Que Chilote, If Ya Know What I Mean

 

Cucao, Chiloe: It’s A One Sheep Town

Chileans come out to Chiloe, an island chain in the southwest, for a mix of nature and culture.  Chilote culture is said to be  distinct from the mainland, but to be honest the whole thing is hard to pick up on as a  foreigner. All over the island, there are signs declaring whatever being advertised as “Cien por ciento Chilote!” yet it is hard to tell what makes the Completos (absurd, ginormous Chilean hot dogs) different here than elsewhere.

Nature wise, Chiloe more than lived up to it’s reputation for cold and rain. The rain makes this land verdant year round, with strange overgrown jurassic looking plants everywhere. Take a look at that thing on the right! You’d half expect an Ewok to jump out from behind it if only the Ewoks weren’t too depressed to come out and play.  We expected this part of Chile to remind us of the US Northwest, but hadn’t figured we’d stumble on an Aberdeen. It’s a hard bit land but the folks in  Chiloe make a go of it living off the sea, some farming and during the summer a fair bit of tourism, half of which are young dreadlocked kids from Santiago whom the locals do their best to tolerate. Salmon farming is the big industry out here, as I learned from a guy on the bus working on a feed operation. Big Salmon are pushing their producers to feed the fishies soy meal, which apparently is the cheapest way to put some lox on the table. That is, if they can figure out a way to get GMO’d Chilean salmon to eat a legume grown in China or the States. Crazy huh? At least the shellfish are all natural, and I must say we had some mighty fine empanadas made with clams.
We stayed in Chiloe for two nights, and three days first in the central city of Castro and then out on the coast in Cucao just in front of the Parque Nacional where most of the pictures below were taken.  

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Next up, Puerto Varas!

Advertisement