Chiloe Island and the lakes.....

Visited the South of Chile right after my visit to the north of the country...After arriving in Santiago at 6am from the north, I took the next bus out to the South of Chile that same evening, but this time on a bus with a “salon-cama” (BED!!!). How luxurious is that????

For the last 6/7 days I explored the south of Chile (not quite the “real” south as it’s too cold there and too far away!!!!). I went as far south as this town called Chonchi. Chonchi is a little town on the Island of Chiloe, and I went there specially to see the church. Chiloe has several churches, and they are all made from wood. COMPLETELY! Another really nice attribute of this part of Chile are the wooden “tiles” they use on the outside walls of their houses. They all have different shapes, some shapes are more common in certain areas, and some many are painted in very bright colours. Very distinctive, and when someone has a digital camera handy, you can go trigger happy! As I did....below is a collage of several of these tiles, and a photo showing the affect they have. You have to realise that these tiles are like 90cm long, 1cm thick and 30 cm wide.... and all made from wood and each and every one is handmade!

I ended up going to several villages, with the main goal being to see the church, and if I was lucky enough, I even managed to see inside these churches (only if I managed to come during or just after mass....they are closed now because there aren’t many tourists around so I think it’s too much trouble to keep them open...). Castro (the capital of the Island of Chiloe) is famous for it’s palafitos – basically houses on stilts. These houses are also painted in very bright colours so a very colourful sight! I also visited several markets – and bought too many things -, went to several museums and saw the ruins of a Spanish Fort in Ancud which had a lovely rainbow over it....that made yet another lovely picture:-)

From Chiloe, I moved north to Puerto Varas, which has a German heritage – very evident since many people speak German, have German surnames, all the old buildings were built in German style and a lot of the restaurants sell German delicacies...especially KUCHEN.....YUM YUM! No objections to that! I stayed here for two nights, and managed to still do some touring, even though it rained A LOT. Puerto Varas is situated alongside a lake, and has a magnificent view of Volcano Osorno... well, I was left wondering if these were just fables, because all I could see, were clouds, clouds and more clouds! I guess the volcano as playing hide and seek or just a bit shy…I went to Frutillar, which is a town also next to the lake, but 35km north of Puerto Varas and also has very strong German ties. It even has a lovely black sand beach! I can imagine the view of the volcano must be amazing, but when I went there, I didn’t see any sign of a volcano! Lol! I went to the German Museum and enjoyed a cup of coffee with Kuchen.....

The following day, I went on a full day tour. I have to say, that even though I didn’t see what I had wanted to see...(a tour on a lake, in the Andes and surrounded by lots of snow capped mountains and volcanoes....) I did see hundreds of waterfalls and because of all the mist and clouds, the whole area had a mystic feel to it...I suppose - in a way - it was almost better then seeing the typical thing most tourists get to see in the summer....heck, if it didn’t rain so much, how else is the area supposed to get so green???? I did see some amazing waterfalls, including the "saltos de Petrohue" which are waterfalls that have a bed of pure black lava! WOW! And because of all the rain, they were even more spectacular....rather much like in Yosemite in California! That same evening, right after the tour, I caught the bus to Valdivia. This is a town on the coast, about 3hrs north of Puerto Varas, and is well known for its chocolate shop "Entrelagos" – Between lakes – (which I have to say is absolutely delicious....I could eat the whole place! YUM!). It also has quite few Forts and survived – though not many buildings!!! - the largest earthquake ever recorded (over 9 on the Richter Scale). I managed to do a bit of walking around, visited the museum as well as one of the Forts, but basically I didn’t do too much because of all the RAIN!

I was supposed to go back to Santiago after a day of touring Valdivia,but ended up staying an extra night because of extensive flooding in the whole south of Chile. It was so bad, that all bus companies cancelled all buses headed north...several bridges were washed away and several people died when they were swept away by the torrents and when their houses slid down the hills... I took a bus that went to Santiago (13 hrs) during the day...just to be on the safe side. What I saw was shocking: rivers flowing over bridges, whole sections of mountains collapsed over raods, people trying to get rid of the water from their house....basically there was water EVERYWHERE!!!!

I had to delay my flight last minute because of everything. So now I’m only going to Argentina tomorrow!