Chiloé

I'm writing this from an internet cafe in Ancud - a town on the island of Chiloé further south in Chile. We spent the last couple days visiting with François, Paula's cousin in Valdivia and then last night we caught a bus to Puerto Montt (an industrial, transportation hub in the south) where we had pizza and spent the night and this morning we caught a bus (which got on a ferry) for the trip to Ancud here on the island.

The ferry was interesting. They aren't like the big fancy ferries the ply Puget Sound. As we came near to the ferry dock our bus pulled out into the left hand lane and passed all the cars and trucks and buses waiting in line. That seemed a bit strange until we got the the landing and the ferry was a big yellow flat-bottomed boat (see photo) with Cruz del Sur (Southern Cross) in huge letters across the side of the ferry. Interestingly enough, the same words were emblazoned on our bus - the busline owns the ferry, so a place is held for their buses while other bus lines have to wait in the queue! There were many ferries going back and forth on the route (maybe 10 or so) - so there wasn´t much of a wait in line.

Chiloé (the é means you accent that last syllable) is a large island (second largest in South America) off the west coast of Chile (but not far off the coast - the ferry ride was just 20 or 30 minutes). The island stretches down along the coastline and is famous in Chile for being a rustic destination. Think of Whidbey Island about 50 years ago - it's a lot like that. Houses are quaint, people still ride horses on the backroads to get from place to place, and the pace of life is slower than the rest of Chile. The countryside is a rolling green garden. Fuchias grow wild along the roads and the plentiful rain keeps everything looking fresh.

We found a hotel downtown for 10,000 pesos (about $20) and then bought a ticket for the afternoon trip to see the penguins.

Off the western coast of Chiloé are several small islands that are the summer home for Humboldt and Magellan penguins. The two species live on the islands together and this is the only place in the world that any two species of penguins co-exist. One of them (I'm not sure which) winters north of here and the other winters south of here - but during the summer their ranges overlap and the get along fine.

We joined about 15 other penguin fans in two minivans for the trip to the penguin islands.

The trip in the van was almost worth the price of the entire expedition ($16 each) - our guide Marcello was a student from Valdivia that had an excellent knowledge of local history and flora and fauna. We stopped a couple times to see historical sites, take some pictures (see photo), and get some information about the island. At one point we crossed a haunted bridge where someone had hanged themself and people claim to see him when traveling that way at night... Chiloé has a reputation for witchcraft and curses and such. Michael Palin talked about it when he was here during his Around-the-Pacific television series. I think the locals are very proud of their occult reputation and it's something that gets mentioned often.

But back to the penguins. The road for about 8 miles was a one lane gravel/rock road where we met several other cars for very narrow passages. Once we met a "Eco Travel" vehicle like a Humvee (it didn't look very eco-friendly to me...) and there was no room to let the behemoth pass (even after our driver backed up a ways to find a wider spot). Eventually the "Eco Travel" monstrosity backed up to a curve that gave space for the two vehicles to pass each other.

We eventually got to the beach and everyone suited up for the trip. A pair of waterproof overalls with boots were required for the embarcation in the boat (one of those inflated zodiac things like Jacque Cousteau always was boating around in) along with a lifevest. We waded out into 3 feet of water and then jumped up onto the back of the boat and crawled in. I have spared you any photos of that operation...

We headed out through the waves (it was a pretty windy day) and our guide (a German student volunteer) and the boat captain gave the 6 of us in the boat a close-up view of the penguins and other wildlife on and around the islands. We cruised around for about 30 minutes and spotted both types of penguins, a couple otters, a colony of red legged cormourants and a couple ducks of some sort with 3 ducklings. A great time and a chance to see penguins in the wild (which was a goal of this trip to Chile).