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Chiloe and its colourful churches


The island of Chiloe is a contrast to the main land. It has been inhabited by towns folk for far longer than the areas of Patagonia we have been enjoying previously. Fishing and farming are well established and the land is far more hospitable by being much much flatter. There are farms and establishments everywhere.

The towns are bustling and full of cars and people. We stayed in Quellon for one night before driving to a small cabana/caravan park just outside of the town of Castro (another towm with its share of crazy one way streets, cars parked everywhere and people doing unpredictable things like stopping in the middle of the road). The cabana however is an oasis in the middle of farming land.

We did a loop drive round the north east of Chiloe two days ago. The famous world heritage churches formed the main attraction.....

The churches of Quemchi,
Castro,
Colo,
Tenuan,
and Dalcahue

Dalachue is renown for its food and craft markets. While there were many wares on sale, we had seen a range of hand made articles which looked similar in other towns including in Puerto Cisnes on the main land. In fact, we even saw some wares made in Peru. We'll wait for those.....  The food looked great but was being eaten by so many other people in such cramped quarters we only tasted an apple empanada (yum!) and ice creams.

Interestingly the drive reminded us of driving in Tassie, somewhat, including gum trees (!) however with the exception of the architecture which is uniquely Chilean.

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