Chiloé is said to be a magical island, full of mysterious traditions, and therefore very interesting culturally. I figured I'd get the best glimpse of that by joining a tour with a local guide. So that's what I did today. Unfortunately (or fortunately, from a language-learning point of view), the guide only spoke Spanish. In fact, I was the only foreigner in a bus full of Chilenos. I wonder which tours the other foreigners do?
Anyway, the first stop was Dalcahue, home of a church, a tiny museum, and a market (and not much else). The museum had descriptions of the mystical creatures that were (are?) believed to inhabit Chiloé - pretty much the usual stuff, at least for someone who's into fantasy role-playing games ;-) As far as I understood, witches were the only help against those creatures, and thus were venerated, not burned.
This is the church at Dalcahue:
And its interior (a little less impressive than the one at Castro, but I guess there's a reason one is a cathedral and the other only a church...):
The tour continued on to Tenahú, an even tinier village, but with a recently restored church:
..and its interior:
In Tenahú, we boarded a boat to take us to Isla Mechuque. There, the real highlight of the day was waiting for us: Curanto al Hoyo, a traditional Chilote meal. What they do is they start by heating a bunch of stones in a wood fire.
Then, they remove the rest of the burning wood and put food on top of the hot stones. First mussels, then chicken, pork, sausages and potatoes.
This is covered with a layer of big green nalca leaves, and then small loaves of a potato-bread-like thingy are put on top.
This is covered with more nalca leaves, and then left to cook for about 30 minutes. And now, behold the final result:
Needless to say, it was very tasty. I even ate some mussels and did not get stomach aches as I usually do - maybe Pacific mussels are different from Atlantic mussels?
The final stop for the day was a nice little waterfall - basically a tourist trap to generate income for the adjacent cafeteria, but nice nevertheless ;-)
Anyway, the first stop was Dalcahue, home of a church, a tiny museum, and a market (and not much else). The museum had descriptions of the mystical creatures that were (are?) believed to inhabit Chiloé - pretty much the usual stuff, at least for someone who's into fantasy role-playing games ;-) As far as I understood, witches were the only help against those creatures, and thus were venerated, not burned.
This is the church at Dalcahue:
And its interior (a little less impressive than the one at Castro, but I guess there's a reason one is a cathedral and the other only a church...):
The tour continued on to Tenahú, an even tinier village, but with a recently restored church:
..and its interior:
In Tenahú, we boarded a boat to take us to Isla Mechuque. There, the real highlight of the day was waiting for us: Curanto al Hoyo, a traditional Chilote meal. What they do is they start by heating a bunch of stones in a wood fire.
Then, they remove the rest of the burning wood and put food on top of the hot stones. First mussels, then chicken, pork, sausages and potatoes.
This is covered with a layer of big green nalca leaves, and then small loaves of a potato-bread-like thingy are put on top.
This is covered with more nalca leaves, and then left to cook for about 30 minutes. And now, behold the final result:
Needless to say, it was very tasty. I even ate some mussels and did not get stomach aches as I usually do - maybe Pacific mussels are different from Atlantic mussels?
The final stop for the day was a nice little waterfall - basically a tourist trap to generate income for the adjacent cafeteria, but nice nevertheless ;-)
