Day 13: Ancud to Castro

Wed 25 Nov

Mother nature relented this morning and gave us slightly less cloudy skies and eased up on the steady rainfall- this meant the fishermen would likely be at sea and that we would be able to catch a ride to see the penguins at Pinguinul.

Hostel Nuevo Mundo, Ancud, Chiloe

After a tasty breakfast at our lovely hostel overlooking the bay of Ancud, we were picked up by Jose in a four door Toyota sedan headed for the penguins. This was the cheapest “penguin tour” we came across and was recommended by a woman at a small tourist office in town who spoke fantastic English. The only difference: Jose only speaks Spanish.

Jose seemed to know oodles about the area as he made occasional stops along the way, pointing out various sights and bits of history.

Jose brought our attentino to some little piggies wandering on the roadside en route to the penguins.

Ally and I had recruited another girl from the hostel to join us- she speaks German, French, Spanish and English- and it was clear she understood much more of the tour than Ally or I. That said, we both surprised ourselves with how much we were able to absorb- from the details about the old train route on the island to various housing developments and facts about the island of Chiloe in general. We figure we’ll have five days in the bush during Torres del Paine hike to really refine our Spanish skills.

We weaved down some questionable roads, slogging through mud tracks that were at times over half a foot deep. Jose was a fantastic driver- especially in a family sedan. As we descended the hillside towards a small bay on the pacific, we came upon a tide stream where Jose confidently navigated us through 25m of sea water that was at times deeper than I thought the Toyota could handle. Once across, the “road” had become the beach, and we drove smoothly along the dark sand past a few fishing huts and cabanas.

We pulled up next to one such hut where a group of fisherman were milling around in their hip waders, with rows of 15ft wooden fishing boats sitting on the sand just beyond. With some time to kill before we set off toward the penguin colonies, we climbed up the nearby hills for a lovely vantage point of the bay and sea.

Penguin-watchers were shuttled to the fishing boat with a neat system:

We saw seals and sea otters and Magellan penguins and Humboldt penguins and all other sorts of interesting birds- the names of which I do not know as it was all in Spanish. The area was wet and cool and incredibly lush and green. They looked like little fantasy bird islands where the winged rule all, beautifully set just off the shores of Chiloe.

 It was a lovely morning that was finished off perfectly with empanadas from a tiny shop around the corner. Empanadas are apparently a South American modification of the British “pastie,” historically known as the miners lunch and consisting of meat and onion and potatoe stew held in a durable pocket of flaky pastry. The traditional South American empanada has a similar filling but comes with a much lighter tasting dough pouch. We enjoyed this super-economical lunch from the glassed-in porch of Hostal Nuevo Mundo, overlooking the Bay of Ancud and more cloudy (but rainless!) grey skies.

This afternoon we caught a bus south to Castro, the capital of Chiloe island and checked in at Palifito Hostel, perched on stilts over the tidal waters with a large kitchen and common area overlooking Palifitos Bay.

Hostal Palifito- the yellow building on the right.

Castro revived the rain upon our arrival and the rest of our afternoon/evening was spent wandering town under drizzly skies. I had to stop in at the pharmacy for some antihistamine... it seems I manage to lure insects as I've been bitten by what I think is a spider in a few places and the spots have led to quite significant swelling. The fact that I didn't know the spanish word for "antihistamine" did not concern me as all I had to do was show the pharmacists my swollen arm to which she gasped and nodded her head, turning away from the counter to quickly collect what I needed.

We had a late dinner back at the hostel and enjoyed the lively company of our fellow travelers- from Austria, USA and then a well-travelled Canadian/Brit who is six months into his retirement and knocking things off his to-do list...including a trip to Easter Island. We shared tasty Chilean wine and stories- including the Brit/Canadian's recent adventure to Bariloche, Argentina. Normally a popular tourist/resort town, Bariloche has been since been devestated and its tourism economy has collapsed thanks to the June 2011 volcanic eruption, leaving the town covered in dust and roadways banked with piles of ash.

Ciao for now.