Castro, Chiloe Island- Chile

I had never heard of Chiloe Island before beginning the trip planning for this adventure. Then once I learned about it decided I must go. What I didn’t read about in my research is that is rains pretty much all the time. Which is fine. Honestly, it rains every time I travel and if I were to wait for perfect weather, I’d never go anywhere. Alas, before we “arrive” in Castro, let me tell you the chaos that it was to get there.

I bought my bus ticket in advance to get from Puerto Varas to Castro. It would be a long ride- about 4 hours or so. I get to the bus stop early in Puerto Varas. There is nothing happening. I go inside the tiny office and ask where I will get the bus, and they point outside and said it hasn’t come yet. A bus pulls up, and out comes a basketball team for the local high school and all their parents are picking them up from some kind of away tournament. Great! Everyone is happy. I am thinking to myself… where is my bus, and why isn’t this bus moving, it is definitely in the way. I wait and wait, and eventually go back into the office, and they say, oh you missed it. What?! How did I miss it? I’ve been waiting right here and I haven’t seen another bus? Panicked and starting to get in my feelings, I’m like- well how do I get to Castro today (I know there is only one bus a day…) and they say I could take a local city bus to Puerto Montt and pick up my bus at it’s next stop. But then a helpful bystander guy said I would never get there in time on the local bus and it’s better to take a taxi. So I call an uber/ wait for a taxi and whichever one gets me first is the one I shall take. The uber arrives and I jump in and I explain my situation with shaky hands. God put the spirit of speed on this uber driver and he guns it to Puerto Montt for me to make my bus. We hit a little traffic inside the city, and as we are approaching the bus station he pulls to the exit and tells me to run because I will see any bus that is leaving. I thank him and get booking (picture me running with my big 40L backpack and my daypack on front though…) to try and catch my bus. I make it and the driver won’t let me on because my ticket time is in the past. I explain that no look, this is the right bus, but I missed it in Puerto Varas, and then he looks at the manifest and sees me and lets me on. Once my booty is in the seat, I finally exhale and try to enjoy the journey to Castro.

The journey includes a ferry ride (it is Chiloe island).

Once in Castro, I disembark and make my way to the cutest accommodation of the trip. I treated myself to my own room in a palafito- which is a house on stilts and is what Castro is known for. I was so glad I did because the accommodation was so incredibly cute inside, and the hosts were so nice and gave me recommendations as well.

The first evening after I checked in, I walked around the main square of Castro, poked around in the artisan shops, found ice cream, and ate a curanto (a specialty dish from this region).

(The snakes above represent a local regional folktale about how the mountains and sea were created.)

A note about curanto- it is the oyster dish you see there. I also had broth, and an amorphous potato lump that accompanied it. I grew up an incredibly picky eater, but as I have traveled I have learned to try more foods, especially if it is known in that region. I’ve eaten cow belly in Hungary, scorpion in China, and chicken hearts in Brazil. I will try anything once. I hated the curanto. It was so much effort to eat, to open and eat the oysters and clams, and then you add broth, and there is sausage. I didn’t like the flavor- it was briny and bitter. It took me forever to finally get to the eating part and then I didn’t want it. I gave up halfway through. The waiter came by and asked if I liked it, and I said oh yes it’s so good, but it’s so filling! He offered to box it up for me to take with me, and I said no. Another first. I ate a lot of fantastic meals in Chile- this wasn’t one of them.

I had an ice cream afterward, and all was well.

The next day, I journeyed to Ancud with a tour group to see the pinguinos! I saw two types of penguins- Humboldt and Magallanes- in the wild- and it was super cute!

Once we were at the penguin beach, we waited our turn and got on this “vehicle”- a human trolley? that brought us to the boat. The people working walk though the water so we don’t have to, and then we just go from beach to trolley to boat and back. Once on the boat, we went to the little islands to see the penguins! Humans are not allowed on the islands, so we observed them closely, but from the boat. Good- save the penguins, humans are dumb and would try to catch them to take a selfie.

I loved watching the penguins jump into the water and swim around. That part was my favorite.

After a delicious fish lunch, we were able to go for a walk up to the viewpoint, which reminded me a lot of Ireland.

I love the contrast of the yellow raincoat and the dreary sky. 🙂

We also got a “city tour of Ancud” where we stopped at an old fort as well as a handcraft market. There was a lot of penguin merch to be found, believe it or not!

After the tour returned to Castro, I headed back to my cute little accommodation, and then to dinner next door at Terrazza1326, and it was an incredible meal. So much fresh seafood! (And that’s before I went to Easter Island!).

The most well known part of Castro/ Chiloe Island is the palafito homes. God put on a show for me my last night in Castro with the sunset after it had rained all day, and the next morning as I was walking to the bus the sky was finally clear. Here are a few of my favorites. (Click the picture to see it larger)

Off I would head for the airport to fly back to Santiago, have a great meal with Maria, Kayla, and one of Maria’s friends at another Discovery: World’s 50 Best Restaurants, all before flying to Easter Island. Stay tuned for the secrets of the Moai.