Iglesia San Francisco de Castro

 

 

 

 

 

Iglesia San Francisco. Built in 1912.
Purple and yellow color scheme would not
have been my first choice.

We visited the Iglesia San Francisco de Castro when we were in Chiloé. This church, along with several others in the archipelago, is part of the UNESCO World Heritage List for good reason. The all-local-wood interior and simple stained glass is gorgeous (and a difference from the marble churches I'm used to seeing throughout Europe and America), and the churches represent a blend of Jesuit/Franciscan tradition and local Chiloean building materials and techniques.

 

The tallest building in Castro.
It's the law.

 

Original door

What the fork?

Jesuits dolls
found in almost every museum

Puerto Natales, I hardly knew ye

Puerto Natales

Puerto Natales was a stopover place for us on our way to and from Torres del Paine, so we basically only slept there. And yet, the town gave us plenty to talk about in just a short amount of time.

Con Cuidado
On our way out of Punta Arenas, one of the [BUS COMPANY] bus assistants made Alicia and I put our seat belts on - only us. So many mothers, so many people looking out for our safety.  

Trash Sticks
Every yard has one. They are basically poles in the ground with easy-to-access wiffle ball scoops on top. Quite practical for a part of the world that might actually get as much snow as Minnesota does - no need to shovel those babies out every. two. days. (I'm not certain how I managed to neglect taking a picture of these - check out Alicia's post about them for a pic.)

First Chilean meal
...that wasn't purchased at UniMarc, or prepared by me. It was delicious, but it tasted like walleye with a side of tomato and onion salad. Reminded me of Minnesotan cuisine, actually.

Congrio, Ensalada Chilena

Funny signs

Typos are so easy to do, but this one just cracked us up.

Thutch a nithe club

A love of ancient sloths

Puerto Natales is very close to La Cueva del Milodón, which is an important site for the geology, archaeology and paleontology of the Patagonia area. (And I do wish we had had time to explore the site). One of the caves holds a model of a mylodon, where well-preserved remains were discovered over 100 years ago.

El Milodón

Gnome on the street sign? Nope.
That's El Milodón.

Barco de Fernando de Magallanes

We spent our last morning in Punta Arenas visiting the Museo Nao Victoria, where we were able to explore a historically accurate replica of the first ship to circumnavigate the globe.  

The Vittoria

The Vittoria, one of five in Ferdinand Magellan's fleet (and the only one to complete the entire voyage) is an impressive boat, a gorgeous sight to see (especially since it overlooks the Strait of the Magellan), and one that I wouldn't actually want to spend a significant amount of time on - especially in the 1500s.

Relax, Carpenter. The ship won't break along the way.

The flotilla started off with 270 crewman - 18 survived. (Magellan himself was not one of them -- he died in the Philippines of a poisoned arrow after getting involved in a bit of a dispute between fighting tribes. He didn't quite fulfill his goal of sailing around the world, but he did manage to give a name to an ocean that stuck (The Pacific), and get a strait named after him. So there's that.) They carried food and water with them (but not enough, which meant that several of the men starved to death along the way) (or died of scurvy. pack your oranges, folks), lived in tight quarters (which may or may not have been a contributing factor to the several attempts at mutiny and desertion along the way), and faced extremely difficult weather patterns as they approached the spot where the two oceans met.

Do not drink and signal to the fleet

They had big challenges, and lost a lot of people along the way. One smaller (?) aspect of exploration from this time period that struck me as interesting is that the only way for the fleet to communicate with each other was with the use of lanterns. (This might be insignificant, given that I haven't found much information about it - but with limited access to the Internet, I'm not exactly digging deep here.) The placement of this particular creepy mannequin made me wonder about how easy it could have been to for 1500s-era-explorers to miscommunicate with each other.

We visited the museum based on the recommendation of some travelers we met during History Day. (The museum been open for three years - so, you know, new enough to not be in the guide books yet). The museum is privately owned, but recognized well (possibly funded?) by the Chilean government because of its role in preserving and highlighting an important part of the region's history, and for the employment the projects bring to the area.  They are currently building a replica of the HMS Beagle, and I believe it will be worth a visit in a few years.

View from the Captain's Quarters

Captain's supplies

Navigation equipment

HMS Beagle Construction

What lovely superstitions you have!

Chiloé had a distinct feel to it compared to southern Patagonia, and definitely compared to Santiago and Viña/Valparaíso. Island life in general operates on its own time, but this island in particular has a long history of maintaining strong indigenous roots despite the years of Spanish occupation. 

One of the aspects of the history I really enjoyed learning about was the mythology that is unique to the island. Some of the frequently referenced on souvenir tchotchkeys characters include: 

El Trauco, a hideous forest-dweller who uses his magical powers of seduction to attract virgins and impregnate them; 
El Basilisco, a snake, born from the egg of a hen, who lives under houses and sucks the life from the house-dwellers;
El Coo, a witch disguised as an owl, and when spotted, means that a loved one is near death or has died;
El Camahueto, a uni-horned bull calf, born in the marshlands who destroys everything in its path as it makes its way to the sea; 
Invunches, a first-born male child kidnapped by witches. The witches immobilized the kid by breaking its leg, twisting it around on its back, and then making it the gatekeeper to the caves. Also, it has magical healing powers that the witches want; and 
(for something completely different), La Pincoya, a beautiful woman who dances. When she dances toward the sea, we have an abundance of fish. When she dances toward the land, there is famine.

I wish I had been able to speak with people who lived on the island a little bit more. What I didn't get a sense of was whether anyone in Chiloé believes in the myths, or if (as I suspect)  they are fun superstitions kept alive for tourists. Is El Trauco blamed for teenage pregnancy? Are virgins allowed to go into the woods alone? If someone sees an owl on their patio, do they mention the possible death of a loved one as casually as I might say "someone is thinking about me" if my nose itches?

Note: I still hate this blogger app and its mobile website. The photo placement caption thing doesn't work today, but it's obvious who El Trauco is, what with his intense powers of seduction and all.

Curanto in Ancud

Curanto is a traditional dish of the islands of Chiloé, and includes clams, muscles, other shellfish, potatoes, potato bread, sausage, chicken, and the juices that they are cooked in. Traditionally, the dish is cooked in the ground with hot stones, wet leaves, and covered with dirt until cooked. 

Curanto: Chiloéan gut bomb and a must-have.
Arrive hungry.

We were hungry by about 6:30, and arrived at the restaurant in Ancud around 6:45. (A respectable time for dinner, right? No!). We were the only ones in the restaurant until about 7:30. And it wasn't until the second table was seated that the proprietor turned off the talk radio, and put dinner music on.   We discovered that night that going out for dinner at 7:00 is the equivalent to going out for dinner at 4:30.  

And even then, we beat the senior citizen crowd to it!

Los Palafitos

Want to avoid paying land-based taxes? Don´t want to take out flood insurance? Need an way to receive deliveries from the mainland? Want to fish off your deck? Build a palafito, a house built on stilts that sits over the water! 

Tuesday appears to be
wood delivery day.

My question is how they repair the stilts that may have rotted from being in the water, or how they treat the wood to prevent rot. The stilts must be secured deep in the ground some how -- are they easy to remove?

Street art in Castro

Street art is everywhere in Castro, and it really adds to the color of the town.

Torres del Paine: the eighth wonder of the world

Entrance to Torres del Paine. Not a painting.

Towers of blue. Grandeur. Beauty. Herds of llamas. Glaciers. Mountains. Lakes. Waterfalls.

During our first day of hiking, I was drawn to the beauty of this mountain with light and dark gray colors, and curious about how it was formed. We stopped to talk with a man who was photographing the mountains, talked about the light, etc., and he mentioned that he was here for work, but came down a few days early to take some pictures.

Granite-filled mud donut

"What do you do?"
"I´m a geologist."

What are the chances?

He explained the process in a nutshell: the dark gray stuff is sedimentary rock/mud that formed in an arc basin in the earth. Along the way, granite (the light gray stuff) sort of sandwiched itself in with the mud. When it pushed up into mountain formation, the granite stayed sandwiched between the layers of sediment. Also, the granite wears better than the sedimentary rock, which affects the way it looks.

Note: Normally, I would look this stuff up to try to understand what I`m writing about. Feel free to correct me!

Ninjas disapprove of forest fires.

Geologists are hired for oil-drilling purposes, among other things. In this case, the interest is in drilling for oil along the west coast of Africa. The rocks aren't as visible in Africa the way they are in South America, so the research is done in here to make the most well-informed best guess when placing drills in Africa.

He also told us about a forest fire that had happened in 2012. It was started by a tourist (accidentally, I believe), and that person ended up in prison in Chile for a year until his home country was able to work out a deal where he could serve out his sentence in a prison at home.

I have a new way to remember
the word for wind.

The fire consumed so much of the park. With such strong, fast winds, the fire spread quickly and rapidly, leaving ghostly white trees in its wake.

Seriously, the winds were so strong. It carried my 25lb backpack for me with no problems at all. (On the return trip, that is). 

We stayed at a hostel in the park, but met several backpackers who were camping. We met several who had done or were currently hiking "the W." We met several hikers who had come from El Calafate in Argentina.

On the second day in the park, I realized that most of my stuff is in Minnesota. Of the stuff I brought with me to Chile, half of it was in Viña del Mar, a quarter of it was in Puerto Natales, and an eighth of it was in Paine Grande. And I was sitting at a glacier with my passport, tourist card, iPhone, some lunch and a water bottle - trusting that my stuff will be there when I get back.

 

Glacier Grey. Tough light for photographing it.
Especially with an iPhone.

The most beautiful blue lake I´ve seen.
The camera doesn´t do it justice.

Well-deserved glass of wine, post hike.

Puerto Hambre and Fuerte Bulnes

The first attempt Spain made at fortifying their hold in the Strait of Magellan was a settlement in the 1500s, which was named after Rey Don Felipe. Some 300 people settled in the area, and all but one froze or starved to death. The name was changed later to Puerto Hambre (for "hunger" or "famine"). The remains of the settlement are currently being restored. 

For weeks, I thought we were going to be visiting Puerto Hombre ("man port") and was embarrassed when I realized that I had misread a word I have known for a very long time. But! When we got there, we discovered that there was a sole survivor, who took his chances at maintaining the settlement by populating with the indigineous people. Maybe "man port" wasn´t that far off... 

Fuerte Bulnes

Fuerte Bulnes (only a few miles from Puerto Hambre) was Chile´s first attempt at claiming territory in the Strait. The fort was active for only a few years (1843-1846 or so), due to exposure to the elements, lack of potable water, and rocky terrain to difficult for farming.

  

Sod Houses

Jail and Scaffold, right next to the kitchen

Church

A bell with a view

Cannons. For defending against Antarctic invasion.

View from the kitchen window. Not to shabby.

Quiet on the set, please.