The U-turn and North

To avoid riding back through the new construction, Jim and I opted to ride gravel roads south toward Castro. Turned out to be a wonderful day, almost no rain and some sun.

We rode as far south as Castro where Jim enjoyed a nap and I enjoyed an excellent cup of coffee. Both of fully revived we ended our ride south and turned the horses toward the barn. Instead of going back up Rte. 5 we rode the east coast of Chiloe Island. What a treat!!!!!!

This island was settled hundreds of years ago, all of it based on access to the sea, no roads then. So going up the east coast, the sheltered coast, we went through several old fishing villages. Today, it appears many of them are more dependent on fish farming than on open-ocean fishing, however.

What struck me was how funky the houses are. It reminded me of the brightly colored hippie style houses of Northern California, with a bit of the corrugated steel of New Zealand tossed in and all of it very dated. If we saw this in the US we would think of it as a style statement, but it is just how they built houses here.

All of the boats, other than the pangas we took to see the penguins, are made of wood planks. I thought they were all old boats, but we came across a boat yard where three boats were under construction. The guy has a VW sawmill where he cuts the local hardwood trees into beautiful clear planks. When you see that these boats sit on the gravel beaches at low tide, there is no way fiberglass boats would survive over time.