Chiloe is the second largest island in South America, Tierra del Fuego being the largest. It is a truely unique and special place being a stronghold of traditional Chilean culture and rural life. We rented a palifitto, a house on stilts of the type that once lined the coasts of Chile's fishing communities. Over time, athquakes and tsunamis have destroyed most of the palafittos but Castro sits in a protected fjord on the east side of the island so some of the palafittos have stood the trevails of time. "Mi Palafitto" was restored and fixed up by Sophia, a Chilean doctor living in Castro. She helped us get settled in and oriented and we spent ten dqys exploring the many wonderful aspects of Chiloe including it's old wooden churches, 16 of which are USESCO woeld heritage sites, and summer cultural festivals where we enjoyed traditional music and dance, food and fun. We walked beautiful beaches, kayaked in the fjord, and on a few of the clearer days we could see the cordillera de los Andes accross the straights on the mainland, including the actively erupting volcano which recently forced the evacuation of the small city of Chiaten. Before we left Chiloe we visited a nesting colonly of Magellic and Humbolt penguins. Lily's favorite part of Chiloe was the old church at Colo, the huge artisan market in Castro, watching the tide come in and out from Mi Palifitto and the black nedked swans that hung out in the tidal flats. Miles favorite things about Chiloe was the design of Mi Palafitto, seeing the penguin colony and searching out the old churches in the remote corners of the island. Jim's favorite things were seeing the old ways still so alive and how they do eveything, literally everything, out of wood, and the music. Tracie enjoyed reading Darwin's writings about visting Chiloe on the voyage of the Beagle and thinking about what had changed and what hadn't since his time, seeing the Andes across the Gulf of Ancud and the brightly painted houses and boats that brightened even the greyest days. We took away many great memories along with our handmade warm wool sweaters and hats. Chiloe was avery special place. From here we head intto the Andes mountains and Argentina.
