land of the damp

off the plane and onto the bus to Castro. A 3 and a half hour trip landed me in Castro at 9 at night. I was headed to a hostel, and a lady in the street convinced me to go to hers. It was a cute little room, nice lady, so I thought I made a good choice. spent the evening talking to a super drunk chilean guy and his spanish wife ( he was really nice, she was very unnice). Went to bed and proceeded to freeze. It was so cold I could see my breath in the room. to top it off, in the morning, early, there were these Ibis in the trees, cool looking birds, but really really loud. I ended up changing hotels, and last night was much better, still cold though. The way they heat here is a wood stove downstairs with an exposed metal pipe from the stove upstairs. it doesn´t do much. thank goodness they put 3 huge blankets on the bed.

and one more view from my room

Anyway, this is a cool place, known for beautiful old churches and seafood. I wandered off to Achao, ate the biggest oysters on the planet and wandered around in the rain. went to dinner at a recommended place, nobody was there. Only the elderly owners, it felt like it was closed. I basically had to order seafood soup, it is all they had ingredients for. It was really good, but a wierd environment. the couple was sitting at another table, eating toast and watching this really dumb variety show on tv. I felt like I was intruding. at least I got to sit next to the wood stove. It´s good I know a little spanish. I am not able to use english very often, so my basic conversation skills seem to be helping. Otherwise I think it would be really difficult to do things here.

church in Achao

Today I am heading to Frutillar, really.

houses built on stilts

in a minibus on a ferry

inside Castro chuch

stilt house

street in castro

view again from room

view from room