El SurReal - Ancud, Chiloé

I woke up to Rachael asking me if I'd like a cup of tea, and a horde of roosters cock-a-doodle-dooing outside the window.  I had to tear myself away from the warmth of the bed to rejoin the chilly morning of Puerto Montt.  We feasted on leftover tomato-cous-cous-soup and biscuits for breakfast.  Same as dinner, except tea instead of wine.  (I had to convince Rach that we should save the second half of the bottle for another night, instead of breaking our fast with it in the morning...)

We took a colectivo back to the bus terminal area, passed some time at the artesanias with some pups and cats, and at last boarded for Ancud.  Only an hour and a half into the bus ride did we wonder how a bus would transport us over the sea to the island of Chiloé.  Well, folks, this is what happens.  Your bus, along with a dozen and a half other motor vehicles, climbs aboard an enormous barge, and that barge scoots you across the water to Ancud.  Duh.

Well, if the weather in Puerto Montt was undesirable, the weather here was wretched.  As soon as we dismounted the bus at the terminal, the rain went from pitter-pattering to dumping right on our heads.  We ran around in the rain with our bags, lost, cold, wet.  Instead of finding our hostal right away, we parked ourselves in a restaurant to get dry and fill our growling stomachs.  And did we do it right.  We ordered burgers and fries:  Rachael's was filled with palta (avocado), tomato, aji, onion, ham, mayo, ketchup.  Mine, believe it or not, was decked with a fried egg, tocino (bacon), mustard, ketchup, aji, and tomato.  All that and a heaping helping of fries.  And somehow, I left my plate clean!

We remained in this funky, woodwind-soundtrack-playing restaurant for at least thirty minutes two long.  Traveling really just puts your mind in a funny place.  You'll realize that five minutes have passed and you don't know why, but your socks are wet and everything's funny...  

Eventually, we got up, paid, and venture back out into the moisture to find our hostal.  Luckily, we were only a few blocks away.  We moved in without a problem and got comfy playing 500 Rummy to wait out the rain.  After a while, the sun came back out and the day was suddenly beautiful.  We explored the mercados (markets) and artesanias.  We met this cute old man who told us about how different Chilotes (people from Chiloé) are from the rest of the people of Chile.  Our chat definitely peaked the interest of the sociologist in me, and I think I have an idea about what to do for Capstone now...!

So far, I really like Chiloé!  And can't wait to see more of it tomorrow.