Yeah! After having to skip a day thanks to too much Pisco Sour (devilish stuff but so tasty), I started early today. I'm walking to the bus station with Catarina from Italy and we take a 2-hour bus ride to the Pacific coast, passing through Cucao to "Muelle de las almas". It's a viewpoint and supposed to be pretty nice. So let's go! We look for our bus in the crowd and are allowed to ride on the following part :-D Thank God protected by Jesus and right up front next to the driver because our seats were double booked...
The ride is like always a little adventure and very amusing. The landscape of the island is incredibly beautiful. Maybe a bit like in Ireland. Hilly, lush green, small wooden houses in the middle of nowhere, peaceful lakes, blooming meadows and fields where sheep and cows hang out muy tranquilo (very relaxed). Tranquilo, which means relaxed, is how things generally are here. No rush, no big city hustle and bustle, everything is calm and tranquilo :-) In smaller towns you can find these pretty wooden churches, for which the island is known, among other things. In Cucao, most people, including Catarina, get off to go to the national park. I continue and walk along the coast for a total of about 7 km to this viewpoint. The landscape and the rough Pacific are wonderful. The weather is also cooperating. However, this viewpoint is actually the most boring part of the whole tour. Tourists take pictures of themselves on a wooden pier. I don't do that. Firstly, I'm alone anyway and too lazy to ask someone to take a picture, and secondly, I don't need a picture of myself that EVERYONE has who has ever been here... I finish the trek much earlier than expected and would have to wait for the bus for over an hour. So I let the bus driver know that I'll start walking and he should pick me up along the way. But it didn't happen because after about 30 minutes, a car stops, a father with 3 sons, and they give me a ride to Cucao. From there, I continue walking and eventually flag down a bus that goes to the national park. In a small restaurant, I have some fish and then call Catarina. We go together to the national park. It's really beautiful and diverse. There's an area where I feel like Alice in Wonderland because the plants around me are so dense and mystical :-D We take a bus to Chonchi at 5:30. It's supposed to be the most beautiful fishing village on the island, where we can walk around a bit and have a coffee. It's really pretty. The small harbor, beautiful wooden houses, typical for the island/region, and here too, everything is muy tranquilo :-) We lose track of time a bit and have to hurry to catch the last bus to Castro because I'm continuing to Quellon today and then taking the ferry to Puerto Chacabuco.Arriving in Castro, we have a beer together at the hostel and then an English guy, whom I know from the hostel in Puerto Varas, drives me to the bus station. I wait for the bus to Quellon... Besos <3 st.
