Chiloe Island - Our Amazing Adventure Tour, Mar 1 - Mar 6

On Land Again: Early Friday morning we disembark from our floating home. We somewhat guiltily admit that we enjoyed our four quiet days of being confined to no more that a couple hundred square feet - even walking more than a few minutes was nearly impossible. But we are now impatient to put the "motion" back into the "geezer".

Market view through a restaurant window

The renowned Angelmo fish market of Puerto Montt awaits us as we leave the ship. Weatherworn fisherman gut their watery hauls on the low tide rocks, surrounded by lazy, overfed seagulls. Fishmongers meticulously display all varieties of fish, seafood, seaweed, urchins - most of which are mysterious to us. Above the market, a ring of incredibly tiny restaurants (often with no more that 2 tables and a small, family stove top) offer the freshest, most exotic meals. We are determined, in the week we spend inת the area, to work our way through the local fish and seafood menus. (postscript from 7 days later: we did faithfully keep our promise and although it was all fresh and succulent, I am glad to be heading to the high northern deserts where nothing swims).

We leave Puerto Montt at noon to Puerto Varas, a picturesque German town, part of the Chilean lake district. Snow-capped Osorno volcano towers high over this tranquil lakeside village. The town's fascinating architecture is so dominated by its Germanic roots, it resembles an Alpine village, weirdly dropped into a South American landscape with a Chilean community. We spend a quiet evening indulging in seafood feast, waiting for our "adventure" starting early the next morning.

Day 1: Gravel Biking and 'Saving Jesus': At 8:30am, we leave the safe, civilized confines of Puerto Varas heading for our promised adventure on Chiloe Island. Chiloe is one South America's largest islands, just off the west coast of Chile. It is renowned for its rugged landscapes, warm communities and hundreds of Jesuit and Franciscan wooded churches (who arrived along with the Spanish armies in the 1500's). The people practice a fascinating blend of traditional indigenous rituals and Christianity.

We cross by ferry and meet our guide, Eduardo, in the one-street town of Chacao. Our modern mountain bikes are ready, lined-up in the town's busy square. Bikes of any variety are so rare that they always attract attention of curious locals and tourists. As we wait for our female riders, Simon and I spot a pickup truck backing up towards the entrance of the town historic church. In the back of the truck, a towering, mournful Jesus crucifix stands protected in a plastic case - he is being returned to the church after a recent festival parade. As several members of the congregation carry him out towards the church, it is obvious that their Jesus is much too heavy for them. An older, worried priest, directing the delicate maneuvers, anxiously nods in my direction. I immediately drop my bike and spring into action. The porters are now dangerously tipping Jesus in a desperate attempt to get him through the lower inner threshold. I rush in, grab the now falling Jesus and steady him. Successfully through the door, we now carry Jesus to his proper place on the front dais. I am thanked profusely, and as walk out of the church the thought comes to me that I had just 'Saved Jesus'.

With things now settled, we mount our bikes. Almost all Chiloe tours travel its protected eastern coast where most people live, where the roads are paved and where the weather is subdued. We, of course, instead head west, with its remote patches of civilization, gravel roads, rugged landscape and fierce weather.

Making curanto in the ground

The rocky gravel roads become challenging as we reach the sleepy Saturday afternoon Bay of Caulin. The bay is teaming with birdlife and harvested seaweed, drying on its shore. We bike by a crowd of villagers cooking mounds of curanto - a native dish of shelled fish, sausage, chicken, beef, and smoked pork, all stewed together in a pot over a fire, dug in the ground. We are invited to witness the event which we learn is a fund-raiser for an ill neighbour.








After a ride on the beach, we lunch at a tiny local restaurant. We start with insanely fresh oysters from the nearby bay. Our young waitress/cook/local interpreter then delivers plates of grilled salmon, explaining that they were caught yesterday by her father. She explains that the sea is the fabric of every thing they do.

We continue west, heading towards civilization and the city of Ancud. The roads are busier and we struggle with the dusty, rocky, steep ascents and descents. We are lucky as the always threatening Chiloe weather turns into calm, warm sunshine. Entering Ancud we cross a long busy bridge. Eduardo stays at the back, protecting our flank, but as the four of us enter the city, Eduardo has disappeared (but that's another story). In Ancud we start climbing again to its very top. Our destination is the historic Ancud Hotel - a beautiful Montobello-esque upscale (especially for us) hotel. It was built on the site of an old Spanish fort overlooking Ancud Bay. With the dust washed away in luxuriant showers, we collapsed on the hotel's grassy summit, watching the western sun set slowly in the water, carefully rehydrating ourselves with an aromatic bottle of Cabillera de Chile.

Walking to the kayaks in the morning mist

Day 2: Surviving the High Seas: Eduardo drives us back onto the rural roads outside Ancud. We make a sudden sharp turn off-road onto a wild, overgrown, dirt track, heading directly to the ocean. We collect our kayaks and gear at the beach-front compound of the tour company's owner. It's ground-zero for a number of small, ambitious initiatives. The plan for the day is to kayak Ancud Bay, passing the city, and reaching the remains of another Spanish fort at the mouth of the bay. It's a peaceful Sunday morning with a heavy, low-hanging mist, but with the promise of another warm, sunny day. By the time the kayaks are prepared, the sun has done its work and we set off into a clear blue sea and sky. We cross to the other side of the bay and head to its mouth, 8kms away, hugging its rugged coastline.

Spectacular birds (Simon was in heaven snapping their pictures) accompany us on our journey.

After several hours of serene paddling we reach the edge of the bay, and disembark to visit the ghosts of the Spanish fort. At a nearby secluded beach, we are rewarded with a pasta lunch. Mid-afternoon, we start heading back and now it's the sea lions that playfully swim around our boat. As we head towards the bay crossing the Pacific winds and tides wake-up. The now face a swelling, cold angry sea. Esther and I are in a long, heavy tandem kayak that falls deep and rises high in the churning waves that splash over the bow. It's a frightening balancing act as we charge across. Our guide is ahead of us, Simon and Annice behind. We all battle the stubborn waves until our arms ache, arriving safely at shore. We are finally starting to realize that our tour company, Austral Adventures, take the second part of their name very seriously and that we have 3 more days of ¨adventure¨.

Day 3-Bike Surfing We start riding out of Ancud, cycling the steep hills along the Pacific coast. It is another gorgeous summer day, totally atypical to this stormy Pacific island. The summits reward us with panoramic views of pastoral fishing villages and deserted beaches far below. We reach Chiloe’s western tip and start heading south along its fully exposed, remote Pacific coast. We descend through a winding back road to Cocotue Bay beach. White capped waves pound the 7km completely isolated beach. We ride onto the beach to ¨surf¨ its receding low-tide waters. The remains of the retreating fecund sea lie strewn along the vast open sand.

Playing with sea weeds

We detour around mounds of impossibly tangled sea weed, shells of every description, stranded crabs, and of course, birds that feast on the sea´s abundance. The bright sunshine and cool sea breeze accompany us we glide easily along the bay.

We leave the beach through a crazy uphill trail and then coast downhill to the seaside town of Punihuil - a whacky collection of beach huts for the boat companies and restaurants that support the main and only attraction – trips to the hundreds of penguin colonies on a series of outcrop islands just kilometers offshore. We park our bikes, are fitted with lifejackets, mount a small wagon and are unceremoniously wheeled out to a waiting boat.

Magellan and Humboldt penguins are lined-up like statues, up and down the steep rock faces of the small islands. It hardly seems like preferred real estate but they insist on coming back every year to breed. We sail through the rough seas, skirting the rocky shores with our captain, an expert in birds and, obviously, in avoiding the dangerous waters.

By late afternoon we are ready to head to our next destination, an Eco-camp in the Chepu River Valley, about 30kms away over the high rolling western hills. We decide to skip the bike ride and Eduardo packs us into his 4x4 truck. As his truck struggles to make it up and down the rocky road, we know that we had made the right decision.

The Chepu  River Valley is home to one of nature´s most strangest freak shows. During the massive 1960 Chilean earthquake, a 15m tsunami stormed up the Chepu River. As it retreated the ground dropped 2 metres, submerging hundreds of acres of forests on the river´s low lying southern shore. As we arrive at the eco-camp, we are greeted with a surreal landscape, across the river, bare tree trunks tilt at every possible angle. It bizarrely resembles the remains of a nuclear blast, with dead trees standing where the forest was. This was caused by the 1960 earthquake, when a huge area sunk 2 metres down. The camp sits just on the other side of the river. We have wonderful cabins fitted with oversize picture windows with perfect river and forest views.

Pre-dawn kayaking on the river

Over the next two days we learn the remarkable story of our two hosts, Fernando and Amory, a professional couple that fled the noise and bustle of Santiago to create a literal ¨paradise on earth¨. Fernando used his engineering skills to build an energy self-sufficient compound, and a rain collection system to supply their water needs. Their British software wizard, Leonard, is automating all their operations – including right index finger scan used for check-in, left finger scan used for liability release forms and  water-level monitoring used to control how many reservations could be  taken. But more than all this technology was the way, they all took care of our every need: gourmet food served with unlimited flowing wine, clothes dried when wet, lunches packed to survive floods, and, of course, great companionship. The highlight was a pre-dawn kayak trip on the river flowing through the sunken forest.

It was to be an exceptional two days…stay tuned.