Rural Chiloé and a Volcanic Eruption

Our original plan from Punta Arenas was to proceed back to Puerto Natales and then take a four day ferry up to Puerto Montt, significantly further north in Chile. However, the boat schedule turned out not to be in our favour and we were faced with the choice of a 32 hour bus journey or a two hour flight. It didn't take us too long to decide!

We were lucky to be able to get on a flight the very next morning and after landing in Puerto Montt headed straight to Ancud, in the north of the main island of Chiloé. Chiloé is an archipelago of islands off of the west coast of Chile, and was one of the last places remaining under Spanish rule before finally becoming part of independent Chile in 1826. It is famous for its fertile soil (and wet weather!), its folklore and its iconic wooden Jesuit churches.

The beach at Ancud, with the volcanoes of Osorno (left) and Calbuco (right, before it erupted) in the distance

We had a day exploring Ancud, which is a quiet town with a really beautiful seafront. The museum was all in Spanish but informative about Chiloé's history - plus it had a blue whale skeleton on display. We watched the sunset over the bay from Fort San Antonio, one of the last Spanish strongholds, looking over the sea with the mainland and surrounding islands in the distance.

Some of the sunken forest

We decided we'd like to see some more nature so spent a couple of days at a homestay in Chepu, a tiny settlement just north of the Chiloé national park. Chepu was very rural and a welcome change for us. It was really just a string of farms spread out along a couple of dirt roads, set in picturesque hilly scenery. We had a long walk one day to Playa Aulen beach on the west coast, where we watched huge waves rolling in from the Pacific Ocean. En route we saw a sunken forest. This surreal spectacle was created by the earthquake and tsunami here in 1960, which caused the ground to sink 2m.

The farmstay

The Chilote family we stayed with were incredibly friendly and welcoming; we felt like part of the family and were very well looked after. The home cooking was incredible - on the first day we were served a three course meal with fresh seafood soup, followed by roast ham (from the farm itself) with homegrown potatoes and tomatoes, and then creme caramel. The second night our portions of a meaty local fish, cooked beautifully with lemon and tomato, were so large that we could barely manage half each! We had the rest for lunch the next day. All this for incredibly cheap and we got a lot of practice with our Spanish as the family spoke no English.

The beach near Chepu

The rolling hills around Chepu

During early evening on our first night at the homestay we went for a short walk and noticed a very dense looking cloud. Later on we discovered this was no normal cloud but the ash cloud from the eruption of Volcan Calbuco, near Puerto Montt. So far we have been lucky not to be affected by this but flights have been cancelled, nearby villages to the volcano have had to be evacuated as they are 50 cm deep in ash, and there is a strong chance the river might flood. We'll stay in Chiloé for now...

The volcanic cloud from Calbuco

Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego was named by Ferdinand Magellan when he explored this area in the 1500s. Sailing past the island, he saw the smoke rising from the fires of the native people living there and thus called it 'Land of Smoke' - this name was later changed by the Spanish King Charles V to the more exciting 'Land of Fire'.

The end of the road

We arrived on the island by boat from the mainland, with dolphins jumping all round us, and then had a bus ride of several hours down to Ushuaia in the south. While Tierra del Fuego is now home to a population of nearly 150,000, it still retains its feel of undiscovered wilderness, with an air of mystery and enchantment. Driving through the island, gazing out at the beautiful mist clad mountains, lakes and forests, it felt otherworldly; I have rarely been so strongly affected by a place.

The mountains rising behind Ushuaia

Ushuaia is quite a touristy town as most Antarctic cruises pass through here, however it is also a working port and nearly half of Tierra del Fuego's inhabitants live here. There are two main museums in the town, both of which we visited. The first is based in the old prison building and is HUGE, attempting to cover maritime history, the prison's history, Antarctica and local art all in one. Although we enjoyed the model ships and the opportunity to see the original prison cells here, there was really far too much information, most of it dry and irrelevant, and we gave up after two visits feeling somewhat brain dead!


On the other hand the second museum, about the Yamana indigenous people, was excellent. We learnt a great deal about the native people and their plight after the arrival of the Europeans. In the 1830s Captain FitzRoy of the Beagle thought it was a good idea to bring four native Fuegians back to England, supposedly to educate and Christianise them. The four were given the names Jemmy Button, Boat Memory, Fuegia Basket and York Minster. In a similar vein, British missionaries travelled to Tierra del Fuego in the 1870s to establish a settlement and 'educate' the indigenous people. As a result of the spread of hitherto unknown diseases, sadly nearly all the Yamana and other local tribes were wiped out.

Tierra del Fuego national park

A beaver dam on the way to Laguna Esmerelda

In addition to Ushuaia itself, we have enjoyed getting outdoors. Tierra del Fuego national park was stunning in its autumnal colours, and we also managed a long walk to Laguna Esmeralda. The latter trail was more of a bog than a path but we enjoyed the challenge (and got completely covered in mud!). We also saw several dams built by beavers, as well as the destruction they'd wrought in the forests - trees reduced to stumps, and others in the process of being gnawed through. There was plenty of other wildlife to see in the national park, birds especially - my favourites were the white throated tree runners, which as you can guess from the name run up and down trees, tapping with their beaks like woodpeckers.

Laguna Esmerelda

We'll be leaving Ushuaia tomorrow for Puerto Williams, the sourthernmost permanent settlement in the world. The plan is to then take a ferry back to Punta Arenas, then a second ferry from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt along the Chilean fjords.

Although Ushuaia claims to be at the end of the world,
Puerto Williams (our next destination) is further south