Valdivia, Ancud and Castro
Our transport to Valdivia arrived on Friday evening, complete with another tour guide and a motley crew of fellow travellers. We were not very impressed with the new guide who was not at all communicative and the group was rather undynamic as well. We had a lazy day after climbing the volcano but we went on a short boat trip on the lake in the afternoon. We were rather annoyed when the tour guide asked us if we would mind leaving Pucon later on Sunday to allow people in the new group to have a chance to climb the volcano because the weather was not suitable on Saturday. This would have meant another day hanging about in Pucon for us and also we would not have had the scheduled tour of the Lakes District but would have gone straight to Valdivia. As it happened the weather was even worse on Sunday so we set off in the morning. The atmosphere in the bus was quite depressing – no music, most passengers asleep, none of the new group wanted to get out at any of the stops – it just goes to show what a difference it makes having a good tour guide who sets the tone for the group. Anyway we got to Valdivia in the afternoon and were having lunch by about 4pm. Salmon is very cheap here so we had grilled salmon for lunch which was very nice indeed. Then we had a walk round the town which we found rather disappointing. In the guide books it says it is the most attractive town in Chile and lots of people had also told us the same but Katie´s immediate impression was that it was a bit like Stevenage! The town had been destroyed in 1960 by a huge earthquake and subsequent tsunami so most of the old buildings had gone and been replaced by 1960s “architecture”. However, the setting of the town is beautiful, on a river with lovely countryside all around. We decided to go on a river trip the next day as we had been recommended to do so by a guy who used to live in Valdivia. The boat trip left at about 1.30pm and we didn´t return to Valdivia until 7.45pm. We cruised down the rivers around Valdivia ( there are 7 in all) and the scenery was lovely with lots of reed beds and hills covered in trees. We had a very good lunch on board and eventually went ashore at Isla Monera where there is a ruined fort which was built in 1645. Then we had another short cruise to Corral where there is another castle where they staged a re-enactment of a battle in which the Spanish were defeated by the Chilean army in 1820. On the way back to Valdivia we had afternoon tea with ham sandwiches, cake and tea – very English.
The following morning we went horse riding with Eleanor, the girl we met in Pucon. She lives in Devon and has her own horse so we were very much put in the shade. But the horses were nice and quiet. We had Western style saddles and I rather regretted not having a poncho to complete the look. We wound our way through beautiful native forests for about an hour at a very sedate pace which suited Katie and I. Our guide pointed out all the trees to us and it was a lovely day for riding. Back in Valdivia we went to the local museum which is housed in a German colonial style building. A lot of Germans emigrated to this area of Chile in the 1850s and set up businesses, including the local brewery, which was unfortunately destroyed by the earthquake. The rooms downstairs in the museum were furnished in the style of different periods of the history of the town: colonial occupation, after independence, German style furniture etc. Upstairs was given over to displays about the Mapuches who were the pre-conquest inhabitants of the area. There was lots of jewellery and pottery and textiles but the translator must have got fed up by the time he got upstairs because there was no information in English. In the evening we went to the cinema and saw a horror film called “30 days of night”. It was in English with Spanish sub-titles. It was about vampires descending on Barrow in Alaska where the sun doesn´t rise for 30 days during the winter. The vampires killed nearly everyone in very gory circumstances. Not really my kind of thing. Eleanor spent most of the film hiding under her fleece! Then we repaired to the hostel where we cooked a tasty dinner of salmon followed by raspberries.
On Wednesday we caught the bus to Ancud which is on the island of Chiloe just of the coast of Chile. We had to cross on a ferry to get there. Our hostel in Ancud was right on the beach and was very comfortable. They tend to include breakfast in the price of a night´s stay here. In Valdivia we roared with laughter at the portions of cornflakes which appeared in bowls the size of little teacups. In Ancud however we had homemade bread, yoghurt, fruit, jam etc.I hope this blog doesn´t dwell too much on food but it is important when you are travelling! One of the features of the area is a colony of penguins and Katie was desperate to see them so we went to try to book a trip out to the islands where they live. We were offered a trip that very evening and set off immediately in a minibus bound for a little fishing village where boats take you to the islands. Apparently, early evening is a good time to go because the penguins have been at sea feeding during the day and are just getting back to the islands for the night. At the fishing village we got into a boat on the beach and went out to the islands. We had left in a hurry and so got rather cold but it didn´t matter because we saw lots of penguins – Magellan and Humbold ones. They were climbing up the rocks out of the sea and looked very purposeful as they climbed higher and higher up the rocks. I love they way they walk along, they look so funny. We also saw a flightless steamer duck, sea lions and a sea otter, and lots of cormorants of which there are 4 species locally. So it was an excellent excursion. Back in Ancud we went to a local restaurant and I had a conger eel stew which was very nice. Apart from there was a strange vegetable sort of hanging on the side of the dish. I took a big bite out of it only to discover that it was a chili!
The next day , on the recommendation of the hostel, we hired some bikes and went for a ride along the coast. There was a possibility of seeing flamingos. But it turned into something of a nightmare. The bikes were the most uncomfortable we had ever been on, the gears didn´t work very well. We had to do about 6km down the main road to start with with huge lorries flying past inches away before we turned off down a gravel road. But we hadn´t lost the lorries as the road went to a quarry so we were covered in dust and showered with gravel at frequent intervals not to mention snapped at by dogs all along the way. Stray dogs abound in Chili. Our bums were in agony by the time we reached Caulin which was a lovely place on a bay, with lots of little fishing boats, wading birds, black-necked swans but alas no flamingos. So we had a rest and then pedalled all the way back again. We have vowed not to hire any more bikes for several weeks. When we got back to the hostel our friend Eleanor had arrived from Valdivia.
On Friday we moved on again, this time further south on Chiloe to Castro. This only took just over an hour and when we got there a woman was touting for business for her hostel at the bus station so we went her and got a nice triple room with real beds (not bunks). Castro is a quaint place with some houses built on stilts over the water (palafitos) and a cathedral painted yellow and violet. The churches are a big feature of Chiloe. They are built almost entirely of wood and all have a similar style with a single tower at the front and archways in the entrance. There are over 150 of them and 16 have World Heritage status. So we got on a bus to visit some of them. We went to Delcahue in the first place and then went on a small ferry across to an island where we caught another bus to a place called Achao which has one of the most beautiful churches. It is primarily a fishing village and there was a lot of bustle on the harbour with people coming and going in boats. We had empanadas for lunch which are a bit like Cornish pasties (although they have much more meat in and always contain one olive). The church is the oldest one in Chiloe and much of the wood inside is ornately carved and painted in blue, yellow and a pinky colour. The wood is beautiful, particularly the floor. We then walked along the beach for a bit and saw some people making a boat out of a block of polystyrene using a chainsaw! On our return to Delcahue we went in the church there but it was very plain compared to the one at Achao. Back in Castro we decided to have a look in the church there. It was built in 1906, several previous versions having burnt down. The outside is corrugated metal but inside is all wood and it glows in the light coming through the stained glass windows. We had a stroll round the town visiting a market where lots of handknitted things were on sale. Knitting seems to be one of the main female occupations here. Then more food I´m afraid at a restaurant on stilts over looking the water. We had the local dish, curanto, which is a huge wooden dish full of chicken, ham, potato, sausage, sort of dumpling things and lots of mussels.
Yesterday we went to the National Park of Chiloe on the bus. The bus journey alone would have made the day as we went down the coast before turning inland past a huge lake. Everywhere is very green with trees and small fields, a bit like home. On arrival at the park it became obvious that we did not have time to do any of the long trails but we had a great walk through the woods and dunes to the beach. Along the way there were lots of wild flowers including yellow lupins, fuschias etc. The beach was huge with big waves crashing in and we wished we had surf boards! We walked quite a way up the beach and found a huge bone which we guessed had come from a whale. The we walked inland to a lake where I had a walk in the woods while Katie lay in the sun. The only downside to the day was some huge flying insects which buzzed round all day and if they got a chance they gave you a bite. Don´t know what they were.
Today (Sunday) we are going to Puerto Montt and tomorrow we get the ferry for Puerto Natales. This will take about 4 days. From Puerto Natales we head for Torres del Paine so you may not hear anything from us for a while.
Stop press: we are now inPureto Montt and have checked in for the boat. We were approached by a woman at the bus station again who was offering accommodation and we soon found ourselves in the back of a van with the window blacked out hurtling through the streets of Puerto Montt. But we wound up at a place to stay which was very convenient for the docks. I actually prefered it to a hostel really – I think I´ve had enough of hostels for a while. It is a nice day here and the sea doesn´t look too rough -yet.
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