Chiloé Part 1: Castro and Trekking

Due to celebrations for Fiestas Patrias, we were fortunate enough to have this last week off from classes at our university. Though still recovering from a weekend of "fondas" (Chilean for celebrations), 7 of us set off for an island in the south of Chile called Chiloé, home to incredible natural beauty, great seafood, and unbelievably welcoming people. I intend on writing 3 separate posts for this trip because there is so much that I want to share - hopefully you will be able to appreciate why none of us were ready to come home!

Day 1: Monday - Travel

Though Chiloé is a large island, it's not exactly easy to access unless you have a lot of money and can fly into the small airport in the main town of Castro. Instead we flew into a town on the mainland called Puerto Montt (1.5 hrs), and then hopped on a bus that would take us to Castro (3.5 hrs).

Views from the plane

About halfway through our bus ride, we drove onto a ferry that carted several other trucks/ buses/ cars across the water to the island. Though it was freezing, we got out for a few minutes to walk on the deck, and saw a couple dolphins in the process.

The rest of the bus ride consisted of rural Chilean countryside; the island is covered in green with rolling hills that span miles.

Once we arrived in Castro, we headed to our airbnb - only a 12 minute walk from the center of town. We stayed in what are called "palafitos", which are technically illegal houses that sit on stilts on the water, however they decorate the majority of the coasts in southern Chile (or so we've been told), and the government here certainly isn't trying to do anything about them. Lucky for us, because our little yellow and red cabin right on the water was beautiful.

Palafitos

View from our deck

The town of Castro itself is pretty rural, but developed enough to have a sizable population and all the necessary amenities for a cold little beach town. We were told before travelling south that the accent there would be much more difficult to understand, however for the most part we understood everyone pretty well.

Chiloé is known for its wooden churches, many of which are UNESCO World Heritage sites, and though we did not get to see many of them, the few were did see were brightly colored and incredibly beautiful.

Day 2: Tuesday - Muelle de las Almas

On our second day, I headed out with two friends to a small town called Cucao, about an hour and 15 minute bus ride from Castro. The bus system in Chile is really remarkable - you can pretty much get anywhere. However, you do have to put up with Chilean quirks, including somewhat crazy bus drivers who often detour the bus to say hello to a friend or two along the way.

After talking to a few local guides, we set out on what we figured would be about a 5-6 hour trek to a site known as "Muelle de las Almas" or "Wharf of the Souls". Initially a graduate thesis project, it is now a tourist site that features a wooden path that incorporates island mythology surrounding the journey to the afterlife. Though we had done research, we weren't exactly prepared for hike we had ahead of us.

We started by walking on a beach path, and made a few friends along the way.

We continued on, up and down several sets of hills through lots of mud.

Several hours later and still a decent distance away from our destination, we were starting to grow wary about whether we would make it to the site or not when we met Rachel and Steven, two recent Stanford graduates who had studied abroad in Santiago and were back visiting after graduation. They were incredibly nice - and also had a car - and were heading to the same destination and offered to give us a ride. The last mile or two of the trek, however, had to be done on foot, so after a short car ride we continued walking.

And walking.

And walking some more. We saw many sheep.

And we kept walking.

And after what felt like hours, we were rewarded with breathtaking cliff views, and most importantly, the bridge.

Our new Stanford friends were nice enough to let us hitchhike with them back to Cucao where they were staying for the night and where we were able to catch a bus back to Castro. This was a saving grace as the hike ended up being about 10 miles each way, something all of the information I read beforehand failed to mention. Had we started earlier we would have been okay, but we were able to make some friends in the process and avoid the rain. Really, we could not have been more lucky. However, the views made every minute walking there worthwhile.