Jan 26/12: Castrol, Isla Chiloe, Chile
While Dad stayed on board ship and then visited the town and took pictures, I went on a shore excursion to Cucao Chiloe National Park which is located on the western coat in the region of Lakes. It is the newest one in Chile, and the only one along the coast. Most of the park is located in the foothills of the Chilean Coastal Range, known as the Cordillera del Piuchen. The bus ride was about an hour each way.
The scenery here is very different from the past few days, where everything has been arid land, virtually dessert landscape with very few trees or hills. Here we passed two large inland lakes - bigger than the lake we used to have our country place on, Omi - with the park bordering on the second one. There were hills with many trees and shrubs which rapidly became rugged mountains. At the park again, we did not see much wildlife except for a small lizard and a few birds that were not very exciting - resembled sparrows and I could not get a picture of them. The park was really all about the vegetation in the area, which was very diverse. It is one of only 3 cold rainforests in the world -a sort of evergreen forest- the others being in New Zealand and Tasmania. We saw a very very tiny plant about the size of a fingernail which eats mosquitoes ( but it can only grow in the marshland there). There was also this plant which grows huge 2 M leaves with thick stalks and a large seed cone. The stalks are eaten raw or cooked like an acidic celery. The plant is apparently a relative of our rhubarb. It was huge, and grows very fast starting September and fixes nitrogen in the soil, so that is why it is generally found in poor soil.
There were quite a few interesting trees in the area, such as the Guero tictoma ( sp?) which can grow up to 4M in diameter, and as much as 2M in good years. Another tree similar to a willow, has leaves used to make an organic green dye, and 1 sq cm of the inner back is used to relieve constipation- apparently it can work in 2 minutes so the word is be right by the toilet if you take it! Then there is a Coihue which like a large shrub, and the ctnre wood is used to make beams for building as it is very strong. Those trees grow 2-3 m in diameter. The Muerta bush is very much like our blueberry, except that the berries are red. This park is also home to the smallest deer & wildcat in the world, as well as the Darwin fox. Of course we did not see any of these in the day.
Apparently they still pan for gold at Cucavo Lake along the beaches, where we were, and still use mercury as the gold sticks to it. They can get as much as 6 gm/day which has a value of about 150$US. They have old apple trees around as well, and they generally use the apples to make cider using very ancient presses made of wood. Another interesting thing is that almost all of the people in this area are indigenous, and they live off the land. Everyone grows potatoes and still use oxen to till the land etc. Most of the potatoes grown today have some genetic relationship to the potatoes from here. The locals collect seaweed and eat it , but they also dry it and mix it with other foods to make sticks which they dry and use for teething and also sell.
In this area they are the 2nd largest producers of salmon & mussels in the world, and we saw several farms offshore as we were driving along the coastline. If it is a 'line' then it is a mussel farm, and if it more like a circle or square in shape then it is salmon. Another interesting thing is that every 25 years there is a major earthquake in this region- apparently it is like clockwork. The last one was in 1960 @ 9.6 . Many houses were destroyed and the ones we saw have been rebuilt using tin. So, after our walk in the forest, we drove to the outskirts and stopped for a ' snack'. The place was part of a hostel, and we stopped in the 'restaurant' part, which was very small . It was owned by a German lady and her husband!!! She had prepared a small buffet which included juice, devilled eggs, salami, ham, cheeses, potato salad, and 'kuchen'- flaumen streusel kuchen and a European chocolate cake, more like a torte with no icing, that had seaweed in it (although you could not taste it- she said it was to make it extra healthy). We stayed there for about 45 minutes. It was very nice (Omi, you would probably say it was "gemutlich"). I even had herbal tea made with fresh peppermint and some other kind of herb from the lady's garden. Then we returned to the pier around 4 so I had to go back on the boat right away as we were supposed to be leaving at 5.
That night there was a beautiful sunset after supper. We stood out on deck and watched it and took photos. After that it was trivia time, then we went back to the cabin and watched a "Harry Potter' film on TV that we had not seen before along with our nightly tea. Then we went to bed. End of a very good day.
--- It is now 1:17 am ---
I am just waiting for my last load of laundry to finish in the drier, so I think I will quit now as want to wake up and see the glacier tomorrow.
Nitey night all of you ( and Moustache too!).
We miss you all.
Love,
Mom & Dad
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