The Grand Isle of Chiloe

We took the bus down to Castro in the centre of the island of Chiloe to catch a glimpse of this changing and unique culture. Because of it´s relative isolation, Chiloe is somewhat backwards from the rest of Chile. There are brightly painted stilt houses overhanging the bays, pastures that resemble patchwork quilts, and interresting sights like fish and clams being sold on the street from wheelbarrows.

Chiloten folklore is rich, including stories about ghost ships and over a dozen trolls and monsters. The strangest has to be the Trauco, a disfigured troll who gets young girls pregnant if they wander into the forest. It wasn´t the boy down the street, it was Trauco, I swear!

We also decided to visit the national park to do a 3-day beach trek. However, it didn´t seem like the trek was going to enter the forest and we decided to cut it short to 2 days after walking 18-km on the beach the first day. We then turned around when we reached the organized campground and found a somewhat hidden site in the dunes overlooking the mighty Pacific. It was quite a sight to see lone cowboys or whole families on horses travelling along the beach. Not your usual life.