I’ll post this little bit now as once I leave Chiloe on the boat tonight I suspect it will be a while before I see wifi or internet again…
While wandering around Quellon yesterday evening I wondered if I would feel the same about the place if my host in Chonchi hadn’t mentioned that, in his opinion, it was not a place to hang about, bodies found in the harbour and all that. Would all those blokes standing around on scruffy street corners staring at me appear merely curious at my presence rather than threatening. Having found myself in notorious dives all over the world I should know better by now not to allow my impressions of a place, no matter how scabby it appears, to be coloured by local prejudices… all the same I pulled my cap down at the front and tried to look less obviously the one gringo in town. There is no avoiding it, if Chiloe has an arsehole then Quellon is probably it.. a rough looking place with vandalised boarded up buildings, weed infested dirt side streets, stray dogs and even, on the afternoon I arrived, a pall of smoke over the main drag from a pile of tyres someone was burning… Funny how so many ports end up this way. Border towns often suffer the same fate. Despite all that however the people I had cause to engage with, aside from the drunks on the desolate waterfront, were the usual friendly Chilenos, if slightly more reserved than elsewhere. The girl who filled my fuel bottle at the gas station on the harbour had a particularly nice smile.. ;-)
It was a fairly stiff ride from Chonchi, only 73km but with a number of long, steep climbs and with a strong south-westerly wind.. a cross-headwind in my case, and once again it was pouring with rain with a temperature of no more than 8 or 9 degs C. I was very grateful for my SealSkinz socks keeping my feet toasty and dry :-)
The ship should, in theory, be leaving tonight. Going to be a rough 7hrs I think, it is blowing a gale again. As I write there are occasional sunny breaks between frequent heavy rain squalls and while still desolate the place doesn’t look quite so bad as it did through tired eyes in the rain last night… maybe.
