We met Carolina, our local guide, today. She and her husband, Gustavo, and her two sons Alonso and Alvares joined us. They are all Mapuche. Carolina has made sure her boys know of their indigenous background and wants them to be proud of it. They are a very nice family.
We started our day with a walk through the city of Ancud, where we are staying. Carolina explained about the mythological characters that are specific to the Island of Chiloe and the importance they play in everything that happens here. The people are serious about these myths and become insulted if you laugh about them. For instance, she told of how if Picoya, the goddess of the ocean and shore is facing toward the sea, it will be a good day for fishing; if she is facing land – stay home.
We met our bus and started out for Castro, the capitol city of Chiloe.
One of the local guides found a boat builder in the area and we went to visit Don Ambrosia, who was working on his boat as we arrived. It is unbelievable what our guides expose us to. Fernando is backing our tour bus down a one-lane dirt road in a residential section and we stop in front of Don Ambrosia’s garage and all get out and have about a 20-minute visit. You cannot believe the beautiful wooden boats that this man creates with minimal tools.
We find a gas station to make a “technical stop” – that would be the bathroom.
Arrived at Castro, which is in the middle of the island. The houses in some parts of Castro are built on stilts because of the tides. We get out to take photos and all of a sudden Santi is calling to us to come. He was talking with a woman who was walking down the street and he explained to her that we were an American tour group who was interested in learning and discovery. She invited all of us into her house on stilts so that we could see the view from her back porch. Can you even imagine seeing a tour bus and inviting 16 strangers into your home? What wonderful, warm people.
Carolina and Santi decided we needed to experience the local bus once again. By the time we had arrived at our destination, the local people were showing us the oysters and mussels they had purchased at the market and we were old friends by the time we got off the bus.
We visited another of the wooden churches that are UNESCO heritage sites. Carolina explained that all of the churches are made of wood, as that was the only building product. The builders were not architects, but native people who built the churches based on their knowledge of home and boat building – hence, the curved wooden naves. The woodwork was as beautiful as any marble or gilt churches could be.
Next we visit with Berta Newen, a Mapuche medicine woman. There is an aura about Berta. She speaks Spanish and Mapuche and everything was done through our guides as interpreters. Berta explained about the native medicines, which she said are mainly used as preventative medicine. We all sat in her house around a fire pit and she then asked us to stand as she was going to perform a blessing ceremony – wishing us a safe and happy journey, a healthy life, that we find our families all well when we return home – all the while throwing herbs on the fire.
Now, we are faced with a mission. Santi and Carolina have developed a scavenger hunt so that we can all practice our Spanish. We are each given $2.00 to go to the market. We are given a slip of paper with some words written on it and they tell us how to pronounce it (once). We do not know what this item is, but we are to go into the market and buy it for the $2.00, or less if we can. It will be part of our dinner this evening. We do this in pairs. The word for Jim and I was AJO CHILOTE. We are not permitted to show any of the vendors our slips of paper –we must ask them for the item and bargain, get the right amount of money and change. This market had yarn, hand crafted items, fish, mussels, vegetables, honey, etc. Jim and I lucked out. The first booth we stopped at had our item and evidently we pronounced it correctly enough for her to understand. Of course, she wanted to sell us way too much and we were somehow able to get her to give us $2.00 worth. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Santi watching us to make sure we were not cheating. Our item was garlic. This was great fun. The other items that people had to buy were chili powder, dried kelp, seaweed, dried oysters and a liquor.
On to Maria and Harvey (Harry maybe-- hard to understand). This is a couple who home-host dinners for OAT. We watch (and help) them prepare our dinner. There is a smoke house adjacent to their home with a fire pit. The coals have been burning since before we arrived. When we get there, they throw a couple of hundred mussels in the shells onto the coals, then potatoes, chorizo sausage, chicken, pork, a potato dumpling and all is covered with leaves and ferns, then tarps and slabs of sod to insulate. This all cooks for about an hour while we go into the house and Maria and one of our group makes potato cakes to be fried. We are served a Pisco Sour and eat the potato cakes with honey. Then dinner is served. What a feast! All that delicious smoked food (wine of course), a caramel flan and the liquor that was purchased at the market. We finished with dancing on the lawn to some Chilean music.
A little aside for the book nuts – Maria just happens to be very good friends with the author Isabel Allende who visits her house often!
It’s going to be an early night tonight………
Having some internet problems and cannot download photos. I'll add them later.
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