Castro, Chiloe, Chile

7th-8th February, 2023

Two days at sea, heading ever southwards, the temperature dropping, but still warm and sunny.

As mentioned before, we rather enjoy our sea days. Val gets her breakfast (special Asian one) at 0700 and once the meds have all kicked in, I head off for mine one the restaurant. You can either sit at a table with others or on your own – I tend to do the latter and read my book with my Alpen topped with fruit and nuts, followed by fried eggs, crispy bacon and sausage and lots of coffee. It has even been known for us to have an extra sleep after Val’s breakfast.

There are dedicated wildlife people on board who patrol the decks shouting “Sooty Shearwater on the starboard side!” and the like, so I do a bit of watching too, but you either need more luck or more patience. I am still hopeful, though if I hear ‘I saw a whale/dolphin/seal this morning’ one more time it might be followed by a big splash of someone falling overboard!

We continue with our round of activities, mainly shuffleboard, darts and table tennis although these have been a bit restricted by the gastroenteritis with the needed hygiene factors preventing some play. The evening shows continue with the variety of acts and quality. We have had a superb performance from a wonderful tenor and a less brilliant comedian, but it is generally great fun, followed by the 10pm quiz with our new mates Tony and Carol with dancing to follow to the live band. No wonder we need a lie in every now and then!

Thursday, 9th February, 2023

Today we arrived at Castro, the capital of the island of Chiloe. This is the fifth-largest island in South America and it prides itself on being a bit different to the rest of Chile. It gets some 280 days of rain a year and fog is a constant sight.It is architecturally different too with ‘tejuelas’ or wood shingles bedecking the mostly wooden houses. There are also the ‘palafitos’ or houses mounted on stilts along the water’s edge, used originally to house the workers building the railway at the start of the 20th century. There are also 16 UNESCO listed wooden churches.

It was certainly different to what we had been used to so far in Chile with lots of greenery. Someone commented that they could be on the River Dart estuary! Much of the economy depends on salmon farming, though from the number of cabanas for rent it is also apparently a holiday destination for mainlanders, especially from Santiago.

We had to park the ship off shore and take a tender to the dock. Val and I were on a tour entitled ‘Panoramic Castro’. It did not start well as the weather was cloudy and rainy and the coach was leaking and the microphone wouldn’t work. But that was quickly sorted by changing buses at our first stop, Iglesia de Nercon, which was really delightful. And the weather perked up as well.

We were then driven to where the ‘palafitos’ were and then back into Castro proper. The main attraction there is the Iglesia San Francisco. For a small place (population about 50,000) it was busy and bustling.

We pottered about a bit in the town (city?) and then made our way down the very steep hill in search of the craft market. On our way we were passing what looked vaguely like a restaurant/bar (it had no sign outside and looked very scruffy), which did advertise on a small board that they sold empanadas which Val had wanted to try for some time.

So we entered and tried to make ourselves understood by the man who seemed to be running the establishment, not least as to whether they might take a credit card. Luckily since there seemed to be a communication breakdown, another gentleman intervened and translated for us. We then sat down and the translator, Nestor (I think that was his name) came and chatted. Before we knew it, we had ordered wine and Val was having a dance lesson with another gentleman. It was all very jolly and ended with a group photo of everyone in the bar!

It was great fun, but we had to catch the tender back to the ship, so we said goodbye and made our way.

Friday, 10th February, 2023

We were due to arrive at Puerto Chacabuco, up one of the many Chilean fjords. We woke up to find that the ship was stationary and then the announcement was made that some fishing nets had been reported in the water ahead of us and the decision was made to miss the port of call and head back out to sea before returning to the fjords further down the coast for a couple of days of ‘scenic cruising’. We did see some of what we might have missed…