Chiloe or As Danielle and I liked to say "Northern Patagonia"

So last Thursday night, my friend Danielle B and I left Estacion Central on a 13 hour Pullman bus to Puerto Varas.  Although we only stayed in town long enough to buy a bus ticket to Ancud, Puerto Varas was so beautiful that I wish we could have stayed longer.

Unfortunately, Danielle and I had planned to go to Chepu (a tiny rural town in Chiloe) from Ancud at 4pm so we were tight on time and couldn't stay.  We took a bus to Ancud from Puerto Varas with Cruz del Sur.  Because we were constantly watching the time, it was amazing to us how the buses behaved in the South.  The drivers stop every time there is someone on the side of the road.  There are no such things as "direct" buses and when there aren't enough seats, people stand in the aisle.

Our first taste of Chiloe was the ferry between the port of the mainland and the island.  Danielle and I were excited to get some fresh air after our 14+ hours of bus.  Our ferry was the introduction to the super welcoming/boarding on creepy Chilote guys and the lovely, sunshiney days we encountered in our stay in Chiloe.  Although Chiloe has a weather ratio of 1/3 sun, 1/3 rain and 1/3 clouds, we were lucky and got 98% sun and sapphire skies the 4 days we were in Chiloe.  Thus, the water was always a crystalline blue and so, so beautiful.

The scenery in Chiloe is amazing.  When I close my eyes, sometimes I still see it.


Every time Danielle and I felt lazy during our weekend, we motivated ourselves by saying, "Come on now, we are in Northern Patagonia, we have to do something!"  But the term Northern Patagonia really does not suit Chiloe.  Though the weather is cold enough, the island consists of super green pastures, patches of yellow espinillos (which the Chileans call "the german plague") and rolling hills full of sheep, cows and horses.  I felt like I was a scene from the Sound of Music, but Danielle told me the buildings were not well maintained enough for Chiloe to pass as Europe.

We arrived in Ancud in 3 hours from Puerto Varas after having stopped in Puerto Montt and at least 10 other places along the way.

There we found the harbor of Ancud gorgeous.  Danielle and I chilled there for a little bit and then went up to the rural bus station.


In the next 2 hours, I learned that the rural bus station at Ancud is very, very antiquated, and the rural bus to Chepu is just painful.  The rule about stopping everywhere continues to apply on rural buses which are smaller (looks like a 15 person van) than normal charter buses and much worse when crammed with 40+ people.  Apparently, the rural buses to Chepu usually aren't crammed with 40+ people and usually don't stop every 10 meters, but on the Friday Danielle and I took it, that is what happened.


Finally, we arrived at our lodge at Mirador de Chepu.  Chepu is a town on the outskirts of the National Park of Chiloe and belongs to a union of abalone/mussel fishermen.  The town has a population of 250 people and is very, very quiet.  After arriving, Danielle and I climbed the road as the sun set.

In the backyard where Danielle and I resided was a junction of 3 rivers. At 5 am, she and I woke up to do dawn kayaking.  We set off in a tandem kayak and had fun scaring one another as we were paddling on the river full of mist and dead logs.  Eventually the sun came up and everything was illuminated.

Then we took a boat ride to the delta where one of the rivers met the ocean where large patches of foam floated at the mouth.

Then, led by our boat guide, we climbed up a little hill to a spectacular viewpoint.  But in Chiloe, everywhere is spectacular.  Truly.

After our day in Chepu, Danielle and I got driven to the side of the main road where we waited for a bus to pick us up.  Then we stood in the aisle.  Yes.  We were those people.

But, Castro was so happy and colorful that everything was fine as soon as we stepped down from the bus.

On Sunday, Danielle and I went to Dalcahue.  We took the rural buses from Castro, but unlike the ones in Ancud, they were well maintained and not overcrowded.

We took a ferry to see the church in Achao.  The churches in Chiloe are unique in that they are all wood.

In Achao, Danielle and I climbed up the road to see a breathtaking Mirador de la Paloma.  There were pastures of sheep, a bright town, water, islands and and to top it all off a miraculous snow peaked mountain range in the back.  It was incredible.

Finally, we went back to Ancud.  The harbor is just so exquisite.  It was beautiful, even in the dark; I could imagine a nocturne being written there.  The only lights on the water were from a handful of houses and the sliver of the moon.

After night's sleep, we left Monday morning to see the penguins.  We got driven down a very bumpy road onto the beach where we subsequently climbed into a little fishing boat.

We didn't see very many penguins, but the ones we did see were so cute!  They looked like clumsy little children.  When a line of three Magellanic penguins (the fishermen tried the whole time to emphasize the difference between Magellanic and Humboldt penguins) hopped down from the island to jump into the ocean, the last one got caught in some algae and had to exit another way.  Such adorable things.

After completing our mission to see penguins in Chile, Danielle and I ate some salty curanto and finished our Chiloe weekend.

Ps. Isn't this picture of curanto so sexual?  It's like a Georgia O'Keefe work or a painting of fruit.