Sunday, September 13, 2009

Chiloé


This was the view out of my window getting into Chiloé.


Here´s where I stayed in Castro. My hostel was the one on the far right.




Hostel is the one with the orange/tan sidings.



Once in the park I had my buddy "Perrito" exploring with me.



View of Parque Nacional de Chiloé



Early morning fishing. It was quite misty that morning, so this is actually what it looked like.


Use a self timer, a tripod, and a bridge to take a picture. Done.


A nice lake looking out towards the south inside the park.

I got down to Chiloé just fine and found my hostel to be wonderful. The owner was nice and helped me get on my way to Parque Nacional de Chiloé. That´s where I after I spent a night in the hostel. Ends up the only other people using this hostel were on business, but it was still fun because we watched the Brasil-Chile soccer game in the hostel. It was quite the experience getting very excited at the possibility of beating number one Brasil, away, but they prevailed. The next morning, I took off to the park. The park was beautiful, and provided me with some great views, and peace. I was the only person out there, and at times thought I may have been trespassing, but I didn´t get in trouble, so it´s fine.

That night I went out to eat to get some salmon since that is where a large amount of the world´s salmon is harvested. My hostel owner suggested a new restaurant that his friend started up, so I treated myself to a nice meal of Salmon, Chiloé´s potatoes, and a glass of red wine. This started the most exciting time of my travels so far. I met a guy who lived in Santiago who was looking to start a hotel and hostel in Chiloé. We ended up eating together and he invited me to have a co sour.





My weekly nice meal.


Then he offered me a ride to Puerto Montt, which is a 4 hour ride, so I accepted thinking, "why not?" We talked the whole way up and we had some good conversations about everything. Then he dropped me off about 15 km from Puerto Montt because he had to go to the airport. Not two minutes later a guy drove up in a pick-up truck and offered me a ride to the city outskirts. He was an indigenous man who was full of energy and spirit. We laughed and had a good time during our 15 minute ride. From there I caught a local bus to Puerto Varas and was able to finally see the Volcano.
Volcano Orsono peaking out behind the clouds for little while in Puerto Varas.

That night, I finally met another traveler, kind of. His name is Gé (pronounced like a mix of Shay, and Jay). He runs a hostel called Ulaa Patagonia. We talked in the hostel, had some more good seafood and a couple drinks. Once again, this guy had a lot of great stories and experiences. He recommended me to a hostel in Bariloche called 1004. It´s as good as they make it sound on the website. It´s new and isn´t in guide books yet, so I feel lucky to have found in. He also talked up a city two hours south of Bariloche quite a bit, so I think I´m heading that way. I´ll fill you all in about Bariloche in a bit. I´ve been writing for too long. Chau.

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