Chiloé Island - 5 days in a different world

The journey to Chiloé, a 180km long and 50km wide island, begins with a 9-hour ferry ride from Chaitén to Puerto Montt. Sounds long, but it is (especially compared to bus rides) absolutely pleasant and relaxed! Whenever we feel like it, we go outside, otherwise we enjoy our seats in the front row with plenty of legroom, few people, and clean toilets. There is even streusel cake at the kiosk - a dream! It gets tricky only when our water supplies are running low after about 6 hours. But that shouldn't be a problem, there is a huge kiosk on board. Lisa walks there and orders water, but the surprising answer is: 'There is no water. Soft drinks and (excessively sugared) juices. That's all.' But the answer to the follow-up question of how it is possible that you can't buy water on a 9-hour trip is even more disturbing: 'Nobody asks for water here. We don't need to offer it.' Yes. EXACTLY that is a problem of the people here, they prefer to drink cola or blue sugared water in the form of a Chilean 'Powerade' knockoff all day long. So we sit without water for the remaining 3 hours, well better than being wet out in the rain. After arriving in Puerto Montt in the evening and a short, desperate sprint behind the luggage bus, where our backpacks are (but we have no idea where it is going), we manage to find out, despite the horrible gibberish of the Chilean youth, where the luggage is unloaded. There probably would have been a bus for us that would have taken us there. But how the hell are we supposed to know that? Fortunately, we are not the only stupid tourists and everything turns out fine.

After spending a night in Puerto Montt, we rent a car on the following day because we want to drive to the island with it. To be a little more flexible and not rely on buses. On the way through the (not so beautiful in our eyes) city, there is a glimmer of hope: Correos Chile - the Chilean post office. We want to send our sleeping bags back to Germany because they take up a lot of space and weight and we don't really need them. It is too cold to camp without proper equipment. It is actually not that expensive and the nice post employee is incredibly patient with us while we rummage through our backpacks in front of the counter to see if we can find other things that we won't need anymore. Everything is meticulously documented and then we get rid of the stuff and - if everything goes according to plan (which is not always the case) - the package even arrives in Germany before us. The car rental also goes smoothly and soon we embrace KIAra, our little faithful companion for the next 5 days. And then we set off for the ferry to Chiloé.

The island has been recommended to us many times, it is said to be very different from the mainland in terms of landscape and culture, a bit like Ireland in miniature. We couldn't really imagine it, but it has proven to be true! It is a beautiful island with many lakes, forests, cliffs, beaches, many farms, and therefore sheep, cows, horses... and even (at least) one alpaca. Unfortunately, the sea around the island has been plagued by a toxic algae bloom for the past 2 years, which poisons the fish and seafood and has caused thousands of people to lose their jobs. The cause of the bloom is controversial, but climate change as well as massive salmon farming seem to be valid reasons.

In the first 2 days, Kiara drives us through small villages, a lighthouse, sand dunes, old fortresses.. and even gets stuck and needs a little push. She might have overestimated herself a bit! But she reliably takes us to our accommodation for the remaining 3 days: a completely self-built house with a wood stove, with a large garden where we frequently receive visits from Alfred & Timmy (the dogs), Wilma and Gertrude (the chickens), cats, and the nuisance (the rooster). Everything is very rural, there is a horse in the neighboring garden and the next flock of sheep is not far away. We really like that. And so we can't be mad even when Wilma marches into our kitchen one day, leaves a little pile, and wobbles back out. Only the rooster annoys (especially Jan) a bit, so one evening we don't have a vegetarian meal. (a little joke)

We explore Chiloé National Park and spend the rest of the time simply by the sea. In the evenings, we cook, make a nice fire (well, Jan does), drink wine, and play cards. The island really has its own flair and it's a bit like taking a vacation from the vacation. You could definitely stay here longer.

After 3 sunny days, we say goodbye to our cottage in pouring rain and drive back to Puerto Montt early. There is still a task waiting for us: finding hiking shoes for Lisa since her current ones have unfortunately given up! But we manage that as well, even though each outdoor store has at most 1-2 hiking shoes in size 40-41. After knocking on several doors, we also find our Airbnb accommodation and look forward to leaving the busy city again at 7 am the next morning - because we are going back to Chaitén (this time by bus)!