Isla de Chiloe, Chile (Feb 4 - Feb7, 2011)

As scheduled, we hit the road for the Isla de Chiloe and we decide at the same time that our visit in the south of Chile will end at the extreme south of Chile, as it is also the end of the Carretera Austral (highway - Routa 5). It is the road that starts in Anchorage, Alaska, 21000 kilometers long.

The Isla of Chiloe belongs to an archipelago of some small 40 islands with 130,500 inhabitants. Its culinary speciality is the ''curanto``, a dish including seafood (mussels and large clams), sausages, chicken, potatoes. Needless to say that we have tried it !

Chiloe belongs to the region of the Lakes (los Lagos) and this is also the door to Patagonia, that we have decided to visit once we will visit Argentina. Another specificity for this island is the fact that 16 churches have been declared ''Unesco World Heritage Sites''. Most of them date back from the 18 and the 19th centuries. The oldest one is on a small island called Achao. You will see many pictures of churches on our website, not that we have become religious all of a sudden, but the architecture is truly unique and part of the island history. After taking the ferry for 30 minutes and paying 9500 pesos for the car, we are ready to discover this new region. We don't find Ancud much interesting and head directly for the ''Monumento Natural Punihil'' to see pinguins on their reproduction site, the only one in Chile. The mini cruise of 30-40 minutes will enable us to see the Magelland and the Humboldt Pinguins,

 and a few other marine birds (Chilean cormorans). We want to visit the the little house in the park and we are welcomed by a lady. This lady advises us that she stays there all year round, every day. We ask her where we may camp and she shows us a nice camp site for free. Again unbelievable ! We mention to her that in the last couple of nights, it was very chilly and before we know it, Lily tells us that she will let us stay with her in her house. We meet her nephew, Ramon who is visiting from Argentina.

Ramon introduces us to how to drink the famous `` maté``.

It is a ritual where sharing is the whole point of the experience. Prepariing mate is a ritual in intself. One person, the cebador, fills the mate gourd or calabash almost to the top with yerba, heating but not boiling the water in a pava (kettle) and pouring it into. Drinkers then sip the likid through a bombilla, a silver straw with a bulbous filter at its lower end that prevents the yerba leaving from entering the tube. The cebador pours water slowly as he or she fills the gourd. The gourd then passes to whoever the cebador decides to give it to, you drink it and then pass it back to the cebador. Argentines consumean averae of 5kg per person per year, more than four times their average intake of coffee. It is also very popular in Uruguay.

Ramon travels from Argentina by hitch-hiking for 6 months. We will bring Ramon to Quemchi. Ramon is a student who would like to become a Chef. Despite knowing Lili and Ramon for only one day, we are truly sad and emotional to leave them both. They have once again shown us how Chilean are generous, nice and be able to be simple at the same time. Gracias, Lili y Ramon!Picture of Lili below :

We have also met a guy riding a motorcycle from the United States who is travelling for 8 months in Peru and Chili with his wife and his Peruvian wife. We are eager to talk with them for a little while, and although we envy them in a way, we now are happy to be able to take really the time to meet with the local people from Chile.

De Quemchi, we will leave for Castro, Neron, Viluplli, Chonchi and we camp close to Cucao for 5000 pesos for the night. The place is magic, close to a lake, we obtain one more time an extra blanket to prevent us from being cold. We leave to discover the ``Parque Nacional de Chiloe, but this is a big mistake as when we come back, we are surrounded by another 7 tents and again until 2am, we will be patient and not sleep.

The following day, we reach Quellon, our final destination in the South of Chile, take a few pictures and we start our trip back to the North.

We end up camping in Castro, get another blanket for the night, go to eat a ``Curanto`` on a restaurant on ``palafitos``(pilotis). The houses on pilotis are typical of Castro. They typically belong to fishermen.

The following day, we leave the island of Chiloe and stop one more time in Frutillar and Puerto Varas to get better pictures of the volcanoes. For one last time, we eat a Kuchen too.

At the end of the day, we end up in a small village inhabited by fishermen on the Pacific coast, Mehuin. This village has been fighting a multinational pulp and paper company for about 5 years who has been polluting the ocean for about 15 years. The fishermen are obviously concerned as this is their means of living, but this is again a fight of David against Goliath, the company having much more money and who cares about some fishermen and their kids ! We camp in this village across the beach and again, our Chilean friends keep us awake until 4 am this time. Alain and I are now saying that if this keeps on going every night, we will need more vacation to rest, once we come back in Montreal !

As promised, the following day we stop at Oscar and Alicia`s residence and it is hard to say how long we will end up staying.