Chiloé and Puerto Varas: 9th - 14th March

Next stop was the tranquil and historically rich group of islands around the main one, Chiloé, to be found about two thirds of the way down Chile’s Pacific coast. After spending an uninspiring Saturday night in Puerto Montt (a major port), we headed off to Castro, the island’s main town, by bus and ferry.

The island is regarded as separate from Patagonia and prides itself on its far-fetched fairy tales about repugnant men, smelly women, unicorns and half-chicken half-worms that live in the forests and caves (for those that read Spanish, check out http://www.chiloeweb.com/chwb/chiloeisland/tem_gen_mitologia.html). There is speculation that many of its residents originated from Polynesia, due to its most renowned dish and its unusual preparation, similarities of which can be found between Chiloé and various Polynesian islands. Curanto was traditionally prepared in a hole in the ground with heated rocks, known as an ‘ollo’ and consists of potatos, onions and different shellfish all heaped on top of each other. We assume that the sausage perched on top of the curanto we enjoyed was a German contribution to the dish.

Indeed there are many European influences in Chiloen history/culture as the island provided protection from the dangers of the Pacific seas to European boats passing through their on their way north. Many objects in the local museum in Chonchi are imports from Europe in the 18th and 19th century, including a very curious set of hair-curling irons (see photo). Chiloen people also travelled and still travel extensively. Many of the Chilean ‘peones’ (servants) went off to earn money by working for estancias (ranches) throughout Argentina so that they could come back and buy land and settle with their families.

We were not entirely impressed with our hotel in Castro, which boasted a dingy, dark room with a telephone covered in chocolate, from which emerged a rather playful earwig. Our neighbour upstairs was a heavy walker, a loud TV watcher and an even louder snorer so our second day found us in a cleaner, brighter and breezier room on the second floor. We took a bus to Chonchi (20km or so south of Castro) where we got a very thorough and informative hour-long guided tour at the local museum (excellent value for 50p each), although it concentrates only on the island’s history after Europeans arrived. It seems the islanders did, however, put up quite a fight before finally becoming a part of Chile in the first part of the 19th Century.

Chiloe is actually most famed for its little wooden churches. Many tourists do their best to photograph them all. Luckily we did not have a car so we didn’t, although the local wee buses served us very well, and we managed to see a reasonable select few. Another must see are the palafitos, which are little houses on stilts to be found in the harbour at Castro. Chonchi used to have them too in but they were all destroyed by a whopping tsunami in the 1960s (Castro was rescued from this fate as the town is protected by a peninsula). We did question the wisdom of building houses at such close distance to the sea, but were assured that the quick exit for fishermen out to sea was well worth the risk.

We spent one more night this time right out in the sticks on a tiny island called Quinchao, in a town called Anchao, which was all very chilled indeed. We decided it was time to try the most typical Chilean tipple, ‘pisco sour’, which is a type of brandy mixed with egg white and we’re not sure what else, but its sickly sweet flavour wasn’t really our cup of tea so back to the usual beer we went. After that we’d had quite enough tranquility and started making plans for our trip through the Chilean and Argentine Lake districts. We headed to Puerto Varas to look into doing an 8-hour boat and bus trip across the border, but at $175 each it was a complete rip off and therefore not worth it so we paid $24 for the bus instead. We stayed far too long in Puerto Varas (two nights), a town with very strong Germanic influences in its architecture and food, and although the place we stayed in was very nice indeed, we were extremely unimpressed that the owner decided to charge us $12 more than was quoted over the phone when reserving. So despite our pleasant stay we won’t be recommending the Hotel Weisser Haus.

So it was clearly time to head back into Argentina. However, the bus journey was not going to be a simple one, what with having to go through the palarver of leaving Chile, and then entering Argentina. Once we’d done the latter, passports stamped and luggage was sniffed by dogs, no one made any move to put the luggage back onto the bus. In fact we were quite shocked when another bus came along and they started loading all the luggage from that one onto our bus! We thought there was something very sinister going on - is this what they do every time they cross borders? Was one of the buses stuffed with some kind of illegal substance? So we asked the driver and it turns out (rather boringly) one of the buses was having technical difficulties and had to go back. So back into Argentina we finally went…

Recommendations after this visit
Chiloé:
The museum at Chonchi - very informative
The restaurant where we ate curanto in Castro on the first night (but just posted Lonely Planet home and can’t remember name!), begins with S
Posada Sol y Lluvia in Anchao

Puerto Varas:
Restaurante Danes for the best empanadas (pasties) in Chile, even vegetable, which is a real find
Restaurante Mediterraneo, very pricey but fantastic grub

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