Chiloé - 8 of 10

We headed for the island of Chiloé on New Year’s Day, after catching a flight back from Punta Arenas and spending New Year’s Eve in Puerto Varas. Chiloé is a large island just south of Puerto Montt. It is a favorite travel destination for many Chileans for its beautiful countryside and laid back pace of life. The inhabitants of the island also have a reputation for blending Catholicism with pagan-esque mythologies. There are numerous characters of lore (some would say mythological, others would say real) that interact with the people of the island even now.

Here are a few examples with the details gleaned from The Rough Guide to Chile. "Trauco, a deformed and ugly troll with course swollen features, dresses in ragged clothes and a conical cap and carries a stone axe or wooden club. He preys on women, usually with the intention of stealing their virginity. Fiura is an ugly, squat woman with halitosis, who lives in the woods, clothed in moss. She bathes in waterfalls where she hopes to seduce young men before driving them insane. Brujos hide in caves near the town of Quicavi. Brujo is the general term for a witch and in order to become one, an individual must wash away baptism in a waterfall for 40 days, assassinate a loved one and sign a pact with the devil in his/her own blood. Basilisco is a giant snake with the head of a cockerel. Basilisco turns people to stone with its gaze. At night, Basilisco enters houses and sucks the breath from sleeping inhabitants and they waste away into shriveled skeletons."

A Brujo is on the left and Trauco is on the right.

We stayed in Dalcahue, a small town near the island’s capital city of Castro, for two nights. Through friends of Bruce and Jane we were lucky enough to stay in a small house on the water where a Chilean couple runs a sea-kayaking business. The house was a gorgeous green house with wood floors and a staircase so steep and with steps so narrow it was downright dangerous. The house sits on the waterfront of a bay and when we arrived the owners had already fired up the wood burning hot tub. (To my amazement, it took hours to warm up. I, of course, didn’t learn that until after I decided to have a soak late in the afternoon when it still had multiple degrees of cold water and only a layer or two of warm water.) The main room of the house had reed screens that separated the dining area from the sleeping areas – 4 in total with two beds each. We shared the house with 3 brothers from northern Colorado who were down in Chile on a kayak adventure.

But before we made it to Dalcahue, we stopped in at the small village of Caulin for a lunch of Oysters and Smoked Salmon. The restaurant is well known on Chiloé and the menu consisted of the following options: small oysters on the half shell, medium oysters on the half shell, large oysters on the half shell, fried oysters, oyster soup and the smoked salmon plate. After lunch we made our way to the new Seno-Otway Penguin colony on the Pacific coast. There we bought 4 seats on a long boat to motor us around and see the Humboldt and Magellanic Penguins. On our short tour we also saw 4 species of Cormorant (Neo-Tropic, Rock, Red footed and Imperial), as well as a sea loin, two sea otters, and 4 Flightless Steamer Ducks among many, many Kelp Gulls.

The Humboldt Penguins come from the North, swimming down to Chiloé in the cold Humboldt Current, and feed in the local waters, while the Magellanic Penguins swim up from the South. Both species only stay for the summer to feed and breed. They battle the kelp gulls who want to eat their eggs, and they battle the sea lions who want to eat them. I tried asking the guide who eats the sea lions, but he didn’t understand my joke about the food chain and remained silent. Sarah repeated the question to him; he took it at face value asking his partner who ran the motor if anyone ever eats the sea lions to which the partner replied something to the effect, “Eating a sea-lion gives you good combustion.” (i.e. will sustain you for a long time.) I stopped asking questions after this.

Pictures from the Penguin Colony:

Our hosts at the Dalcahue sea-kayak house were hospitable and gracious and provided breakfast and dinner. We had fun table conversation with the 3 brothers from Colorado, and at the end of the first night, the hot tub was a piping 40 or 41 degrees Celsius. I announced to everyone that it was ready and we all changed and got in for an after-dinner soak. It was so hot that after a while you had to stand up in order to avoid fainting. The tub itself was a fiberglass encased wine vat. It had belonged to the owner’s dad long before and he had fiberglassed it and purchased a wood burning stove from the Snorkel Stove Corp of Seattle, WA to heat up the water. As we dried off after our soak, we stoked the stove, letting in just enough oxygen so that the fire burned through the night and into the next day such that when we took a second soak in the late afternoon of our second day, the water was so hot that we had to temper it with the garden hose.

The majority of our second day was spent touring the different small hamlets of the island. Each town has its own church with different designs and a multitude of colors. We drove the back roads and took ferries to see 5 or 6 churches in all. Some of them were locked so we were only able to admire the exterior, but a couple of them were open, including the one in Achao. This one was one of the oldest and had some of the most beautiful wood work. Not only were the floors and pews and altar of wood, but so too were the ceilings and statues of Jesus and Mary. In addition, the colors used to highlight and paint the statues were vibrant and energize the entire atmosphere of the church.

We also made our way to Castro, the island’s capital and largest city. After browsing through the markets for Chiloete goods, we decided to get a snack of pizza and beer. Jane and I were the first to arrive. The waiter asked us what we wanted and we said that we were waiting for two more people. We had assumed that Sarah and Bruce would be with us within 2 minutes. After 5 minutes, Jane and I decided we were going to order for our spouses and when we called the waiter over, before taking our order he asked us where we were from. Jane said the United States, and informed him that I was living in Temuco. The waiter’s eyes grew wide and he said, “Really, what are you doing there?” To which I replied, “Nothing. I simply drink beer!” He laughed and said, “Get outta here.” And he left. We laughed and then realized he hadn’t taken our order.

After another few minutes Bruce and Sarah came in. The waiter came back, and we ordered beer and a pizza. He started talking to us again about Temuco. After a couple of minutes of chatter, he said, “Have you heard the news?!?! Volcán Llaima erupted!” (Volcán Llaima is in Parque Nacional Conguillío, see older post, and is roughly 80 kilometers east of Temuco.) I said, “No way!” and he replied, “Yes way! It goes like this.” And he made the international hand symbol for exploding volcanoes. I asked, “Has it hit Temuco?” and he replied, “I don’t know…Hasta la vista Temuco!” To which we all laughed.

Then he told us for real that no one was hurt and that the police in fact had to set up road blocks to prevent people from getting too close to the park as many people wanted to get a closer look and take pictures. We continued to joke with the waiter, who loved using the phrases “Hasta la vista!” and “Get outta here!” At one point during our joking and laughter, he said, pointing to me, “You look like Andy Gibb!” To which we all laughed. Then he said, “Really, you really do.” We laughed again and continued joking with him until it was time to head back to the Dalcahue house.

One of the funnier aspects of the Andy Gibb comment was that some Mapuche friends had said the same thing back in November. Jane and Bruce thought this to be so funny that they started calling me Andrew. When Sarah and I returned to Temuco, we were wondering over dinner one night what was up with Chileans and Andy Gibb*. So we went to Google and found this concert footage from the 70s or 80s. Click here. We are now convinced that this must have been one hell of a concert with the people of Chile. Notice that he opens with some Spanish - "Oh, Andy, Usted es muy suave!"

Pictures of Chiloé Churches:

*For those of you who need a footnote on just who Andy Gibb is, please refer to this all encompassing website for further information.

**For those of you too lazy to click the link, don't worry. I was able to extract the most valuable information from Andy's brief bio on the site. This excerpt may be all you need to know: "Andy had a string of defining, Love Boat era hits that included "Shadow Dancing" and "Thicker Than Water." Andy's silk pastel jacketed teen appeal seemed bright enough to survive the demise of disco and he entered the 1980s with the stunning sex goddess Victoria Principal on his arm. Unfortunately, he also entered the decade with a mountain of cocaine up his nose, and a seriously stalled recording career."