If I can’t write, at least I can post pics…

…of my recent trip to the lovely island of Chiloe, in the south of Chile.  It’s so green and pleasant and beautiful that, in some cases, it almost looks like a painting.

Click on the pics to see them full-size.

A very nice “milcao” vendor, whose favorite hat happens to be his Michgan State baseball cap.  Go, Spartans!  (This pic was taken just for you, Vane!)

A view of the village of Achao on the island of Quinchao (one of Chiloe’s smaller islands).

Not a very fun pic, but one of only 2 that were taken of me on the trip (since, you know, I had the camera and was traveling alone).  This pic is proof that I walked all the way to the microscopic village of Chequian, and NOT Quinchao, as I had intended.  Chiloe’s churches are famous for being made entirely of wood, including their exterior wood shingles.  I wanted to see the oldest of all such churches, located in Quinchao. Turns out I took a wrong turn, and 2 hours later I got to see the following shack of a church instead (which might as well have been the oldest church in Chiloe, from the looks of it):

Back in civilization as Chiloe knows it, I dropped by Castro’s port to see a typical chilote “palafito” structure (basically, a house–or, in this case, restaurant–on stilts).  Many of Chiloe’s palafitos have been destroyed by earthquakes, but some remain here and there.

A lone fisherman in the picturesque village of Chonchi.