Quinchao Island
Trip Start
Mar 01, 2006
1
316
551
Trip End
Dec 01, 2007
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Castro - Quinchao - Chonchin,
Chile
Friday, April 6, 2007
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Due to late talks with other travellers, and then with a couple of local chilenos, I did not get much sleep, for a change...
But I had to get up, there was lots to do, and it was my third morning without washing, so the shower was compulsory.
We packed our bags and left them with the landlady, and went to the local bus station.
The town was completely calm, under a thin rain, and light clouds. There were very few people out, all of them going somewhere tranquilo, by contrast with the busstle of the previous evening, when everybody was getting ready for the holliday and the shops were full of clients.
As it was holy friday, most offices were closed, Eva could not change her ticket to Valparaiso, so she had to catch her bus from Puerto Montt in the evening. It was a shame she left, we had a good team even though it must have been hard for her at times to be with 4 french speakers.
So with Marie, Bruno and Lionel we took the bus north: to the small island of Quinchao. In Dalcahue the bus took us over on a ferry, and half an hour later we were in Achao, under the rain. The main attraction there, and the reason of our visit, was the church. It was not permitted to take pictures inside, so as not to damage the paints with flashes, but it was beautiful: a very old wooden church, the ceiling was a dark blue lazure, and the walls blue and creamy white, with original wooden designs, it was really unique and... beautiful? Yes, I think that is the word, beautiful with simplicity. I tried to find pictures on the net, unsuccessfully.
We walked around town, checked out the seaside, but the rain took us back to the bus station.We were hoping to get further down the island, to the city of Quinchao, which hosts another world heritage wooden church... but as it was holy friday, there was no service to there, so we took the first bus which showed up, after a while, back to the main Island.
We stopped on the way in Curaco de Velez, where we finished our picnic and visited the church, still made of wood but with a modern interior design, of little interest.
There were supposed to be watermills (molinas) around, but we did not find them, demotivated maybe by the rain. We waited for the bus, which took us to the ferry, and we crossed over to Dalcahue. That bus was overfull, as people on that day come and go to visit familly, have lunch here an diner there, and then the religious rites in the evening.
Dalcahue welcomed us with a sun that gradually ruled over the clouds. We visited the church, and took a walk along the waterside, where there were a lot of fishing boats. We stopped at the market, where artesanias stalls were proposing woolen clothes, with beautiful bright colors. They explained us they took the pigments from roots from dark soil or something like that, but I did not get it all.
A guy on the jetty was sitting there with big slimy spotty pink things. He was cutting them open, revealing cavities in the soft pink shell. In these cavities was a red flesh, and also organs and liquids that he discarded, keeping only the red flesh in a bowl. He proposed me to try it, but ... no. When pressing the pinky thingy, water was squeezing out of it in a thin jet. I should have taken pictures.
Back to Castro, we retrieved our bags, and took off to nearby Chonchi. There we went to Hospedaje Esmeralda. We had met its canadian owner at the national park, he had got me with his "all you can eat" diner at 3000 pesos (6 dollars) and bring your own drinks. But that all you can eat was mussels, and I don't enjoy eating mussels.. so while the others ate that, I went cooking and experimented the avocado and onion cheese omelette with estragon. Not bad, but definitely not a culinary revelation.
Update: I got pictures from the inside of the church in Achao, from Franck, a french guy I met in Castro: when he visited he was granted permission to take pictures if he did not use the flash.
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