Castro, Chile

After the relatively calm of the fjords we had been traveling in, we headed out to the Pacific Ocean and things got pretty wild with wind, rain, and big waves. Luckily by morning, things cleared up for our visit to Chiloé Island, a beautiful region in Northern Patagonia. It’s part of a 41 island group that is far from the mainland. It has a very unique culture, born from the marriage of indigenous and colonial roots. The people consider themselves more Chiloén rather than Chilean. This has seemed to be consistent in most of the places we have visited in Patagonia. As far as the environment is concerned, within the last 24 hours we have gone from cold, snow covered mountains and fjords to a more temperate rainforest. A number of people went out to the national park here, but we decided to visit the capital of the island — Castro, the third oldest city in Chile that was established in 1576. As with many other areas in Patagonia, the Spanish subjugated the local indigenous and tried to set up much of the island as an agricultural center. But much of the wealth of this area comes from fishing, shellfish gathering, and aquaculture — both salmon and shellfish (most of the shellfish is exported to the US and China. It was very hilly walking around this city of 41,000 people and there seems to be a virtual traffic jam everywhere. Wood construction is the standard and many of the buildings are clad in cypress shingles from the huge number of cypress trees that grow it the hills (it really looks like Italy!). Even the Church of San Francisco, which is located on one side of the Plaza de Armas is built of wood, and it is gorgeous. It is a Chilean National Monument and (along with the other wooden churches on Chiloé Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But while this area is very Catholic, there is still a big belief in witches and trolls that we saw, including Trauco, a troll who lives in the forest. He dresses in rags and carries a club, but apparently his breath is irresistible to women. To this day, he is blamed for any unexplained pregnancies in the area! The other thing that Castro is famous for is the palafitos, a group of traditional wooden stilt houses that provided easy access for fishermen to do their work. The stilts are quite high since there is a 12-16 foot tidal change here. They actually have two fronts — one facing the street and one the canal where their boats were accessed. I say “were” because most of these have been gentrified and turned into high end homes, B&Bs, restaurants, etc. Still they are quite colorful and attractive. Definitely a nice visit!