Heading out from Angostura, we decided to make a nice big lunch to bring on the bus with us to prevent having to buy food at the bus station once we arrived in Puerto Montt, Chile. We made fried egg and cheese on baguette sandwiches and packed apples and oranges as snacks. We were informed by a lady at the hostel as we were packing up that the Chile border is extremely strict and won't allow produce or any animal products across. Eeeek! Oh well, we figured, we'll just eat right before our bags are subject to inspection. Well, we hop on the bus and start to drift off. In exactly 30 minutes, our bus pulled into customs! Luckily, it was just the Argentinian check point and they didn't care about our lunches. But, at 10:30 that morning (an hour and a bit after we left our hostel with very full stomachs from a good breakfast), we arrived at the Chilean checkpoint of the border and quickly ate our sandwiches and fruit before they could take it away from us! Mark was actually eating an apple as the guard and dog inspected his backpack - which actually seemed to really confuse the dog, he kept wanting to go over and sniff Mark instead of his bag!

Our bus took us out of the mountains and onto the flat Panamerican Highway. We arrived in Puerto Montt and bought tickets to Ancud, a small city on Chiloe. The bus left an hour later and we continued our trek south to the largest of the islands of Chiloe. After a 2 hour trip, including a short ferry ride, we arrived in Ancud and settled in for the night. A pretty town on the harbour, we found a hostel right on the water and near to the bus terminal. We had dinner out at a restaurant and the boys tried the traditional meal of Curanto, which was a giant plate piled high with mussels, clams, pork, chicken and 3 different types of potato. Courtney and I had soup!

In the morning, we had an amazing breakfast at our hostel (they actually provided meat, cheese, fresh bread, yogurt AND fruit!!!!), grabbed a cart-full of groceries and found driver to take us out to the remote town of Chepu. No busses run on Thursdays so we found a guy with a pickup to take us, our packs and our food to Chepu Adventures, the ecolodge we were hoping to visit for a couple days. It was a crazy ride from Ancud to Chepu, following a rocky road in the hilly countryside for 38km. Oh, and the boys were in the bed of the truck with the food and gear.

We were all so excited to arrived at the ecolodge. We are staying here in a Dormis - a small cabin with room enough for only 2 sets of bunkbeds. The property also has several bigger cottages and campsites. And it is full self-sustaining. The power is wind-generated and supplemented by solar panels. All the water used is collected rain water, filtered through the ground and warmed by the sun. Oh, and also it is set on a beautiful river that flows from the Pacific Ocean amid rolling green farmland. Heaven. The river is salt water and the property overlooks the "Sunken Forest", a smattering of old, dead trees. In an earthquake in 1960, the land dropped 2 meters allowing the water to rush in from the Pacific ocean and kill most trees. The effect is beautiful and eerie.

After getting to know the owners (Fernando and Amory are extremely friends and welcoming), we walked around the area a bit and made a fantastic burrito dinner. We set up a trip through Fernando for the following morning. He arranged for a local fisherman to pick us up in his boat (whose motor was powered by an electrical batter that is charged by the wind!) and take us to the head of a hiking trail to a penguin colony. This trail is very remote and only accessible by boat.

This is easily the best hike we've done so far and one of the best days of our trip. We hiked along a cow trail until we reached a huge, deserted Pacific beach. It was surrounded by big rocky cliffs and had giant rolling waves breaking on the shore. Fernando had instructed us that we only had 2.5 hours to reach the penguin colony. We had to get there at low tide or else the colony would be unreachable. Somehow, the trail was not all that well marked and we ended up taking a bit of a detour. We followed the rocky beach around until it ended and, assuming we were still on the trail, tried to climb up a sleep, muddy slope. When we realized there was no way up and around, we headed back the way we had come, covered in mud and now 30 minutes behind schedule!

We hustled back around the beach and followed another cow trail going up a hill. Eventually, we did see a marker on the trail and knew we were heading the right way. We could see our destination beach ahead and could see that it was at low tide!! We hustled down the trail, not wanting our efforts to be waisted by getting there after the tide was starting to come it. We ran parts of the trail and quickly walked the rest. It was so much fun! We did finally make it to the beach and motored to the far end where we knew the penguins lived. By the time we finally made it there, it was about half an hour after low tide and it was obvious the tide was starting to come in, quickly. We had to wade through some ankle-deep water, climb up a rocky slope, but we did see penguins!!! Since it is an eco-site, there is a small wooden shelter built on the hill so you can peek out at the penguins without scaring them! As it is early in the spring here, the colony contained about 15-20 penguins. There will be around 100 by the end of the summer. It was great to watch them shake their tails, walk around, and slide into the water to swim.

We spent about 15 minutes laughing at the penguins and enjoying their company. We then headed back down to the beach, where the tide was quickly coming in. Wading through knee deep water, we got back to the sandy part of the beach and had a quick lunch break before starting the hike back. It was such a gorgeous, warm sunny day for a hike (which is not typical Chiloean weather) and we were so glad we made it just in time to catch a glimpse of those happy penguins. It was an amazing experience - we were again the only ones on that beautiful beach and it felt like such a great accomplishment because we really had to work to see them!

Otherwise, our time in Chepu has largely been spent relaxing and enjoying the nature in the area. There are 128 different specids of birds in Chiloe and we've seen probably more than 20 just sitting on the edge of the river here. We've seen many wild green Parakeets in the skies and trees around us - and they're so chatty! And many ducks, vultures, turns, etc. We also had a rare sighting of a pudu - the smallest deer on the planet.

Mark and Fernando have also enjoyed a few inspired eco-tourism conversations regarding the unique culture and ecosystem of the Chiloe island. It is Fernando's vision to protect the area from exploitation and to promote tourism over resource extraction as a source of island income. Mark takes every opportunity to listen, learn and return enthusiastic insights gained as a Parks student.

Monday morning we will head back to the mainland and back to the constant movement that had defined this trip. But man, 4 days in Chepu can really feed the soul.