Chiloe and Puerto Montt

Oops…I’m terrible about keeping things updated here…I hope no one minds.

The weekend before last, KellyAnne and I went down south, to Puerto Montt and Chiloé. We didn’t have school on Monday the 9th because it was Columbus Day (Día de la Raza, here), and we never have class on Friday, so we jumped on a bus (for 14 lovely hours) and headed south. Puerto Montt is basically the biggest and most important city south of Santiago, as far as I can tell, and Chiloé is a relatively large island right next to the mainland.

We spent the first three days of our trip traveling around Chiloé and seeing the sites, which basically are the exact same as the sites on the Oregon coast. The only difference is that the hills and mountains are a bit more impressive, because the entire area was created by volcanic activity and as a result of that there are deep valleys and great big cliffs. The island itself is known for having a distinct culture as compared to the rest of the country, although I sort of feel like presently it serves more for tourist value than anything else. The island is also famous for its giant wooden Catholic churches, most of which are several hundred years old. Apparently in the 1700’s a delegation of priests sent from Spain had the job of making a boat trip around the island every year (lasting most of the year), stopping regularly to perform masses in the towns along the coast. We met some very nice and interesting people, and had a great time even though there was rain or at least overcast conditions most of the days we were there.

The last day we spent down south, Monday, we returned to Puerto Montt, where we had previously met a lady who owns a tour company at the bus station. We’re not exactly sure why, but she offered to let us join in on one of her tours leaving that day for half price, which was only $10 per person. Usually we sort of shun tours, thinking we can it all by ourselves thank you very much, but all of the places her tour went were rather spread out and difficult to get to, as well as being high on the list of areas around Puerto Montt we wanted to see.

This particular area is right in the heart of the “lake region,” and we got to take a tour around the largest of the 7 lakes, Lago Llanquihue, as well as driving up to the top of a volcano on the edge of the lake, Mount Osorno. Additionally, we got to drive up the River Petrohue to Lago Todos Los Santos, an absolutely breathtaking national park on the border with Argentina and right at the base of the Cordilleras. There, we took a boat ride across the lake to a cabin, where we were served a lunch of fresh caught trout from the river and enjoyed an incredibly view of the lake and volcano. (I actually bought a postcard here in Santiago that has a picture on in which couldn’t possibly have been taken from any place other than where we were eating.) After that, we drove back down the river, got out at an amazing set of waterfalls created by ancient lava flows, and then headed back to town. It was an entire day’s worth of touring, from 11 in the morning to 8 at night, for only $10!

After that, we jumped back on a bus and rode another 14 hours back to Santiago, arriving downtown around 9:30 am on Tuesday. Lucky for me, I happened to have a class starting at quarter to noon, so I had to hurry home, take a quick shower and walk a half an hour to the university campus. It was a long day, to say the least!

Anyhow, that’s the quick version of our trip, because I’m too lazy to write out all of the details, but luckily I now have an easy method of sharing pictures so I’ll try and get a few of the good ones up right away.