December 18, 2017

   Today’s port, Castro, Chile, on the island of Chiloé, was reached from the ship by tender. Isla Chiloé is the largest of the archipelago islands. It was another port where the passengers were taken by the tender boats to shore. For the first three ports of call, the ship in anchored offshore.

   Yesterday was election day in Chile. The new president to succeed to the outgoing President Michelle Bachelet will be Sebastian Piñera, leader of the conservative Let's Go Chile coalition who is a former Chilean president and billionaire businessman.

    The day started sunny and cool 8 C and reached 14 C as the clouds rolled in in the afternoon.

    Our tour was to visit three of the wooden Roman Catholic churches of the island of Chiloé, including the largest located in the town of Castro. Castro was founded by the Spanish 1567. It is the third oldest town in Chile. There was an old fort here, but not even ruins exist today. Spanish Jesuits missionaries constructed more than 100 wooden churches in the town or surrounding area. Later the Spanish monarchy replaced the Jesuits with Franciscan monks. Many of the churches have UNESCO World Heritage site designations.

   It was low tide when we arrived in Castro and the tender boat was docked at the bottom of the sloped pier, when we returned four hours later the tender boat was secured about half way up the pier.

  The first wooden church was in the village of Nercón. The Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Gracia de Nercón (Our Lady of Grace church of Nercón) was built in 1886 to 1890 in the neo Romantic style using Nothofagus Dombeyi wood, by boat carpenters, who constructed the ceiling like an upside-down boat.  [There is a 15th century wooden church near the English Channel in the town of Honfleur, France, called St. Catherine’s Church built by ship’s carpenters using the same construction method.] The wooden interior is painted with the columns painted to give the illusion of marble columns. There is a small cemetery beside the church.

   Then there was a 20-minute bus ride to the town of Chonchi which is built on hill sides.  We passed fields with grazing cattle and fields with grazing sheep and a few horses. Chonchi is known as the three-storey town, since the houses look like they are arranged in terraces. Chonchi became important to the whaling industry in the 1800s and small European settlements were founded. The town’s wooden church is called Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Rosetio (Our Lady of the Rosary church) was built in 1893. Its style is neo-Classic.  In 1960 the town of Chonchi suffered a 9.6 Richter scale earthquake that lasted two minutes and a tsunami followed.  Some of the traditional houses on stilts are called “palafitos” were destroyed since they were built on public land hanging over beaches. Some of these colourful wooden houses still exist and have become restaurants and hostals. Officially they are not legal buildings, since they were originally built by poor people who could afford land on which to build homes. The town is full of gardens with roses in full bloom.

   Next our guide, Ignasio, led the group down the hill to the Museum of Traditions. The wooden houses on the island of Chiloé have house fronts covered in different patterns of wooden shingles. Some houses are painted but others appear unpainted. It was a house of a wealthy family built in the late 1800s and furnished with items from that time.

   Back in the bus, we returned to Castro’s Plaza de Armas, the central town square and park with its bright yellow galvanized zinc-iron plated neo-Gothic style San Francisco Cathedral which was built in 1906.  The interior is fabricated from wood which has been varnished. The statue of a saint is dressed in a purple robe, which is changed annually on August 6th and the “retiring” robe is cut into small pieces and distributed to the congregants. Beside the church is a courtyard and building called Casa Francisco.  There were many people in the square and a flea market of handmade goods, including a couple making grass baskets.  After visiting the cathedral, as the group waited for the bus the town’s noon siren wailed followed by a church’s bells ringing out the hymn “Oh come let us adore him”.  Steps 5012

  The final stop was at handicraft market about 50 meters from the passenger terminal, where we left the group and went for a walk along the shore walk, passing a park formerly part of the railway (like we saw in Puerto Montt yesterday) which had an old steam engine and some machinery in it. We climbed a hill, reminiscent of our climbs in the hills of Valparaíso, to get up to the town center.  We found one of the main streets that was teeming with people. On the wide sidewalks, there were people selling Christmas paper, fresh strawberries and other fruit and vegetables; and others selling handmade crafts and cheap children’s toys. We posted the text of yesterday’s blog, but there were so many people using the Wi-Fi that adding photos was not possible.  We could not even get on to the email server as more passengers connected to the Wi-Fi, a common happening at free Wi-Fi places at cruise terminals.

    We had lunch on the ship and were read for the afternoon.  The captain’s 5 pm announcement predicted a day of possible showers and high temperature of 12 C tomorrow.  We are going south about 260 km and there may be some rough seas after 10 pm, which was correct since we noticed some rolling motion in our cabin.

    Our table of eight was complete for the first time this evening, Jerry and Violet were introduced to Jan and Doug. Tonight’s choices were mixed greens salad, Shrimp Cocktail and Perihuela Seafood Soup with main courses of Lasagna with sour dough bread and chicken in green Peruvian sauce with tacu tacu fried rice. Dessert was a fruit plate, Dulce de Luche coconut tart, peach crips and chocolate cake.

   Tonight’s show was called “Classique” performed by the Zaandam singers and dancers.  It featured Pop hits and Opera classics from Spain, Ireland, France and Italy. The costumes of the singers and dancers increased the appreciation of the performance.

       When we returned from the show, as usual our bed had been turned down, the chocolates were laid on the program for tomorrow’s activities and we had another cute towel creation from the room steward.

Comments to this post are welcomed.

Final step count for today 12,285