Two weeks ago I set off on an adventure with two of my best friends here in Chile, Maggie and Brittany. We went to Chiloé, an island in southern Chile that is right above patagonia. We had been reading in our lonely planets that this was the place to go. It is a UNESCO world heritage site for all of its brightly colored wooden churches. Even though I had just gone to La Serena the weekend before, I can never say no to traveling.
We started off by taking a 16 hour bus to Puerto Montt. We almost missed out bus in Viña because we got to the station late, but luckily the bus arrived late. The thing about bussing here, is that the seats are more comfortable then airplane seats and the guys on the bus bring you pillows and blankets, and if your lucky they will even tuck you in ;). The buses are double-decker and play movies! I slept for most of this 16 hour bus ride and the first movie was in english with spanish subtitles, so I could actually understand what was going on. The only bad part is that they do not feed you, but honestly I could care less because it is sooo much cheaper then flying.
Once we got to Puerto Montt, we had to take a 1:30-2 hour bus ride to Ancud, Chiloé. Part of the bus ride included taking a 30 minute ferry to the island. It was completely breath-taking. Here are some photos from the ferry back, the first day it was really cloudy. The way back was really beautiful and we could not resist being tourists for the half hour.
Chiloé is a island chain that is a UNESCO world heritage site for its beautiful and colorful wooden churches. When we got onto the island from the ferry all you could see was beautiful greenery and small homes. It is quite the contrast from Valparaiso and Viña del Mar. Reminded me of my freeway drives in Washington.
We decided to first go to Ancud, which is at the top of the island chain and it one of the main cities. It was extremely beautiful, and nice because it was not tourist season so we were almost the only white "gringas" on the island. We spent the first day wondering around the coast line, going to the Ancud museum and buying some artesian crafts, which the island is famous for. The town is really relaxed and a refreshing change of pace from a city. We also tried a dish that is famous in the area, it is a type of fish/seafood stew that is traditionally cooked in the ground. None of us really liked it, but maybe if we had it at a different restaurant we would have? Here are some of the photos from the two days in Ancud:
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| Fishing boats |
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| Town city center |
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| Sunset from our hostel |
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| More boats, cannot get enough! |
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| The Fish Stew! |
Next we went to Castro, where we left our stuff at a hostel just to go to a nearby city for its crafts fair. At first we could not find the fair and thought that Lonely Planet had lied, haha but we eventually found it. They sold mostly crafts made of sheep wool, and it was all had crafted. I ended up buying a multi-colored rug, hat, and other small souvenirs. It is hard for me to resist buying things in this country! Everything is so beautiful and wonderfully created. We had worked up quite the appetite, so we went into this restaurant thing that the lonely planet had suggested. It was a large building that had different "booth" like restaurants that you could choose from and get their meal of the day. We ended up getting this amazing chicken and mashed potatoes for extremely cheap! The thing about Chile is that restaurants usually have one set meal for the day and you get an appetizer, main course, and a small dessert. Within the set meal there are usually 2 or 3 options for the main course. It is always extremely delicious, especially with a nice cold soda. The pop here is so much better because they use real sugar instead of corn syrup. It started raining after so we ran into a café and had amazing coffee and a great view of the water!
Afterwords, we went in search for the beautiful church of the region and found it:
The next day we explored Castro and its beautiful church, houses on stilts and the town center. The area is extremely beautiful!
After an amazing weekend away, we had to make the 20 hour journey back to Valparaiso for our classes. Even though some things did not work out the way that we wanted, I had an amazing time with two of my best friends on a beautiful island.
Can't you see why I have the travel bug and always want to travel every weekend?
OH AND P.S I have joined a soccer league down here, here is a photo of us:
