Before leaving the Navimag ferry I had decided that I wanted to go to the Chilean island(s) of Chiloé and there were 4 others going so we got the bus to Castro together. (Henny-Dutch, Thomas- Swiss, Andreas- Swiss, Jorge- Portuguese). It took 4 hours including the short ferry crossing. Andreas had already booked a hostel so we all ended up going there. We went out for a late lunch and then wandered around the town. It is famous for the 'palafitos', coloured houses on stilts over the estuary. It was perfect weather for a wander, blue sky and sunny.

On the Saturday (24th) we hired a car from the hostel to be able to drive around the island. It was an old Volvo, big enough for 5 people but turned out to have a few issues, namely windscreen wipers that were not working. We discovered this once it started raining when we were half way to the National Park and the drive was slightly dangerous. The rain only got heavier though at one point the wipers did show a sign of life! But then stopped and when one of the guys was checking it the passenger side wiper came off….we had wondered what the glue in the car was for! Ha ha.

So the next part of the journey involved Jorge holding his arm and the wiper out of the window and DIY-wiping his side of the windscreen giving directions to Thomas who was doing a good job of driving under the conditions- "straight on, a bit to the right, slow down, there's a bridge to the right, it's narrow, be careful, etc, etc". This was all very funny, we laughed and laughed about it, but it was not very safe! We did manage to arrive at a beach on the pacific coast but due to the heavy rain and thick cloud you couldn't see anything so we abandoned our plans of hiking in the National Park. Luckily as we headed back towards the centre 1) the driver's side wiper started working (not sure how or why!) and 2) the weather started to improve which was good so we could enjoy the day driving around. Weird how very different the weather was and a shame we couldn't go walking in the park.

Anyway, we stopped at a little town called Chonchi. We visited the pretty church which was made completely of wood, inside and out. Chiloé is famous for its wooden churches, which are dotted over the islands (there are a total of 150, 16 are Unesco World Heritage sites). We ate our lunch then took the small car ferry to visit one of the smaller islands, Isla Lemuy. We drove around and enjoyed the scenery- Chiloé reminds me a bit of British countryside and the views feel a little like being in the English lake district although the water you are seeing here is ocean not lakes. I offered to cook so Henny and I went to the supermarket and we cooked a cajun combo together- it was the first time I have cooked something I make at home and felt like it was like it is when I make it at home! :-) We also had some wine and it seems that even though I have never drank or liked red wine I don't mind 'Cabernet Sauvignon'!