It´s always fun to spend time in Castro...

Castro, Chile

February 18, 2007
S 42°28.909
W 073°45.739

We got up early to catch a bus to Castro, Chile. Castro, on the Island of Chiloe, is about 3 hours south of Puerto Montt. The three hour bus ride includes a 30 minute trip by ferry across the Canal de Chacao. The Chilean government took bids to build a bridge across this natural water-way in 2001, but construction has yet to start—I guess the Bay Bridge is one step ahead. As the ferry slowly carried our bus and others across the frigid waters we actually captured our first glimpse of a couple penguins. They poked their heads out of the water seemingly unfazed as the ferry crossed through their backyard.

We arrived in Castro, a sleepy little fishing town, at about 11 AM. The weather outside was noticeably cooler than in Puerto Montt and the skies were pretty gray, similar to a summer day in San Francisco, or more specifically, the Northern California coast. Reluctantly we’re now wearing our long pants and have traded our Tevas for our boots. Our “cold weather gear” seemed so unnecessary in Montanita, but now we’re glad we have it. The weather gave us an indication of what is yet to come in Punta Arenas, and the further south we go…brrr!

By 12:15 PM we had pretty much walked the entirety of the town. We started to make our way back towards the center of the town when we saw a sign in a storefront window announcing a Folklore Festival in the Park. We figured we had a few hours to kill and decided a Folklore Festival may be exactly what we need.

As we began meandering towards the park we noticed there were now several more people milling about the town than when we first arrived, and many of them were carrying backpacks obviously looking for a place to stay. It seems the Castro Folklore Festival is a big event and we quickly decided to find our place to stay before going to the park. We found a nice little Hospedaje with a panoramic view of Castro’s waterfront, tossed our day pack in the room, and headed back outside to get us some Folklore.

There were now several buses, with Al Parque-Folklore painted on their windows, swirling through the streets, honking their horns and picking up nearly anyone that was willing to go for a ride to “Al Parque.” We figured we already had enough bus time for the day and could easily hike the 3 miles to Al Parque; plus we weren’t in any hurry. After about two miles of walking towards our quest for folklore, the buses that were frantically swirling the streets and passing us as we walked along the road were now at a dead stop. The traffic appeared to be backed up at least a mile leading to the park.

We continued our climb to the park, still unsure of what may be at the other end, and the people around us kept multiplying. At first 30 or 40, as we got closer it turned into 100 and with 800 meters to go we could now see several hundred people all marching towards Al Parque. I turned to Marc and said, “this is like a pilgrimage.” Except we were not going to Mecca, we didn’t really know where we going. We knew one thing for sure…it would be a great story.

All cars and buses were now at a dead stop. We looked over at the bus windows nearly opaque from condensation and the poor people all trapped thinking they had a quick ticket to the Folklore Festival. We were very happy we opted to walk at this point. As we made our way up the final 100 meters along a dirt road a huge Caterpillar was bulldozing to allow for more traffic; yet headed straight towards the traffic. What the heck? Who thought it was a good idea to do this today?

We finally got to the ticket booth around 3:30 PM, paid our 600 Chilean Pesos each, and headed into the madness. As we walked in, we weren’t really sure what to expect. I said to Marc, “is this like the Castro Street Faire? Probably not since there are a lot of little kids.” Marc thought it would be more like a County Faire without the rides and rednecks.

The festival ended up being a nice family affair with everyone drinking some kind of fermented apple wine, plenty of food booths set-up selling meat on metal skewers, empanadas, even Curanto in to-go bags. Of course there were demonstrations such as: milling hay, building a fishing boat, fermenting apples for wine, and even a small rodeo. There were different stages set up around the park with live entertainment and locals dancing. Yup, all good ol’ Folklore.

We strolled around Al Parque for a little over an hour, sitting down on occasion to catch a live act. It was shortly after 5 PM, it looked like the rain would start any time, so we called it a day. We headed toward the exit (which was also the entrance) and found hundreds of people, who had not yet had an opportunity to partake in the fun, still pressing forward. We walked down the dirt road we came up, the line of cars still stretched out for at least a mile… good luck amigos!