of Dalcahue, near the lower left of the map above. We stopped in the small town of Curaco de Velez to experience some local color. Almost every building in the town is clad in shingles, and the scallops along the bottom of the shingles of each building are cut differently:
American Thanksgiving was approaching, but the turkey above didn’t have to worry about it. There was a bust of a famous admiral in the square:
a very colorful church:
and a sign about all the migratory birds that use the islands:
We walked down toward the harbor:
What do they say about getting your ducks in a row? Though I guess these are geese. A type of seaweed has been found to have medicinal value, so now it is collected and sold:
Fishermen had pulled a squid onto the beach, planning to sell it in the market:
Patterns of color still flashed across its skin.
We then drove further south on the island of Quinchoa to the city of the same name. The oldest wooden church in Chile is there:
Amazing when you consider that all the decorations and figures were hand-carved by local craftsmen. There were many boat builders on the island, so they knew how to work with wood. This church, along with 15 others in the region, has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We then doubled back to the ferry and had a good lunch, followed by shopping in the town of Dalcahue on the Chiloe side. Here are some of our group, relaxing in the town square after lunch:
across from another of the UNESCO churches:
with some whimsical decoration near shops:
On our way out of town, we dropped by the shop of a local boat builder:
This is a boat he is restoring:
a boat he is building:
and a larger boat he is building for his son:
I didn’t see a single power tool in the place.
We returned to our hotel in Ancud for a brief rest, then took off on our afternoon adventure west of town:
First we had time to wander on the beach:
Later, a boat would take us on a cruise around the islands on the left.
As we donned our life preservers for the boat ride, I got a kick out the name of our boat:
They had a unique way of getting us out to our boat:
I would have been happy to see a penguin or two, but it turned out better than that:
I’m pretty pleased with these photos considering they were taken from 30 yards or more away from a rocking boat. We saw several other kinds of birds as well. Oystercatchers:
Black cormorants:
and several kinds of ducks:
Then it was time to turn back toward shore:
A couple more shots of the cart used to get us off the boat:
We had dinner in the restaurant right there:
On the drive back to the hotel, we got off the bus to catch the sunset:
Pointing the camera away from the setting sun got an even better photo:
The next day, the ferry ride back to the mainland gave another view of the Andes Mountains and three of the seven nearby volcanos:
The photo immediately above is of Osorno, with considerably more snow than when we were hiking its slopes.
We had some time before our flight south, so we stopped off at a market in Puerto Montt, close to Puerto Varas where we had stayed earlier:
How fresh do you like your fish:
There were some sea lions begging for scraps from tourists:
A bag of raw wool brought to a crafts shop for knitting into goods:
Our flight took us to Puenta Arenas, the subject of my next post, near the southern tip of South America.
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