Today was a day largely just dedicated to travel, and unfortunately, without many exciting pictures. We woke up pretty early in Santiago, checked out of our Hostel, and walked over to find the bus which takes people to the airport. Turns out we were the only travelers on that bus at that time, everyone else seemed to be an airport worker!

From Santiago’s airport it was a 1.5 hour flight south to Puerto Montt, getting close to the northern edge of Patagonia. From the Puerto Montt airport we took a bus to the main bus terminal, had a 1 hour layover, until we could hop onto our next bus to our final destination of Ancud, a small city on the island of Chiloe. At least the view at the bus terminal was relaxing!

Now the most exciting part of the day was probably during the bus ride from Puerto Montt to Ancud. On Google Maps it looked like we follow a highway the entire time. But turns out, instead of the bridge we were expecting to get onto the island, it was actually a ferry ride! This was most unexpected.

We finally made it to Ancud and checked into our new place. This is a view of part of the town:

 

After we got settled in we walked up the shoreline until reaching an old fort with some old cannons.

The end of our day involved eating the local dish from this island called Curanto. As you could probably tell, this is very much a fishing type village/city, and their specialty is molluscs so that’s what goes into the Curanto. Now there are two types, one made in a big pot on a stove, or the traditional one, made in a big hole in the ground instead which is what we sought out!

It’s pretty tough to see but the ingredients (half eaten already, but at least we snapped a picture this time!) were lots of clams, mussels, BIG mussels, and one pork chop/ribs, a chicken drumstick, and a sausage. The plate on the right was also delicious, a Chupo with Abalone (locos) as the meat. That’s it! We were pretty stuffed after the meal, and accompanying bottle of wine, that all we did next was stroll leisurely back down the coast to our hostel for a good night’s sleep.