A DAY ON CHILOE
It was a brilliantly sunny day with cool crisp air and an occasional band of puffy clouds. We left the hotel just before 8:30 with our good guide Jaime from the day before and a new driver, Javier. After about 45 minutes, we arrived at the coast and the pier for the car ferry to Chiloe island. Chiloe is Chile’s largest island and was the last part of the country to become part of it. The ferry service is continuous all day back and forth and then hourly at night. This ship accommodates cars, vans, tractor trailer trucks, and even tour buses, and the crossing takes about 30 minutes.
Its motion is slow and gentle, and the water was calm as we viewed it from up on deck.
You arrive at Chacao, a charming small town of colorful houses and shops and a beautiful church with blue trim and a partially blue roof. We were entranced and took many pictures of the church, both inside and outside, as well as the shops.
This is one of the only times I can recall a Catholic Church featuring a risen Christ in the central spot behind the altar rather than the more traditional crucifix. Here the crucified Jesus is much smaller and off to one side. On the other side is a sculpture of the youth Jesus and Joseph.
From Chaco, it was another hour to Castro, the capital of Chiloe which was founded in 1576. It was bustling and busy with a most attractive town square and park and the beautiful yellow and purple San Francisco Church. The church was founded 450 years ago, and this current building (early 20th century) is all made of wood. The steeples are purple while the rest of the facade is painted a bright lemon yellow.
Apparently, it’s quite common for churches in Chile to be painted in bright colors, and periodically, this one has worn other colors besides these. The interior was beautiful wood, a warm honey color, and the statues and embellishments were simpler than other cathedrals we’ve visited.
We could have lingered longer in Castro, but as it turned out, we got our look at the church interior just before the doors closed at noon. It was a short drive then on to the outskirts of town to see the houses on stilts built by sailors and fishermen.
These palafitos boast bright colored facades and many today are hostels or restaurants; only a few remain as private residences. We decided to lunch here and sought out La Cevicherie. None of us ordered any of the ceviches, but we did like sampling some very good empanadas, one ham with melted cheese, and the other salmon and shrimp also with melted stringy cheese. They were far superior to the deflated, almost empty-of-any-filling, ones we’d had in Valparaiso. We then re-traced our steps back to the ferry. It was a day saturated with color.
One observation. We drove on Route 5, part of the Pan-American Highway, which runs from Alaska all the way to the south of Chile. What interested me was seeing the bus shelters (signs indicate parada, means the act of stopping with an icon of a bus) placed along the side of the highway about every mile. This is a toll road and you pay if you leave the road at an exit; however, there are local roads which run parallel to the highway and don’t seem to require any payment if you exit there.
The parada are conveniently located near these local roads. Often there is a little bridge from the local road to the parada or even a set of stairs leading from up above down to the bus shelter. The shelters can be simple plywood, unpainted, like a chicken coop tilted on its side. Open in the front with a short bench, but a peaked roof, partial back and sides. I wanted to get a photo of one, but there wasn’t an opportune moment. In the cities and town, the shelters are more elaborate, painted, and sometimes constructed of stone or concrete with fancier roofs.
Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).
