Day 1 – More Travelling! – Chiloe- Ancud
Deciding not to take the 37hr bus journey in semi cama
(slightly reclined) seats, we opted to re-trace our route back to Punta Arenas
where we would catch a flight to Puerto Montt and from there travel to Chiloe.
Chiloe was on our list of places to visit given to us by our Chilean friends we
met way back in Nepal. Basically, it’s an island not like any other part of
Chile. It still has its routes firmly in when they were occupied by Spain, had
some cool stilted houses and penguins, at last!
Fully prepared this time, head to toe in thermal
underwear and layers for the cold bus journey, we trudged up to the bus station
and grabbed a coffee to wait for our 7:15am departure. The bus however turned
out to be roasting hot! So we spent the entire 2.5hr journey removing those
layers, fanning ourselves and Glenn managed to get a bit of blogging done.
Arriving at the airport, we managed to remove some more layers
and pack them in our bags before checking in and catching the flight to Puerto
Montt. On arrival, we caught another bus to take us to the city centre where we
would pick up a bus to take us to Chiloe.
Chiloe is a big island so we opted to first stop at
Ancud, which although didn’t have a brilliant write up, was the place where you
could see penguins. We arrived at the bus station where Glenn jumped off and
headed to the ticket counter whilst I waited for the luggage. A good move by
all accounts as he got two of the last remaining seats for a bus leaving in
15mins!
Our final bus for the day was about 2hrs, which involved
a ferry crossing so it wasn’t long before we were soon trudging around town
looking for our hostel which turned out not to be too far.
The hostel turned
out to be a bright yellow rickety affair but did give you great views of the
sea. We had decided to go for shared bathroom options for the majority of the
trip in Chile as the luxury of your own loo took us outside our budget. We
checked in, secured our belongings and headed to town.
It turns out that there really isn’t much to see and do
in Ancud apart from Penguins! We had a bit of a wander, finding the plaza etc
and then decided it was beer-o-clock. It also turns out that there aren’t many
bars (which are open) in Ancud either. We prefer local rustic bars with
stripped lighting, cheap beer and friendly locals that you can get chatting to
and soak in the atmosphere. What we found was a spruced up bar, overpriced and
quite clinical.
After a very expensive beer, we realised that we hadn’t actually
eaten at all today so headed back to a café that looked pretty reasonable.
There was Glenn, myself and one other table but it would do. We opted for the
local fish, Glenn’s with potato salad and mine with rice. Pretty average, very
beige but we had a nice bottle of wine with it and it came to around £15 which
was more in keeping with our budget expectations.
Dinner done and after a lot of traveling, we headed to
our hostel and bed!
Day 2 – Penguins
It was bloody freezing when we woke up, even with about 5
blankets on your bed which restrict you from moving, pinning you to the bed and
cutting off the circulation in your legs! After a bit of coaxing to get out of
the warm bed into the cold, and about 5 minutes removing said blankets, I was
first to the showers.
The 1st shower didn’t have a hook to hang the
shower head on. The 2nd, which turned out to be the 2nd
and 3rd showers were inside the same room. They were unisex and
would mean anyone coming in would be able to see your nudie bits through the
shower door! I managed to overcome this by lodging stuff against the door and
preying the flimsy lock would work. A very quick shower and I headed back to
our room to give Glenn the M.O on the bathing situation.
Glenn returned looking a little embarrassed. No, nobody
had walked in on him but he had managed to flood downstairs as he couldn’t close
the shower door correctly. This resulted in a lot of banging on the door and
hastily spoken Spanish by the hostel owner.
Relaxing showers done, we headed down to b/f which was
included in the price. B/f turned out to be two scone-like dense rolls, a slice
of ham and cheese and a slice of cake which Glenn mistook as bread and spread
butter on it.
Okay not great but it was Penguin time! We booked a trip
with the hostel and was introduced to the brother. The brother, it turns out, couldn’t
speak a word of English! I clearly need to get a few more lessons in as I could
only make about one word in each sentence. Glenn however was brilliant, he recognised
enough to be able to decipher what the hell was going on.
The next hour consisted of stopping off at some nice view
points, going down to a pretty beach, a bit of a discussion about a house (of
which I still have no clue why) all relayed to us in Spanish. It was like a
lesson for Glenn.
Finally we had reach the harbour where we would catch the
boat to the penguin islands. Whilst we waited, the Oz couple we had met at b/f
from our hostel turned up (they sensibly decided to go with an English speaking
tour). We were soon donning our life jackets and boarding a platform which was
pulled by men and wheeled you out to the boat to save getting your feet wet.
We were so taken with this, it took us a while to realise
what was printed on the back of the life vests! I hope we don’t encounter any
icebergs!
The trip was around 45 minutes, and whilst there weren’t very
many penguins and one very poorly looking one (there were actually vultures
standing by) which after realizing, the captain swiftly moved the boat along!
It was pleasant and there was a lot of birdlife including Shags, Pelicans and
other types nesting in the rocks.
Back on land, we then went to a nice café at the corner
of the beach where our guide informed Glenn that they did the best Empanadas.
We ordered a large Empanada between us which turned out to be filled with Crab
and was delicious, before heading back to the hostel.
We quickly sorted out a money transfer (still having card
problems) before heading back into town to do some shopping. We purchased a
plug to help charge our USB kit and then headed off in search of a snack. We
found a little bar which was quite nice and a lot less expensive, although it
had building work and drilling going on right next to it but you can’t win them
all. Deciding that our scones and Empanada were still digesting we headed back
to the Hostel.
It’s still daylight around 8:30pm so after we did some research
and booking accommodation and both feeling like a nap, we realised we needed to
go and get food as we knew we had a 6hr bus journey the following day.
Reluctantly we headed out and found the closest hotel/restaurant to our hostel.
This turned out to be one of those places that put up bus
load’s of old people so it wasn’t long before we were joined by a long table of
silver nomads tucking into below average food. But we managed to find the same but
cheaper bottle of lovely wine we had In Puerto Natales and the sunset was
magnificent so things were looking up!
Food done, we headed back to the hostel and spent the
next 10 mins peeling back the layers of blankets before finally retiring to
bed.
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