March 16th to 18th 2015
We begin still in Santiago, my father and I climbing on a bus separate from Russell and Clara, a Cama bus. With Cruz Del Sur at 28.900 pesos (58 CAD) booked only a few days ahead of time, it’s certainly an expensive choice, but my goodness is it comfortable. The seats are only three o’clock and incredibly wide and comfy, the leg room is spacious and the service is excellent. For the first time ever on a night bus I get a goodnights sleep, somewhere around 9 hours of it and as we our bus pulls up on to the ferry to Chiloe I’m feeling refreshed enough to step outside and enjoy the scenery.
It’s colder than I’m used to, and the rain starting isn’t helpful, though it does mean I’m almost alone on deck once my dad returns to the bus, and I spot lots of playful sea lions around the boat, bursting up out of the water around us. As we pull in to port I see something which assures me my dad will enjoy Chiloe, a giant coca cola banners and a Lays potato chips flag.
I climb back into the bus and enjoy the last hour of the ride, though worry as while we ride through the weather only worsens. We climb out at the terminal Municipal and walk a brief few minutes to Hospedaje Austral where we are very warmly welcomed by Mirta and Pedro. We’re shown to our comfy twin room in the recently rebuilt budget hotel then we go see Russell and Clara in a room down the hall before heading down to the dining room for a detailed debrief of all the things to do in Ancud. Sadly the rain pours down harder and harder so after a quick Cazuela (Local soup with potato beef, sweet corn and cilantro) we head back and have a rainy day in the comfortable rooms. I blog, Dad reads and we all end up falling asleep until dinner time. By then the weather has cleared but the sun is quickly sinking so it’s just a brief walk around town and then organizing a visit to the Penguins for the morrow, going through Mirta and costing 15,000 CLP (30 CAD).
Somehow despite all the afternoon sleep I still sleep ludicrously well before waking up for a 10 o’clock breakfast of fresh bread and homemade jam. Then the mini bus is outside honking and we’re on our way to see the Penguins of Chiloe, about an hour from Ancud. Chiloe is one of very few places in the world where you can see two different types of penguins nesting together, the Magdallena penguin and the Humboldt penguins.
Our tour guide is very friendly and also serves as the driver as he tells us all about the history of Chiloe through a microphone as we meander along the coastal road towards the penguins. We stop at a few beaches to look at them from the van and get out at a viewpoint of the rolling green island.
Honestly the entire island is quite reminiscent of the east coast of Canada. Rural Nova Scotia: but with penguins!
The road ends rather suddenly but the van continues along a stunningly beautiful beach before letting us out to explore briefly before retrieving life jackets and heading on to the boat. The four of us make the most of our time posing for a few penguin photos at my insistence,
Next up I spot a veritable army of kittens near some boats down the beach and can’t help myself, hurrying over to them and playing with the surprisingly brave and friendly bunch of scamps, though for some unknown reason they seem to like Clara a bit more than me.
Before long were called back as it’s time to get on the boat and find some penguins! We’re loaded on with an ingenious wheels cart taking us out into knee deep water making it an easy step onto the little boat, even with the somewhat sizeable waves.
Before we get to any penguins a wave crashes over the front of the boat and I barely manage to save my camera in time. Still I quickly forget about being soaked as a friendly sea otter delights us all by popping it’s head up above the surface and spinning around gracefully in the water for a few moments before disappearing below the surface. I can’t manage a great photo but I’m already smiling broadly as we reach the first little rocky islands and the first colony of little penguins.
They look back at us inquisitively as we smile and point at them, snapping more photos than could possibly be needed. I don’t know what it is about penguins, they’re not super colourful, they’re not huge like a condor, or tiny like a hummingbird, but I, and most of the rest of the world, just loves seeing them. I’ve yet to get tired of it, and after my time in Patagonia (coming soon to the blog) I’ve seen more than my fair share.
Our boat is expertly drawn in very close to the rocks and the penguins by our friendly captain, allowing us to get some great views of this first colony. We’re told just a small percentage of the penguins are left by our time in Late march, they come to rear their young and leave for other waters once the young ones can swim long distances so the best time to visit is December to February, but this of course also means I lot more tourists. So i guess it’s a matter of tastes.
We leave the first colony behind and head further out into the sparkling waters and more little islands in search of more penguins. They’re not hard to find and we spend the better part of the next hour drifting between the little islands observing the penguins and some startlingly red footed cormorants who frustratingly kept their feet hidden from us in all but the rarest occasions. Still, pretty cool.
After about an hour we turn around and head back towards the shore, but before we can get there a new Chilean friend from Santiago spots another sea otter (or perhaps the same one) frolicking just a little ways off our course, spinning around in and out of the water with the grace only an otter can manage. It playfully approaches our boat and glides effortlessly through the water putting on a show for us, before we head back to shore for good.
Back on the beach we have some choices, lunch in a restaurant, climbing up to a viewpoint, or wandering on the beach. (Somehow the idea of swimming didn’t enter my mind which I almost regret until I get past the restaurant and up to the viewpoint.)
I’m alone, Russell and Clara having opted for Lunch, and my dad to wander along the endless beach. Above it, hawks and vultures sore through the air and my eyes are afforded a truly stunning view of the beaches below, the waves crashing against the rock formations, and the penguins from above.
After snapping a few shots of my dad, a solitary pensive figure on the beach I head further up towards the other point. The view only improves and I hope to come back here and hike to some of the solitary beaches I see in the distance later during my stay in Chile.
I climb up to the second view point looking further along the coast and lose myself in the incredible beauty and the huge birds circling overhead.
As I snap away I better get to know some of the people up there with me and am better for it. Chileans on the road are an affable sort, and always eager to share secrets of their long and narrow country. In fact as I’m hurrying back down towards the beach knowing we’re already late, Pablo calls me over. He’s spotted a few stunning green lizards, a perfect cap on the excursion.
We pile back into the bus and I enjoy a delicious shrimp and cheese empanada to go courtesy of Russell and Clara, and we head back to Ancud for a brief stop at Hospedaje Austral, before deciding to make the best of our last day in Ancud, heading for a walk Mirta had suggested for the day before, that had been unfortunately rained out.
We take a left from Hospedaje Austral and then another left, heading up a hill above Ancud and looking out at a different side of the Ocean. Russell and Clara manage to open a beer on Clara’s hiking boot to better enjoy the walk. We look down on a sandbar covered in two different types of birds below us before continuing along, eventually noticing the distant snow capped peaks back on the mainland, including a few volcanoes.
We continue along the top, past a power station and back into the town itself, enjoying the little snapshots of local life. Chiloe is one of Chile’s most traditional regions and while a lot of the young people are busy texting away, most of the older people look out of another era.
Eventually we make it to fort and enjoy this last spanish outpost in south america, just a few walls and a bunch of cannons, but it boasts a terrific view out to the ocean. We’ve picked up more dog friends on our walk, and both join Russell Clara and I on our walk down to a beach to try to find a few caves Mirta told us about.
The caves are a little underwhelming, nothing like Vietnam, and don’t stretch back far, but we continue out along the rocks and enjoy watching small waves crash over the rocks as some birds go about fishing out on the open water.
Feeling bad to leave my father alone for too long we head back up to the fort quickly and there decide to part ways. I take some writing time and stay at the fort to watch an impressive sunset while the others head back to the hostel. We meet up for dinner at El Chilote Mena (Another Mirta recommendation) and enjoy what’s left of our last night in Ancud. Tomorrow is a bus to Puerto Montt and then another to Pueroto Varas, a german colonial town in the south of Chile’s lake district. I don’t know it as we sit over a nice dinner, but It’s going to be something special.
