Originally we were only supposed to spend one day in Chiloé, but my travel buddy knew how much I loved penguins and recommended we stay an extra day in case the weather improved. It was a sentiment I truly appreciated, but heartbreak was to befall me once again.
One thing I may have failed to do in the previous article was paint a clear picture of Chiloé. It is a small island, annexed from Chile. Ancud is the biggest town on the island. It is an unfortunate reality that there is not really much to do in the city. Instead, Chiloé relies on its culture to bring in tourism. Due to my short stay in the area, I did not really have enough time to ask the locals about how strongly they felt for their culture, or whether they felt it had become more of a commercial product.
The culture is everywhere. The artisanal markets full of roughly 30 stalls which sell the same riff raff (keyrings, ornaments, knock-off jewellery), the museums, the names of cafés, the several tours of the island which really do not have much to show and an urban myth. Actually, one of my fondest memories is of this myth.
There is a monster known as the Trauco. One legend is that he is an elemental being and supposed supporter of Satan himself in his fight against the angels. Another is that he is the bastard son of the serpent known as Caicai, created in anger due to the serpent’s hatred for humans. Following this legend, the Trauco is responsible for terrible and very constant rain, as well as the great flood. If that is true then hats off to the little monster, he did a hell of a job of flooding the town when I was there! The reason I love this myth though is because they actually use the Trauco to scare children. In the main feríá in Ancud, there was a statue of the Trauco. Next to it, I saw a sign which, although I can’t remember its exact words, basically said that unless you put money into the collection pot next to its statue, the Trauco would haunt your childs nightmares and hurt him. The kid gets scared, the parents puts money in to calm them down, someone in Chiloé gets paid. Manipulative psychology but admirable, yet sly businessman.
Although this may not sound like a great place to visit, in reality it is beautiful. My problem is in the over-selling of the culture. While the culture is interesting, the true gem lies in the beauty of the island. As you drive around there is so much greenery to observe. In the south of the island, you can even go to the national park for bird watching to see some of the unique species which inhabit the island.
Bonding with the Señoritas
So back to my story. While I couldn’t see the penguins there were other trips on offer. My travel buddy was quite religious and so we decided to do the Church tour.
One of the main selling points of Chiloé is for the unique construction of its churches. While I am not sure of the name for this type of construction, the way I would describe it is like putting together flat pack furniture. You have all these pieces which tightly slot together to form a structure - and magnificent ones at that.
I myself am not very religious and so personally, I was not overly interested in this trip and thought I was in for a bit of a boring day. However, I do not regret it for one second.
We were told the trip would take us around many of the churches in the small villages on the island, and then, to finish off, we would spend an hour at the Church in Castro, the main town on the island. While the Churches were cool, I am not a person qualified to pass my opinion on them not knowing enough about the saints and not particularly being interested in studying them. My perspective can only be subjective and on the architecture of the churches themselves, which as I said, was cool, but to be honest, a bit repetitive. There are only so many times you can be told about how things slot together without getting a teeny bit bored.
One thing I may have failed to do in the previous article was paint a clear picture of Chiloé. It is a small island, annexed from Chile. Ancud is the biggest town on the island. It is an unfortunate reality that there is not really much to do in the city. Instead, Chiloé relies on its culture to bring in tourism. Due to my short stay in the area, I did not really have enough time to ask the locals about how strongly they felt for their culture, or whether they felt it had become more of a commercial product.
The culture is everywhere. The artisanal markets full of roughly 30 stalls which sell the same riff raff (keyrings, ornaments, knock-off jewellery), the museums, the names of cafés, the several tours of the island which really do not have much to show and an urban myth. Actually, one of my fondest memories is of this myth.
There is a monster known as the Trauco. One legend is that he is an elemental being and supposed supporter of Satan himself in his fight against the angels. Another is that he is the bastard son of the serpent known as Caicai, created in anger due to the serpent’s hatred for humans. Following this legend, the Trauco is responsible for terrible and very constant rain, as well as the great flood. If that is true then hats off to the little monster, he did a hell of a job of flooding the town when I was there! The reason I love this myth though is because they actually use the Trauco to scare children. In the main feríá in Ancud, there was a statue of the Trauco. Next to it, I saw a sign which, although I can’t remember its exact words, basically said that unless you put money into the collection pot next to its statue, the Trauco would haunt your childs nightmares and hurt him. The kid gets scared, the parents puts money in to calm them down, someone in Chiloé gets paid. Manipulative psychology but admirable, yet sly businessman.
Although this may not sound like a great place to visit, in reality it is beautiful. My problem is in the over-selling of the culture. While the culture is interesting, the true gem lies in the beauty of the island. As you drive around there is so much greenery to observe. In the south of the island, you can even go to the national park for bird watching to see some of the unique species which inhabit the island.
Bonding with the Señoritas
So back to my story. While I couldn’t see the penguins there were other trips on offer. My travel buddy was quite religious and so we decided to do the Church tour.
One of the main selling points of Chiloé is for the unique construction of its churches. While I am not sure of the name for this type of construction, the way I would describe it is like putting together flat pack furniture. You have all these pieces which tightly slot together to form a structure - and magnificent ones at that.
I myself am not very religious and so personally, I was not overly interested in this trip and thought I was in for a bit of a boring day. However, I do not regret it for one second.
We were told the trip would take us around many of the churches in the small villages on the island, and then, to finish off, we would spend an hour at the Church in Castro, the main town on the island. While the Churches were cool, I am not a person qualified to pass my opinion on them not knowing enough about the saints and not particularly being interested in studying them. My perspective can only be subjective and on the architecture of the churches themselves, which as I said, was cool, but to be honest, a bit repetitive. There are only so many times you can be told about how things slot together without getting a teeny bit bored.
Biggest Church on Chiloé - Castro
You might be thinking, so why did you enjoy this trip? The truth is I wouldn’t have, if it were not for the people I did the tour with. Me and my travel buddy were the first ones on the minibus in the morning, and the only ones. We thought we were going to be alone on the trip until the bus pulled up to a hotel in the middle of nowhere. Then the bus became absolutely packed...with all these sweet elderly Chilean ladies. These were some of the most memorable characters and genuinely sweet people I met over my time in the year.
Conversation can be a bit awkward on a minibus and it was not really until lunch when we got to know these ladies. We ended up at an all you can eat restaurant and sat at a table next to four of the ladies: Carmén, María and two others of which I unfortunately can’t remember the names. They were very interested to ask about us, and were taken aback when they found out we could speak Spanish. We told them about our lives in the US and the UK, why we were in Chile, how we met and how we knew to speak their language. They told us how they do not meet many foreigners and they took a genuine interest in what we had to say as it seemed they had not had much experience of the world outside of Chile. Equally we reciprocated, and asked them so many questions. They told us about their families and the hard times they had had to face given Chile’s poor economic conditions for the working class and lack of career options. They were only too proud of their children for achieving what they had with their lives - one having gone to Canada where he had a family, another who lived with her son to whom she was grateful for taking such tremendous care of her.
We asked them why they had come to Chiloé, and it turned out that some of the women had known each other for years from school. Life had taken them in different directions and they had not seen each other for years, so they decided to take a trip...and they were sure happy to see each other. I might have had a miserable day were it not for these ladies becoming the unexpected life of the party. Singing on the bus...consoling me for the penguins...telling hilarious stories which you just would not expect. They were the one’s who taught me about the legend of the Trauco in fact.
It was sad to have to say goodbye to them at the end of the day, and I wish we could have spent more time with them, but I was very grateful for this opportunity.
The End of the Journey
After this trip, we did not do much else with our time in Chiloé and the next morning we set off for Frutillar, a German colony not too far from our original destination, Puerto Montt.
I had never heard of the colony, but I am thankful that my travel buddy had because it made for some spectacular sights. It really left an impact on me. The colony is separated into two parts: the desolate uptown where most of the locals live but where there is not a hell of a lot to do or see, and the downtown, one of the most beautiful areas of Chile.
Sadly when we went, we were still suffering from awful weather conditions, but feeling that we had to make the most of our time, we embraced the horrible rain which set me back with a cold for about a week but it was totally worth it!
After arriving, we did not need to think about what to do - we took one look around and saw such a beautiful coastline with a small but colourful beach. The standout feature of this coastal road is the Teatro del Lago, the biggest theatre in Chile and the best acoustic theatre in South America and probably the one with the best view. Had we more time, a show would have been on the cards, especially given that tours are not permitted. The only part of the inside we saw was the reception and walking around the side of the building looking like 2 creeps staring into the windows observing a women’s yoga class. Walking around the building actually brings you out onto a jetty which protrudes right into the Llanquihue lake and surprisingly, for once, the water wasn’t freezing, you could actually dip your feet in, which we did, and live to tell the tale.
Conversation can be a bit awkward on a minibus and it was not really until lunch when we got to know these ladies. We ended up at an all you can eat restaurant and sat at a table next to four of the ladies: Carmén, María and two others of which I unfortunately can’t remember the names. They were very interested to ask about us, and were taken aback when they found out we could speak Spanish. We told them about our lives in the US and the UK, why we were in Chile, how we met and how we knew to speak their language. They told us how they do not meet many foreigners and they took a genuine interest in what we had to say as it seemed they had not had much experience of the world outside of Chile. Equally we reciprocated, and asked them so many questions. They told us about their families and the hard times they had had to face given Chile’s poor economic conditions for the working class and lack of career options. They were only too proud of their children for achieving what they had with their lives - one having gone to Canada where he had a family, another who lived with her son to whom she was grateful for taking such tremendous care of her.
We asked them why they had come to Chiloé, and it turned out that some of the women had known each other for years from school. Life had taken them in different directions and they had not seen each other for years, so they decided to take a trip...and they were sure happy to see each other. I might have had a miserable day were it not for these ladies becoming the unexpected life of the party. Singing on the bus...consoling me for the penguins...telling hilarious stories which you just would not expect. They were the one’s who taught me about the legend of the Trauco in fact.
It was sad to have to say goodbye to them at the end of the day, and I wish we could have spent more time with them, but I was very grateful for this opportunity.
The End of the Journey
After this trip, we did not do much else with our time in Chiloé and the next morning we set off for Frutillar, a German colony not too far from our original destination, Puerto Montt.
I had never heard of the colony, but I am thankful that my travel buddy had because it made for some spectacular sights. It really left an impact on me. The colony is separated into two parts: the desolate uptown where most of the locals live but where there is not a hell of a lot to do or see, and the downtown, one of the most beautiful areas of Chile.
Sadly when we went, we were still suffering from awful weather conditions, but feeling that we had to make the most of our time, we embraced the horrible rain which set me back with a cold for about a week but it was totally worth it!
After arriving, we did not need to think about what to do - we took one look around and saw such a beautiful coastline with a small but colourful beach. The standout feature of this coastal road is the Teatro del Lago, the biggest theatre in Chile and the best acoustic theatre in South America and probably the one with the best view. Had we more time, a show would have been on the cards, especially given that tours are not permitted. The only part of the inside we saw was the reception and walking around the side of the building looking like 2 creeps staring into the windows observing a women’s yoga class. Walking around the building actually brings you out onto a jetty which protrudes right into the Llanquihue lake and surprisingly, for once, the water wasn’t freezing, you could actually dip your feet in, which we did, and live to tell the tale.
Teatro del Lago and myself sticking out like a sore thumb.
After dreaming about what the inside for the theatre would be like, we ventured onward to the German Colonial History museum which was a lot bigger than we first thought. The museum is on a hill and so going up to the top you can get some even greater views of the coast if you stand in a spot with no trees obstructing your sight. First of all, you start off in a typical colonial german garden with nice ponds, curious plants and the occasional duck. We only spent about 2 minutes there before sprinting onto the next part - a sort of barn museum which housed old pieces of german weaponry, uniforms and agricultural tools. Not being too much into farming, we ran on to the best part of the museum, not one, not two, but about four or five typical colonial houses open for public display which have been spectacularly preserved. I was gutted because my camera had decided to run out of battery by this point so I didn’t get many great pictures.
Although many of the rooms are cordoned off with a little piece of rope, a lack of security and a lack of surveillance means you can pretty much do whatever you want and get some decent pictures if you want. It surprised me how well furnished the houses were, I would even say they were cluttered with antiquities. Ornamental clocks, rusty dressing tables...there was a lot to bite your teeth into.
Although many of the rooms are cordoned off with a little piece of rope, a lack of security and a lack of surveillance means you can pretty much do whatever you want and get some decent pictures if you want. It surprised me how well furnished the houses were, I would even say they were cluttered with antiquities. Ornamental clocks, rusty dressing tables...there was a lot to bite your teeth into.
Interior and Exterior of one of the German homes.
We managed to get through the museum in about 40 minutes, even sparing some time just to chat and enjoy the view from the highest house on the highest hill overlooking the lake. But, unfortunately, all good things must end, and our trip ended rather abruptly as we sprinted out of the museum just making it in time to catch our bus back to Puerto Montt. I could have easily spent longer down South, but on a shoestring budget, it is probably a good thing I went back before I stuffed my bags full of penguin ornaments which would get confiscated at the airport.
The pictures from this trip can be seen in the gallery. Until next time!
The pictures from this trip can be seen in the gallery. Until next time!