Castro, Chiloe Island

NOTE:  We're now in Lima, Peru, and I'll post a blog soon about why we didn't spend more time in Chile.  But I'm still finishing our blogs from the cruise, so remember to check backwards chronologically for any posts you may have missed.

19 February 2020

We’ve been to Castro, Chiloe Island, before, about 4 years ago.  (Pronounced chi-LOW-ay.)  We both really enjoyed Castro, in fact all of Isla Chiloe, so we were looking forward to this port visit.

Of course, life moves on and things change everywhere.  You can’t go home again and all that jazz.  While Castro felt familiar, much had changed, and we couldn’t find our favorite eating spot, or our former hotel, or anything like that.

On the other hand, we found the huge yellow church in the middle of town, right near the central plaza, the centerpiece of this colorful town.  This church was built in the traditional Chilote style, which is unique and has become one of those UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Heritage recognized arts.  The architecture of Chiloe is distinctive, including the houses.  But the churches are especially recognizable as part of the patrimony of this region.  (Chilote is pronounced chi-LOW-tay.)

Besides, where else would you find a bright yellow church with red and white accents and lavender steeples?  It sounds like a crazy combination, but somehow it works, even with the multi-colored stained glass windows.  Especially in a town where half of the houses are in colors of the neon rainbow, or the panoply of sherbet and sorbet colors.  Really, from a distance – such as across the harbor viewed from a cruise ship balcony – Castro looks like the brightest, happiest, most cheerfully welcoming town you could imagine!

One of the most distinguishing features of Chilote architecture on homes are the wood shingles cut with decorative edges.  I looked closely at the shingles and it seems as if these are done by hand, rather than machines – they seem to have slight differences from shingle to shingle on any given house, so it looks as if each shingle is cut individually.  I could be wrong, but they don’t look like they are stamped out all the same.  I could spend days looking at these shingles, and would love to compile a collection of photos showing the whole variety of different designs.  They really are incredible!  

The central plaza was busy, with booths being set up in the park as well as along several streets, because today was the opening day of a Chilote Festival.  We aren’t sure what the festival is about, but all the booths seemed to be food-oriented.  Churros, those long ridged doughnut-like sticks of fried batter, tasty with cinnamon sugar or dipped in chocolate, though here they are often filled with dulce de leche.  Mote con huisilla, an ancient drink made of stewed dried peaches and spices, served over cooked whole wheat berries – much tastier than you’d think from that description.  I personally love mote con huisilla, it really is refreshing and tastes  vaguely medieval.  Anyway, we wandered around town a bit, just enjoying the burgeoning crowd, the architecture, and trying to decide what to have for a snack.  We ended up in a restaurant called Rapa Nui, so that we could sit down.  (I had crepes, which came filled with the ever-present dulce de leche, unexpectedly.)

I also wandered around the artisans’ market, which mostly featured locally made wool products.  Knit socks, scarves, hats, and sweaters – beautiful, but a bit rough and scratchy.  I did find an adorable felted wool penguin, though, so of course he joined our travel family. 

Around the island of Chiloe, and on the outskirts of Castro, there are traditional houses built on stilts, right along the coastline.  Obviously these houses are built this way to protect the homes from high tides and periodic flooding in the fjords, dating back to the indigenous people who lived here before the conquistadores came through and took the land in the name of Spain.  On the bandstand in the central plaza, there’s a small mural of these stilt houses, rendered in mosaic.  Great little mural!  (And yes, these are the first three photos in the blog.  I love mosaics!)

After several hours, we decided to head back to the ship.  This is one of those ports where we take tenders from the ship to the town’s pier.  So we needed to walk to the terminal and then to the pier.  Chile is a mountainous country, and even these islands are hilly.  We had a steep hill to walk down to get to the shoreline.  I mean STEEP.  After years in western Washington state (hilly) and visits to San Francisco (even hillier), let me just say that the hills of Castro are even steeper.  I was sliding forward in my sandals, and holding onto people’s fences to that I wouldn’t fall down face first.  Richard also walked down the hill holding onto the fences so he wouldn’t fall over.  Really, the hills were so steep that we both felt like we’d fall over and go rolling down the hill until we fell in the water!!! 

We managed to make it down two blocks of intense white-knuckling our way down the hill, without injuring ourselves.  Whew!  Walked along the waterfront road to the little terminal, down the pier, and onto our little tender.

I have to say that I like the little tender rides in and out of our ports.  It’s like a little bonus boat trip, even if these trips are only 15 minutes or so each way. 

We had a lovely sailaway today – I’m not sure what direction we went in, but the fjords of southern and central Chile are so beautiful that it makes it hard to spend time inside when we’re cruising through.  I enjoyed watching the scenery as we headed out – our balcony is wonderful for this part of our days on the cruise.  I really do walk out there each morning, in my robe, just to see whatever there is to see.  That time between re-boarding the ship and dinner is another perfect time to spend on the balcony, watching the scenery and the water.

We’re coming almost to the end of our cruise, so I’m trying to enjoy all the ways that make cruising a unique way to travel.  So much is different from our usual hotel and walking or public transportation sort of travel. 

So I’m trying to enjoy the balcony every day, before we disembark on Saturday.