Chiloe Island: Penguins and more

January 16, 2018

Today was a bonus touring day on Chiloé Island (pronounced chee-lo-eh) before our tour wraps up. It was a long day with a 2 hour drive on each end because of a ferry trip to the island and many of the roads were gravel so the going was slow. Nonetheless it was worth it. Chiloé Island has a fascinating history that is worth looking up but I am not going to go into detail now. The main points are that it was settled by the Spanish in search of gold in the new world who also brought Jesuit priests with them to convert the natives to Catholicism. Consequently a church was built in every village. Originally there were 160 churches here but not there are only 60 with 16 being declared world UNESCO sites. Most of the churches on the island most around the capital city Castro which was too far for us to go but our first stop was to visit one of these churches in Alcun. Next we visited a bird sanctuary and finally we went out in a boat to see penguins. The unique feature here is that it is the only place in the world where 2 species of penguins come to breed simultaneously. They are the Humboldt and Magellan penguins. We also saw lots of cormorants and as an added bonus a sea lion with her newborn pup. After this adventure we had a freshly made cheese empanada to hold us over until lunch that occurred at about 3PM. It was a traditional lunch of the native Machuche people much like a Moari hangi feast in NZ. They heated very hot rocks and then placed the food on the rocks in a big pile to steam for an hour. First there were clams, then mussels, then chicken, potatoes, pork, sausage and giant potato gnocchi. It was covered with leaves and left to cook. While cooking we enjoyed a Pisco Sour. The food was amazing and very delicious. After all of that we made a quick stop at the foundation HQ that is responsible for preserving the churches on the island. By the time we got back to the hotel we were all very tired and ready for bed. Back to Santiago in the AM.

A view of Alcun and the church steeples as we approached the island.

The village is painted very colourfully not unlike Newfoundland. It rains 2400 mm a year here, 4X Seattle so it is a way to brighten up their lives on the gloomy days.

Inside the church. Take note of the curved ceiling. The locals were boat bulilders so it is an upside down hull of a ship. If you could see in the ceiling there would even be a keel.

Black cormorants on the rocks with one drying it’s wings.

A rock formation called the “bear” because it looks like a bear standing up.

They use this simple but ingenious way of getting the people to the boat.

Some of the boys resting after their Pisco Sour. We are all pretty tired and there was lots of sleeping in the van.

A poster of all of the World UNESCO churches.

Me with Cristian and Ernesto at the end of the day.

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