In Chiloe

So, the guys are in Castro now and this is what Guillermo wrote the night of March 31:

I will send you a quick email tonight to let you know we are in Castro, Chiloé. We left Bariloche at 7:30 this morning and got to Puerto Montt at 2:00. We were on another bus headed for Castro in Chiloé 20 minutes later, so our timing was good. Then we had about a 45 minute ferry boat ride and then some more time on the bus. Fernando took everything well and we got to Castro in the early evening. On the way over here we saw a lot of ibises and lapwings in fields and as we were crossing the channel on the ferry, we also saw quite a few blacknecked swans, which was kind of neat. The island has very green rolling hills. It feels colder than it was in Bariloche, but it isn't too bad. It is probably due to the higher humidity. Tomorrow we are going to try to get to Chiloé park and do some walking. Some of the houses here are up on stilts, or at least the side that is toward the water, and many of the houses have their sides covered with different shaped wooden shingles.

This person's site on the web has many great photos and since it gives an idea of what Guillermo and Fernando might be seeing, I thought I'd add it to this blog. Chiloe photos

And Guillermo wrote this on April 1:

We had planned to go to Chiloé park today, but when we got to the bus station, the bus that goes to the town near the park had left about 20 minutes earlier and the next one didn't leave until 12:30, so we decided to go to an island instead. It was an interesting ride there, but there wasn't much to do in the town of Achao other than to look at the houses and buildings covered with those wooden shingles in a variety of styles and all different colors. They really are very unique looking. I have been a little disappointed in that Chiloé is much more developed and deforested than I had expected. We have seen a few monkey puzzle trees in yards, but that is it. They grow a couple hundred miles north of where we are, so we won't see any forests of pehuenes in Chile. There was also a very picturesque wooden church in the town. We then went to another town, where we did more walking around and taking pictures of the houses and of another neat wooden church. We then returned to Castro, did a lot more walking and saw the palafitos, houses on stilts. Well, that is about all we have done today. Tomorrow we will try to make it to the park and the following morning we have to head back toward Argentina.