Getting There - Aneel's Travelogue

We spent the day poking around ChiloÈ. After determining that the recommended tour company was closed this week because the guide is out of town, we talked to the local Sernatur office who were extremely helpful. In addition to suggesting where to go, they told us how to get there, which involved some transfers at unmarked junctions that we never would have found on our own.

We took a Cruz del Sur bus bound for Castro south to Cruz Mocopulli, the turnoff for Dalcahue, and then a minibus into Dalcahue proper.

We wandered aroudn the town a bit, then hopped on a ferry making the very short trip across to the island of Quinchao. The ferry was free for passengers, perhaps because not a lot of people would want to make the crossing on foot. It turned out that the nearest town on the island was about 10km from the ferry landing. We started walking towards it, but were eventually overtaken by a minibus, which shortened the trip considerably.

We spent a good chunk of the afternoon looking at shingled houses and the wooden church in Achao. The archipelago is famous for these churches, and the one in Achao had some pretty impressive carving work.

Around four, we caught a minibus to Castro, back on the big island of ChiloÈ (taking the ferry again, but not on foot).

Castro is a pretty big city, known for its palafitos: wooden houses on tall stilts by the waterside. The water level changes by as much as 15m, so they don't build at ground level on the coast.

The church of San Francisco in Castro is an especially large example of the wooden construction. The structure of its wooden dome is particularly interesting.

We had dinner at a cool little place on the Plaza de Armas called AÒos Luz. They managed to work pork into every dish we ordered, including Jenny's salad and my steak (bacon-wrapped).