stiltsville

Today I left the Lake District and its volcanoes behind and took the car ferry to the island of Chiloé. There's some noise about building a bridge to replace the half hour journey, but so far, no traction.

Chiloé is a UNESCO world heritage site famous for its churches and its palafitos. Also its potatoes.

These are palafitos: traditional houses on stilts. I'm actually staying in a gorgeous casita in the development in the upper left of this picture.

Castro reminds me a little of the houseboats in Sausalito. The rolling hills and bays are similar.

 Except there are penguins and flamenco (flamingos!) here.

Kind of laid back and charming.

This is where I had lunch. Everywhere you go in Chile there's salmon ahumado (smoked salmon). Apparently Chile consulted with the Norwegians on salmon farming and now they are starting to rival Norway.

Here's one of those historic churches, in the town square in Castro. I love the yellow with purple.

Pretty from any angle.

We ended the night with Pisco sours and a few stories translated from Spanish to English to German and back. All in all, a great way to kick off the second summer of 2016,