On Saturday, February 1st, Colin and I headed by ferry to the second largest island in South America (after Tierra del Fuego): the island of Chiloe. Humans came to Chiloe more than 7,000 years ago, evidenced by trash middens or piles found around the island. The remains found in these middens tell us the original people lived by gathering shellfish and hunting sea lions. By the time the Spanish explorers came to Chiloe, the island was inhabited by three groups of people: the Cunco, the Huilliche (Southern Mapuche), and the Chono.
The Chono were one of the first tribes to inhabit the archipelago. Because of their island lifestyle the Chono had many similarities with the Yaghan culture we encountered in Tierra del Fuego. They lived their lives primarily in canoes called dalcas (made of tree trunks and sewn together using natural fibers) and they survived on a diet of clams, mussels, and seaweed. The Chono had a light complexion and ‘straw-colored hair,’ which arriving Europeans speculated was caused by their diet. The Huilliche people also had a look which was strikingly different from Spaniards – they were just 1.5 meters in height with tanned skin, dark eyes, thick black hair and eyebrows, and large lips. Their foreheads were “sunken” and they had very pronounced cheekbones.
The Chono ended up being pushed to the south of the island by the Huilliche people who were stronger and utilized agriculture. The Huilliche people’s ancestors mixed with Spanish blood are now the primary inhabitations of Chiloe. It was also the Huilliche name for the island which stuck; Chiloe means “place of seagulls” in their language.
As we took the ferry (which was filled with screaming children and overpriced food) to Castro, we spent as much time as we could on the roof watching the fjords go by and catching some photos. After about 5 hours we could see the city of Castro in the distance.
Castro is the third oldest city in Chile, founded in 1567 by Don Martin Ruiz de Gamboa, nephew of the Governor of Chile. He came by ship to the island with 100 Spanish men and started mixing with the local indigenous people. As an island, Chiloe was quite isolated from mainland Chile, which led to a unique culture developing which was a mix of Spanish maritime culture and indigenous island culture. In the 1600’s, the Dutch, allied with mainland Mapuche, invaded Castro and destroyed the city. Despite the similarities between the Mapuche and the indigenous on Chiloe, I learned later that Chiloe was actually known from its loyalty to the Spanish crown during the Chilean independence movement. Failed military campaigns aimed at conquering the Spanish territory, such as the 1824 battle of Mocopulli, successfully delayed the incorporation of Chiloé into Chile until the 1826 Treaty of Tantauco.
The morning of the 2nd, Colin planned out a great walking tour for us around the city. Our first stop was to the Gamboa Palafitte District for some French Toast and eggs at Café del Puente, followed by a walk along the shore (called the Paseo Costanero or River Walk ) to see the palafitos, or houses built on stilts to keep them away from the water. They were colorful and pretty cute! We managed to duck into a couple agencies and get ourselves booked onto a tour for the following day. That sorted, we went to check out what I called “Castro’s Disney Princess Castle.”
We couldn’t miss going to a few of the UNESCO World Heritage Churches dotted around Chiloe island – especially because the first was right in the middle of Castro! In the 16th century, religious settlers converted the native people of Chiloe to Christianity. The Jesuits ended up becoming the leaders in this cause, working with the indigenous to construct more than 150 ‘Chilote style’ wooden churches around the island. Some of the churches manage to look like castles with their towers and walkways. The curved construction of the church roofs was done in a similar style to the way local people built boats, just inverted. This was the case for the bright yellow, pink, and purple Neo-Gothic church we explored in Castro. The outside reminded me of a multi-colored ice-cream cone or a funhouse for children. Actually, when I first saw it I thought it must be ‘where sleeping beauty lives’ because it looks so DISNEY. The colors are actually just painted onto flat metal panels which are attached to the outside of the church – I have a feeling they aren’t the original colors. Inside the church we could see the details of the stunning arched roof and wooden details made of alerce, coique, beech, and cypress wood. The best part of the church was a really crazy-looking sculpture we found inside of victory over Satan!
The areas we explored around the church were just as colorful as the church itself. Chiloe knows how to do graffiti right! I was very impressed by some of the images we saw sprayed around town… and just when I thought it was enough color, Colin and I checked out some artisan markets and found even more! I even got a purple octopus (although it funnily has 7 legs!) as a surprise from Colin!
Our late lunch stop was another of Chiloe’s signatures – a massive dish called curanto. This meal is similar to Polynesian dishes, as both are traditionally prepared deep in a hole dug into the ground. At the bottom hot stones are placed to help steam the dish until its ready. Into the hole tons of shellfish (clams and mussels) are tossed. On top of these shells more food is placed – huge chunks of potatoes, smoked pork, sausage, chicken, and these potato-based creations called milcao and chapalele are cooked above the shellfish. The whole thing is covered in nalca leaves (the Chilean rhubarb we encountered in Queulat Park) to cook. Once it is finished, it is served with a ‘pebre’ which is a salty liquid with onion, chili pepper, coriander, and parsley which helps flavor the seafood. We ordered our curanto in a restaurant, so it was cooked in an oven instead of a hole in the ground –but we felt like we got a great understanding of the experience!
Potatoes are very important in the curanto, and as I said they are used in three different ways in the curanto – regular potatoes, in a potato pancake called a milcao, and in a potato dumpling called a chapalele. For the milcao, potatoes are cooked two ways. Half are cooked and mashed, and the other half are grated and strained of water. The grated potatoes are folded into the mashed potatoes and the dough is seasoned and fat is added to it before it is made into a flat, round pancake. Our experience of a milcao was steamed in our curanto, although you can fry a milcao as well. It didn’t have a very appetizing color or shape – it kinda just looked like a flat and thick grey pancake. The texture was very doughy, and I did enjoy it. I think I’d probably enjoy the fried or pork-filled versions better though! We didn’t have any of the potato dumplings – chapalele – in our curanto, but they are similar to milcao, except made from boiled potatoes and wheat flour. We did later tried one of these on our way out of Chiloe. Our chapalele had pork ‘cracklings’ or juicy bits of pork and (mostly) pork fat stuffed inside them.
The curanto was so massive that we still had more than 20 mussels left after we were finished. And we had just ordered the 1 person version!
We really needed to walk off our lunch, so we walked through a few more artisan stalls and eventually ended up visiting the train plaza. This area near the coast used to be the terminal for a train that ran in the early 1900’s along the island of Chiloe years ago. The train ran from Castro to Ancud and back a few times a week, and ran until the 1960 earthquake (which was the strongest earthquake ever recorded at 8.9) destroyed its tracks along with much of the cities of Chiloe. Our day was finished once we reached the Pedro Montt Palafitte District, a second set of palafitos along the coast.
The morning of the 3rd we went to the tour agency, Turismo Queilen, for our daytrip around Chiloe. It was a good discounted price we managed to get for the trip – the agency agreed that we could pay $32,000 or about $64 USD for both of us for the day. The trip was a lot of fun, although our tour guide (who spoke English and said he would explain in English for us) didn’t give us any information at all unless we asked him questions. It was like getting blood from a stone to get information about Chiloe but we managed it.
The trip started with a drive to a nearby city called Nercon where we found another UNESCO church, the Church of Nercon, which had a 25 meter tall tower. From the side of this church we could see the foundation stones and alerce shingles. The churches used alerce wood for shingles because rain runs down the alerce tree without rotting or ruining the wood, hence the perfect material for a church roof on a rainy island. We learned that churches on Chiloe were constructed by a community group called a minga. Mingas took on projects which aided their members, including building stables, aiding in harvests, and most interestingly, working to transporting people’s houses by land or sea. As mingas don’t have leaders, the group works together to chose and complete projects and the whole thing is finished by having a big BBQ or asado at the end.
After visiting Nercon we went to the city Chonchi which is known as the ‘three story town’ because of its three ‘levels.’ The name of the town literally means “red earth” in the native Huilliche language. Here we saw another UNESCO church. This one was constructed using alerce shingles and cypress wood as well, but it had a blue ceiling inside with stars painted on it. It reminded me of a kid’s room that has constellations stuck to the ceiling which glow in the dark – but a bit more faded.
While in Chonchi we explored the colorful wool-filled artisan shops. One of these shops had a little statue of an interesting-looking creature. I recognized the figure as Trauco, a mythological being of Chiloe which I’ll explain more about later. We also saw a little museum (well, it was a one room show) filled with accordions from different years in history from the early 1900’s to present day. A timeline of accordions! After the museum Colin and I went to a market where we tried a sweet Chilean dulce de leche liquor called ‘manjar’ and a golden-colored liquor called ‘liquor de oro.’ We both enjoyed the manjar which I thought would go really well with coffee or ice-cream, but the liquor de oro (along with a few other ‘fruity’ liquors we tried) or gold liquor was pretty strong and a bit sour – it is made of alcohol, whey, saffron and lemon peel.
Back on the bus we took a ferry across the Canal Lemuy to the Isle of Lemuy, a small island which only 5000 people living on it. Our ferry passed a few salmon farms before we landed on the island, which many former farmers and fishermen work at now. Most of them were started in the 1980’s and since then they have caused a lot of damage to the rivers they are based in. The fish are fed by farmers throwing food into the river ‘jails’ where the salmon are kept for 1 year, but the food the salmon don’t manage to eat floats down to the river floor, covering it and causing difficulty for the plants trying to obtain sunlight – and other fish which need to eat those plants to survive. This is clearly seen when a salmon farm is removed from an area, as other species of fish suddenly start repopulating places they used to live. Many of the fish are injected with steroids, which pollute the water and make the fish not very healthy to eat. This process continues because many politicians are personally involved with salmon farms and their corruption influences law-making.
On the Isle of Lemuy we went to an estancia in Puqueldon (the capital of Lemuy) for a delicious (and massive) asado lunch of carbonara (veg) soup, lamb, potatoes, salads, and bread with a spicy dip. Oh, and lots and lots of red and white wine! We chatted with some local Chileans on holiday while we all watched the sharply-dressed man running the estancia hack away at the lamb with a massive knife. We even got a picture with him! After lunch we spent a bit of time walking around his estancia and looking at the chickens, apple trees, and raspberry bushes. The highlight of the farm was this huge pig we came across, rolling around in the mud. When I say huge, this guy was probably at least 5 feet in length! That’s at least 2 or 3 asados.
Our final stop was at a private park called ‘The Parque Yayanes.’ Here we went on the 30 minute ‘Walk of the Trauco’ which took us across a one-person bridge through plenty of native forest until we arrive at a little waterfall. It was quite a covered walk, with much of the bamboo and cane covering the pathway which made for a really cool ‘in the middle of nowhere’ feeling!
On our way back on the ferry Colin spotted a small grey and white Chilean dolphin, the same dolphin I spotted when we went to the glacier at San Raphael National Park. This dolphin is one of the least studied and perhaps there are less than a thousand individuals – which means we’ve been really lucky to see them, twice!
The following morning we planned to head out on our own to see one of the coolest of the churches. Unfortunately, it was rainy for pretty much the entire day – so we spent most of it soaked! After taking a look around the Municipal Museum of Castro, where we learned about the process of pressing apples to make an apple cider called ‘Chicha de Manzana.’ The museum had some of the tools for making the sweet and popular drink. Next we walked to the minibus terminal and hopped on the next van to a city called Dalcahue.
Once we got to Dalcahue (which seemed to be a small town with not too much to do) we checked out yet another UNESCO church, which was currently under renovation. We couldn’t go inside because of this, but I did a little research and saw that inside there is a painting of Jesus surrounded by some indigenous mythological figures! While in the city we went to a museum where we found not much – but a huge pelican!
After checking with tourist information, Colin and I caught the bus to an even more remote city called Tenaun, which was founded in 1767 because a city was needed in between Chacao and Castro. The name Tenaun means ‘three hills’ in the native Huilliche language. It made sense that the church has three towers in it! We couldn’t go into the church straight away because it was closed for siesta, so we got out of the rain and found a little place to have some fish for lunch while waiting. Once the church was open and we had a look inside we returned to Castro for our bags – they got the bus to a city in the north of Chiloe, Ancud!
We arrived in Ancud that evening, but didn’t explore until the following day since we found a decent (though non-descript) place to stay the night. The city of Ancud was founded in 1767 and, along with the rest of Chiloe, remained loyal to the Spanish crown - the island was the Spanish’s last possession in the new world. The first things built were a few forts to ‘keep’ the city. One of these forts we would visit later that day, but first we headed to museums where we learned about Ancud and the (mostly Christian) German and Spanish immigrants who came to the area to populate it. It was also in the Municipal Museum where we learned about some of the mythological spirits of the indigenous people.
While the Christian community came to the island of Chiloe with the mission to convert the indigenous people of Chiloe. These people already had their own beliefs however, which was a pantheon of spirits. These spirits included two ‘head creators’ fighting against each other - Tenten Vilu, who sought to protect humanity, and Caicai Vilu, who sought to harm humanity for leaving their original home in the sea. The struggle between the two gods led to mass flooding which made up the channels and islands of Chiloe.
Many of the other spirits have ties to water as well; as Chiloe is an island, water is central to the indigenous world. There is king of the seas Millalobo and his wife Huenchula. Their three children: Pincoy, the prince of the sea, the Pincoya and Sirena chilota, princesses of the sea. There are also tales of a ‘ghost ship’ called the Caleuche. This ship is mysterious and during foggy times it appears and disappears. Its’ wizards have a never-ending party onboard to attract people, with music calling them.
In addition, the indigenous had beliefs in different human-like creatures such as witches, and most famously, the Trauco. The Trauco, a hatchet-baring forest creature, is (similar to Guaraní beliefs) the scapegoat for any ‘mysterious’ pregnancies that pop up in society. If a woman becomes pregnant and no man claims the child, the “problem” is blamed on being impregnated by the sexually irresistible Trauco. Similarly, there is a woman who ‘blamed’ for men falling under her spell called ‘the widow.’ Later in the day we walked through the main square where we found lots of little statues of the different spirits, I’ll show some of those here.
There were some maritime items as well. Outside we found a replica of the Galeta Ancud, which was the ship Juan Williams took the the Americas by the order of the Governor of Chile to the Magellan Straight. They were attempting to populate southern Chile, founded Fort Bulnes which later became nearby Punta Arenas. The end of the museum had a section with lots of drawings done aboard the HMS Beagle (the ship Darwin was on) as it went around South America. Conrad Martins, who was aboard, described the city of Ancud as a place filled with very simple people living in small, wooden, one room homes, wearing indigo-dyed woolen ponchos. They were surrounded by impenetrable forests which had to be navigated around via canoe. In a lot of ways, this is still the story. But now the houses are larger and the canoes have become ferries!
Colin and I walked along the pier near the harbor, where we saw young guys bringing large bags of seaweed off their boats. Since we later saw this stuff for sale in a market in Puerto Montt, we now know that it is collected for eating! After watching the seagulls for a while we went up a little hill nearby to walk around the Fort San Antonio. This fort was built in 1770 to protect the harbor, along with another fort on a nearby island. There wasn’t much left of it, but the cannons were still standing!
We decided to try for lunch in a nearby artisan/fish market, but instead ended up with a little great little book (in ENGLISH!) on Chiloe! After a quick lunch along the road, we went to a church that was in the process of being restored. It is a kind of ‘church museum’ run by the ‘Friends of the Churches of Chiloe’ foundation. Inside were descriptions of all the different churches on the island, along with samples of the different types of native woods used in the construction. Our favorite aspect was the unfinished belfry at the front – we could really see how it was built!
The following morning Colin and I left for the city of Puerto Montt, on a ferry across the Canal de Ancud. We were returning to mainland Chile and ready to head north!
Francesca
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