Chiloe Island

In my rush to get the last post finished I omitted to state explicitly that the fjords are very beautiful and taking the cruise was a first class decision. It would have been better if the weather was nicer but you just have to take your chances.

The double T at the end of Puerto Montt is not a typo. The town is named after Manuel Montt, who was president at the time the town was founded. Apparently he could spell his name correctly. There are several Montts sprinkled about Chile´s history, including Manuel´s son, Pedro, who also bacame president and Admiral Jorge, who was more distantly related but nevertheless copped the presidency for a few years between Manuel and Pedro.

Just as I emerged on Monday morning from the Puerto Montt port, a local micro came by with a destination sign that said "Terminal", so I didn´t have to walk to the bus station. Nor did I have to wait long for a bus to Castro. The one I chose turned out to be a long distance bus, probably from Santiago, stopping in Pto Montt on its way to Castro. My posi wasn´t noticeably warm from its previous occupant, but his/her rubbish was still in the seat pocket in front of me.

The journey started slowly, due to the overloaded streets of the rapidly growing port city. Once we were on the open road we passed through pleasant agricultural land on gentle hills. I was particularly struck by what I at first took to be gorse. Now I have examined it closely I see that it has regularly spaced spines, but the new growth is gentle to the touch. However, it grows in the same bushy way to about the same height and celebrates the Chilean spring with a riot of intensely yellow flowers. It also grows as abundantly as gorse does in NZ if it isn´t kept in check. In the part of Chile´s Lakes Region that I have seen to date it lines the roads and sprouts in any fields where it isn´t ruthlessly kept down. In places there are literally acres of hillside covered in its brilliant yellow blossoms.

Chiloe is reached by ferry. There are two companies providing services, one of which was Cruz del Sur, the company whose bus I was riding in. I think the bus drivers take the first vessel regardless of its owner because, although we were ferried by Cruz del Sur, there was another Cruz del Sur bus on the rival´s boat.

The strait is quite wide. The crossing takes half an hour. Passengers were allowed to get off the bus, patronise the tiny cafe and admire the sea. There were lots of birds but I had left my binoculars on the bus hadn´t I. When a seal popped its head up and two penguins flippered by I went back for the bins. This, of course, was the signal for the avian activity to wind down to two very common kelp gulls.

There was one more stop, in Ancud, before we charged on to Castro. The town is famous for houses built on poles over the water called palafitos. This is allegedly so that boats can be tidily moored underneath but I did not see any examples of this. It also has a notable church, Iglesia de San Francisco. It was modelled on a famous church in Europe (I forget which one) but built of timber.

As a pack-toting foreigner I was correctly identified off the bus as a man looking for lodgings. I politely accepted the card but made my way to Hostal Central because Lonely Planet promised me that it would be the most economical deal in town. Lonely Planet was wrong! Instead of US$7 (about 3,500 pesos) the tariff there was 8,000. So I dug out the card and decided to accept the bus depot man´s 6,000 deal. Only there was no answer when I rang the bell. Castro is a very popular summer holiday destination so there was no chance of being stranded, but this was rather frustrating.

A visit to the municipal tourist office secured the most unhelpful map I have ever seen. As I was pondering what to do next a woman asked me if I needed lodging and produced yet another card. She quoted 6,000 including breakfast and a deal was struck with Hostal Don Miguel, where I got a small single room, which was nicer than the expected dormitory.

I tried twice to admire the church, but an unscheduled service was in progress so I chose to be content with peeking through the windows at the back.

Chiloe is famous for curanto, a dish with seafood, meat, potatoes and other goodies served only in huge portions. Traditionally this was cooked in an earth oven, hangi style. Lonely Planet recommeded a particular restaurant. It was wrong again! Curanto was not on the menu. But my consolation fish dish was pretty darn good so I´m not too cross.

Tuesday was set down for a trip to Chiloe´s National Park, on the ocean side of the island. Local micros do the journey a few times every day. The 9:00 am bus from Castro was popular with the tourists, including two very tall and lovely girls who spoke Dutch to each other at the back of the bus.

It took an hour and a half to trundle to the park entrance, where we were relieved of 1,000 pesos each and given an informative leaflet with a map.

The Tepual informative trail was my first destination. It is only about 700 metres long, but I took dozens of photos so it took quite a long time to complete. Tepual forest is very like NZ bush. The tepu itself is not unlike manuka, although its scientific name shows that it is from a different plant family. And there is a nothofagus sp. tree that is a twin to totara.

There weren´t many birds in the bush, but around the park HQ were slender-billed parakeets (TICK) flying fast and noisily in the typical parakeet manner. A small brown bird with a lovely song was finally identified as an elaenia. I hope I have spelled that correctly. I don´t have the field guide with me. There were also sierra finches and siskins. Happy bird watching.

A longer trail led to sand dunes and the beach. In amongst the dunes there were cinnamon-coloured arrayan trees growing, the ones they make such a fuss about near Bariloche in Argentina. I shouldn´t be sarcastic. They are particularly lovely trees and worth making a fuss about.

I squelched across the marshy bits and stood on the beach. A strong wind from the North blew along a firm, sandy beach that could have been Northland´s West coast. Northland is generally warmer, though. I used my binoculars but I couldn´t see Chile´s West-side neighbour, New Zealand.

The end of the trail was a gravel road through farmland. I followed it for a while, looking for the trail to Rio Cole Cole. It was rather soft, deep gravel and hard to walk on. There were no signs, so I turned back to park HQ for directions. Alas, the road was the trail. It would be no fun trudging along that for an hour or so, so I returned to the interpretive trail for another immersion in the mossy, wild bush.

There still weren´t many birds, but one unseen denizen had a song that reminded me strongly of a grey warbler. And this time I saw a woodpecker (TICK).

It had been cloudy with a few light showers, but now the showers became heavier and longer and finally settled into persistent, cold rain. Back at park HQ the Dutch girls were also taking shelter from the elements. Close up, they were both very beautiful but, alas, much too young for me. (Mike Theilmann take note!) They spoke excellent English, of course. My guess that they were internationally famous supermodels was wide of the mark. They were veterinary students getting practical experience overseas. Their particular project was to gather and analyse information in the Osorno area on a virus-borne disease that occurs in Chilean cattle. Most of their class mates had chosen to travel to NZ for this part of their training.

They had heard that the best curanto was found in a village about an hour´s bus ride from Castro. It was tempting to follow them to this delicacy, but I had promised myself that I would write up my blog, so in Castro I bid them farewell.

I hope you have appreciated my discipline in providing that post. Afterwards I scoured the streets of Castro for a restaurant that served curanto and I found one. I can report that the plate was overflowing with 18 mussels, 6 other bivalve shellfish, pork, chicken, a sausage and vegetables. And it was accompanied by a seafood soup. And I ate the lot! Yum!

Now I am back on the mainland in Puerto Varas. I remembered to have my binoculars with me when I ambled round the ferry, so I could at least identify the penguin and the terns this time.

Tomorrow I have booked a tour to see Chile´s biggest trees. I shall be interested to see how they measure up to kauri. Chile´s tourist literature maintains that the alerce is the biggest conifer in the southern hemisphere. So it must be impressive.