Chiloe Island, Patagonia

In my last post I mentioned visiting a family in the country. Several of us rode horses, while others hiked. Afterward we had a traditional barbecue — really a feast. Here’s the family’s stallion coming to the door of the dining room to say hello. It was my kind of place!

This is at the border of Chile. The ground is covered with several inches of ash blown over the past several months from the volcano in the distance. We passed many dead trees as this was relatively close. This border crossing had been closed until recently. We’ve been very lucky to be able to travel to this area at all. And we’ve had incredible weather.

Here we are about to board a ferry for Chiloe Island. This is the place our guide said in a pre-trip email that “rains 366 days a year”. I am happy to say she was wrong. Not only did we have fabulous weather all day (and night) yesterday, it was so sunny and warm today we both got sunburned. Our guide travels with postcards of the volcanos in the background because they are so rarely visible.

Castro, Chiloe Island — this is the poor section. There are no property taxes on buildings that hang out over the water so it’s the complete opposite of home.

These guys were pushed out of the house by a big shepherd dog.

We visited the market.

We bought chocolates.

We visited a school then drove across the island to this lovely house for another home cooked meal.

This is a traditional barbecue on Chiloe Island. A pit had been dug and filled with hot coals, then layers of potatoes, clam, oysters, chicken, and sausages were heaped on top. Leaves were used to divide the sections. The whole thing was then covered with a tarp and turf and left to cook for about an hour.

It was delicious!

The Darwin fox was hanging out hoping for some scraps.

After dinner we spent time in the family’s garden and watched the fog roll in. By the time we got back to our hotel it was quite cool. No stars tonight — but we’re still feeling so grateful to have had so many perfect days. Tomorrow we’ll visit a penguin colony. Ciao! (They don’t use adios in this part of the world — they say ciao — but they don’t spell it like the Italians as I have, but I can’t remember their spelling.) C’est la vie!