This morning I woke up at Sergio's place with that magical "where-in-the-world-am-I?" feeling again... last night we took an hour long bus ride southbound out of town down a washed out dirt road, got off seemingly in the middle of nowhere, hiked for about 30 minutes down another steep road through the misty twilight until we reached the eastern coast of the island, where we then clambered over dunes for several hundred yards before finally reaching the house, all lit up and warm and inviting like something out of Tolkien. Sergio's friend Bernarndo and his family were hanging out waiting for us to have dinner, so we promptly uncorked a bottle of wine and dug in - everything was delicious, especially the potatoes Sergio had dug up yesterday from the garden. Potatoes are indigenous to Chiloé, and there are over 212 known varieties still cultivated here today! Anyway, after several hours of chatting about national and international politics, indigenous rights, and local ecology, I went to bed happily, dozing off to the sound of rain on the tin roof...After breakfast this morning we hiked the 45 minutes up the hill and the views of the archipelago, water, forests, fields and sky were dreamy... When we got back to the main road we stood around for about 15 minutes waiting for the bus but stuck out a thumb and got a ride into town with a nice family who apparently didn't mind my jaw hitting the floor every few minutes as I took in the views of this beautiful magical landscape.
I'll save my commentary about problems with logging and the ubiquitous salmon farms dotting the bays for another post. Suffice it to say that Chiloé is a special place, and I'm seeing a side of it with Sergio that would be impossible if I were alone here. Check out more photos on flickr.
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