Chiloe

I didn't know much about the island of Chiloe when I one day decided to go there... I had gone to Chile to discover the country's South, the great natural parks of Patagonia. I only knew that Chiloe represented, for the few navigators that sail up and down the Patagonian channels, the entrance to (or the exit from) this harsh universe, swept by strong winds, and were only two colors seem to exist : black and grey. Chiloe, on the contrary, at the northern end of the channels, is a miracle of colors: vegetation here reigns supreme, and the colors of the superb houses covered with alerce shingles are enough to delight people who, like me, are fond of bright and happy colors.

So I one day took a ferry from Puerto Montt until the green shores of Chiloe, and I've been charmed at once by the small port of Ancud, by the numerous bays that cut the island's shores and by the small islands that surround the large one, such as Quinchao, reached from the port of Dalcahue... Such musical names! It is not a surprise that the island inspired one of Chile's greatest writers, Francisco Coloane.

Crisscrossing the island from north to south, I enjoyed its fields, its forests and lakes, the colored houses of Curaco de Velez; those, built on stilts, of Castro, and in particular, in each village or at the crossing of two roads, the churches of all sizes built by the Jesuit priests: they have all been classified World Heritage Sites by Unesco.

1. Chiloe

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