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We have spent the last week and a half tucked away in a remote corner of Chile - on the island of Chiloe. We have spent a majority of the time enjoying some good old British weather on the wild west coast and are now in the 'Capital' Castro to enjoy some gastronomic delights.
We arrived here from Puerto Varas where the rain started. Unfortunately this coincided with a Team Hiles decision to take a bike ride around the lake for what we were assured was a flat 20kms each way to a lovely town to enjoy the views. Just beyond the point of no return the rain started (as did the hills) and didn't let up for the whole day and it soon dawned on us that it was more like 35kms each way and a major test of our marriage vows... We were left a little hypothermic but Rhian's spirits were lifted on the cycle home by the regular horn tooting she received from (elderly) locals 'admiring' her wet t-shirt. Mine soon picked up the next day as England took their place atop the 6 nations table!
We then visited 2 tiny villages in Chiloe - the first (Chepu) to try and see our first wild penguins, where we stayed with a lovely family who tried to feed us to death, and the second (Cucao) to enjoy trekking the remote national park. The first task was duly completed after a great cliff edge walk for 3 hrs to arrive at a deserted beach having seen no other humans for the entire walk. We were obliged to use the services of a guide from the local fishing community (3 houses...) but a little early for low tide we needed to wade out. I rolled up my trouser legs but this was not sufficient for Rhians hobbit legs, and she had to strip off down to her quick dry undies (which are starting to look every bit the well worn item they are) only to turn around and see a vision of 12 strapping aussies in their early 20's walking down the beach!
As we arrived on the island it was clear there were not the thousands of penguins waiting around on the rocks we expected. Instead they were tucked up in the bushes so our guide took us on a 'penguin hunt' to try and locate them. We were lucky and saw lots in the bushes and a couple coming in from fishing. They were not however the only wildlife on the island as we noted from the leaches attached to our ankles!
After spending 3 days trekking the national park we arrived in the relative conurbation of Castro to coincide with the last day of their local customs festival. I am delighted to report that one of those customs is the production of Chicha de Manzana (Scrumpy Cider to you and me) and my 5.5 month cider drought was over, bought from a man who looked exactly like a tanned somerset farmer (rosy cheeks and all!). We also got to try the local speciality (Curanto) which is a selection of mussels and clams cooked in the ground and accompanied very specifically with 1 potato, 1 sausage and 1 piece of pork. Very rustic shall we say but nevertheless delicious. We have also today managed to find Oysters the size of our heads which we washed down with some local beer. This is all excellent fuel for the increasingly regular trekking we are doing.
Next stop is Bariloche, across the Andes, in the Argentinian Lakes District, before we continue the march southwards.
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