Friday, April 8, 2011

Of day 1 in Chiloé; of Caulin; of Ancud;

Well, this is a week late but I have pics of my trip down to the island of Chiloe.

From Chile Chiloe W2
The group of us American students went down for 3 day to see the sights and Chilote culture. We took a bus ride down to a ferry where we did a quick crossing to get to the island. I saw my first wild penguin from the ferry. It was chasing a small school of fishes along side the boat.

From Chile Chiloe W2
Our first stop was for lunch (the big meal of the day in Chile) in the small community of Caulin.

From Chile Chiloe W2
The restaurant we went to was a big seafood place with oysters, fish, and other fruits of the sea. They fed us very well on the trip. I had a crab pie with was pretty much a bowl of delicious crab dip. And for dessert - flan.

From Chile Chiloe W2
This was supposed to be the place to see flamingos in Chiloe, but they never showed. There were a lot of Black-Necked Swans along the beach. They were floating around  munching on seaweed.

From Chile Chiloe W2
All of southern Chile has colorful fishing boats.

From Chile Chiloe W2
Then we went on to Ancud where we would spend the night in a hotel. This is the port area of Ancud located on the north end of the island.

From Chile Chiloe W2
We went to a Church museum which had displays of construction techniques and models of 16 UNESCO heritage site churches. The churches are made almost entirely out of wood. They don't even have nails. They are still standing today after more than a century (or two) in an earthquake zone due to their sturdy construction and wood jointing.

From Chile Chiloe W2
We finished up the day with a gigantic meal at a restaurant right along the beach of Ancud.

3 comments:

  1. So - is the rhubarb edible??

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  2. Wiki says you can eat it. But it is also used in making Curanto. I had a bit of it in a restaurant. It is just a big mix of everything sort of like a stew. Sausage, clams, chicken, weird dough stuff. But it is traditionally made in a big hole in the ground with layers of rhubarb leaves to make it watertight. Then hot rocks are put in with more leaves to separate layers along with all the food, seasonings, and water. Finally the whole things is covered with more rhubarb leaves and dirt/sod to let it all cook up underground.

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  3. Wow - Curanto sounds amazing! I wonder if we could make the northwest equivalent sometime. Hey - aren't rhubarb leaves poisonous?

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