We’ve been visiting Chiloe for the last three days and we find it fantastic. It is the second biggest island of Chile after Tierra del Fuego, very green and incredibly different from anything we’ve seen in Chile so far.
We arrived in Puerto Montt on the 14th, took a rental car and drove to Ancud, arriving in Chiloe by ferry. Ancud is a city that was completely destroyed by the earthquake of 1960, and rebuilt using cheap materials. As a result, The place looks a bit odd and confused.
We are staying in a camping at the edge of the Chiloe Natural Park, held by a couple of very nice people who try to live in a fully natural, “zero footprint” way.
On the 15th we woke up at 4.30 to kayak on the river. It was difficult to wake up but totally worth it. The sunrise in the misty river was accompanied by the sounds of nature.
In the afternoon we met our friends Tini and Achim who are also visiting Chile, and we continued to Castro and other minor towns of Chiloe to see the wooden churches of Chiloe. This UNESCO heritage shows majestic wooden constructions in places where you would never expect them.
Today we hired a guide and visited the northwestern peninsula of Chiloe. We could see a penguin colony with Magellanic and Humbold penguins, and our guide brought us to some beautiful hidden places. We had to do some hiking in the sun while trying to keep horse flies away, but this lead us to places like the one in the photo:
Tomorrow we will leave the island and head farther north to Puerto Varas and beyond.