Chiloé, Chile

While researching Chile, Amanda was intrigued by Chiloé. She was most interested in the folklore and the many stories it could offer, so this was our next stop. We decided to start our adventure in Ancud which is on the north side of the big island of Chiloé. The area of Chiloé itself, is made up of an archipelago of many windswept islands, but the cities that draw most of the tourism are on the big island of Chiloé.

There are lots of forts in Chiloe.

The town of Ancud is a very pretty town. The colourful shingled houses, the coast line as far as you can see to the south and as far as you can see to the north. Ancud is known for it’s Spanish forts and fishing. We only ended up staying for two nights and we ate seafood both nights! Adeline was excited to try mussels. Charlie wanted a whole serving of whitefish to himself, and David and Amanda wanted salmon, which is relatively cheap here compared to at home. In fact, once we ordered Salchipapas (fries with meat and cheese - kind of like a Chilean poutine), for the family, and it came with scrambled eggs, fried onions and salmon! Yum!

Adeline was excited to try fresh mussels! 

Salichipapas with egg and salmon = Yum! 

Another popular activity in Ancud is to go on a boat tour to see penguins. We decided not to do this since we would be visiting places where there will be penguins later on our trip.

Since it was the folklore that intrigued Amanda the most, she was pretty excited to find some statues with stories in the Plaza de Armas. After reading a few, we realized that the stories are quite traditional and a little PG 13, possibly a little rated R at times. We didn’t discuss the stories too much with the kids…

One family friendly story was a creation story about how the archipelago of Chiloé was formed. There were two deities that are half horse and half serpent. One lives in the water and one on land. The one from sea is angry that mankind used to live underwater but now lives on land, so he creates a terrible cataclysm to punish the humans by drowning them with water (title wave). Meanwhile, the other creature loves the humans and tries to protect them by creating more land for them the live upon (volcano erupting). It’s kind of a fun way to fantasize about natural events!

Cai-Cai Vilu (half serpent and half horse) 

However there is also the story of El Trauco who was a “deformed repugnant dwarf” so ugly he could kill people just by looking at someone but he also seduced young maidens by appearing in erotic dreams, bewitching them and attracting them into a forest where he would stimulate them to the point of sexually possessing them. We didn’t share that one with the kids….

El Trauco

Our next stop in Chiloé was the capital, Castro. We found a nice hostel to stay in, and decided to stay for Christmas. We knew that Christmas was going to be a bit different this year. We weren’t sure how that kids would handle it, being strong believers in Santa and only knowing Christmas dinner with turkey and stuffing. We were trying hard to find a place to make the traditional Havixbeck Christmas cookies (Specs), but it just didn’t work out.

Adeline and Charlie explored the almost life size nativity scene in the Plaza des Armas. 

The hostel we stayed at was also the home of an older couple, and it was evident that they were hosting their family Christmas. We had limited access to the kitchen, so our meal was going to be very simple. After a little creative shopping, and a few preparations, we wrapped our gifts and put our shoes out for Santa Claus. We went out and ordered some Chinese food for Christmas Eve dinner with The Christmas Story movie in the back of our minds. We were planning on going to church, but the only mass was at midnight and how could we possibly expect Santa to come if we were out and about at midnight? So we were off to bed!

The next morning we were excited to see that Santa did fill our shoes! With chocolate bars and candy that we have learned to love here in Chile, and even some new water bottles, replacing the ones we have lost along our travels. Perfect! We opened our gifts early, ate some chocolate and sat in bed watching Harry Potter movies that were being played over and over all day.

Hooray! Santa came!

One of our family Christmas traditions is to buy our family a new board game. Surprisingly (because we haven’t seen any so far) we found a great store with awesome board games. We found one that was quite small, so it would be easy to pack, and thought that we would give it a try. It was in Spanish, so it was a bit more of a challenge getting to know the rules for this game, but it is a lot of fun.

Nothing is open on Christmas, so even though we weren’t supposed to have access to the kitchen at lunch, I thought that I would quickly make some pasta and sauce for us. I got as far as browning some meat, when the lady in charge of the hostel stopped me and said “no hay cocina ahora” (no cooking now), and gave us some of their Christmas brunch they had prepared for their family which included lamb that was cooked on a spit, potatoes and salad. A whole lot better than the pasta and sauce. So we gratefully accepted! A delicious Christmas meal.

It was a different Christmas for us, but the most important part of Christmas was being together. There weren’t a lot of gifts, but they were special. Adeline made all of her gifts. In Peru, we met a wonderful family that taught Charlie and Adeline how to knit. Adeline has been working hard and gave her first knitting project to David (a face warmer). She made a necklace for Charlie made of wood that we found in Ancud) and she made Amanda a beautiful picture. 

Adeline’s gift to Charlie this year.

Charlie bought everyone new playing cards because we use them so much! David and Amanda gave the kids each a Chilean soccer jersey and a special treat. Amanda gave David some local beer and David gave me some Storycubes (another great game) that he found at another awesome game shop. Everyone was happy, everyone was together, and that’s the way we do Christmas.

Chilean soccer jerseys for Charlie and Adeline! 

One of the other days we spent in Castro, we headed to the Pacific coast to explore Chiloé National Park. It was about an hour drive away, and it was worth the bus ride because it was a beautiful park with three very different ecosystems: marsh, forest and sandy dunes by the water. It was a beautiful and relaxing yet active day.

Pacific coast at Chiloé National Park.

We didn’t spend a lot of time in Chiloé. We were expecting that there would be more to do, but the activities weren’t very easy to find, so we moved on.