Isla de Chiloé

The Chilean Isla de Chiloé is  famous for its rain forests and its colorful, old wood style churches.

Semu holding mass...or something

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We stayed at the "Hosteal Nuevo Mundo" in Ancud, a town in the northern part of the island. The hostel is built all in wood and most rooms facing the bay. We lucked out and got to stay in the "suite", a double room with shared bath and 3 of the 4 windows looking out over the water. All the pictures on the walls of the hostel are slightly cricked, due to the permanent mini earth quakes happening in the region. You can't feel anything though.

The sun room was a perfect spot to hang out, meet other travelers, eat dinner and have a glass or two of Chilean wine.

On our second day on the island we took a local bus to the penguins. There are fishing boats going out to the island where the pinguins live. March is the end of penguin season and there were only a few left. They are very cute and funny to watch. Flopping around and wabbeling their way up and down the rocks.

The sea otter was super cute.

Deborah from England and Jan from Germany joined us for the penguin adventure. We decided to take the long way back to the bus station. It was a nice and looong walk along a deserted beach with lots of white shells and some rivers to cross. Sure enough we had to take off our shoes a bunch of times. After about an hour and a half of walking on the beach, luckily a local "mariscos" collector gave us a ride at the back of his truck to the end of the beach. If not, we would have definitely missed our last bus back into town.

Chilotean beach cow. Muuuhhhh!!