Chilly Chiloe
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Castro,
Chile
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Wet, dreary weather is not want I want at this point of my trip. Especially since it´s supposed to be summertime. But I think that Chiloe is always indecisive and switches between sun and rain and sometimes decides to mix the two.
Flying Again
I was back at a real airport, checking into a real plane in Santiago for the first time since arriving in South America. Granted, I have been on 4 planes in that time, but nothing that earned me frequent flyer points (why skydiving doesn´t count for frequent flyer points I don´t know) or required me to put my pocket knife in my checked luggage (in theory Leticia-Iquitos yes, but well, things slip through you know).
Anyway, aside from putting the wrong gate number on my ticket and having me wander around looking for my plane, it was all good. Exceptionally good. My luggage managed to find the right gate too, which I was pleased about. I must say, that the presentation of LanChile´s inflight service was second to none. I had a nice big, thick, blue serviette, an exotic looking red tray mat and my appetising salad came in china. Big points.
The worst thing was stepping off the plane to a blustery Puerto Montt. My legs shook involuntarily when they saw the wind whipping about as I was wearing my favourite outfit (that is, sadly, going to be lucky to make it home without falling to pieces) of black skirt and aqua singlet. Far too summery for this part of Chile. I asked a nice man what the temperature was and when he replied, he wasn´t so nice anymore as 15 degrees was his answer.
Getting to Chiloe
As Chiloe is an island there was a ferry to cross. This wasn´t like any of the ferries crossing the Murray, but a ferry left every 5 minutes or so to make the 30minute voyage across to the island or mainland. That´s a lot of ferries. But there is also a lot of traffic and lots of trucks that are waiting in line.
The island itself is very beautiful and I was entranced by the bushes along the side of the road that were laden with bright yellow flowers. As we were zipping past, they looked like wattles, but on closer inspection were not. There are lots of green rolling hills on Chiloe, and some spectacular bays and it was a very nice paisaje to look at from the bus.
Castro
I was greeted by a hospedaje tout who reminded me of Rod from Village days so I went to his place which was pretty nice. Unfortunately the weather was not, and I spent the next 2 days getting stuck in the drizzling rain which would not give up it`s little spurts.
Castro is famous for it`s bright little houses on stilts over the water. They were quaint. As were the buildings of which the majority were made out of wooden shingles. Other than that, I didn`t see much except for the Feria Artesanal where I shopped it up big time and then got very mad at the inefficiency that it took to buy some earphones (up to pair number 5) and at having to go upstairs to pay, come back down to pick up and wait a zillion years.
And that was Castro for me. Skipped over for the lure of Bariloche in Argentina.
Things I Learned
* I´m starting to see doubles of friends and acquaintances back home. It´s time to leave.
* To appreciate things more, I need a travel buddy, especially since I`m just lining up to jet out of South America, I`m over seeing stuff that most tourists love.
* Inefficiency is rife in South America and I`m patienced out with it.
