Chiloe Island

My farm after Carmen and Andy’s was in Chepu, Chiloe, an island a little further south from Valdivia and the furthest south I will travel in Chile...this trip. Just like my previous travels from one farm to the next, of course I have a story! So, Juan and I are up and ready to go on time, mostly due to my persistence and repeated statements of how important my 8 o’clock bus is, but he decides to be very Chilean and takes just a few extra moments in the morning to talk to his mother. Those few extra moments cost me my 8 o’clock bus and I was quite upset. The reason the 8 o’clock bus was so important was due to my connecting bus in Ancud to go out to the country side, it left at 4 and only ran Monday, Wednesday, and Friday if I missed it I would have to spend not one but two nights in Ancud. I got on the next bus that gave me 20 minutes to change terminals and be on my way, I don’t think I would have made it if I hadn’t made the mistake of getting off earlier than I was supposed to. I saw a rural bus terminal just as the bus pulled into Ancud and thought that was the one I needed to go to, I was wrong, but ended up taking a taxi to the correct terminal and made it with 10 minutes to spare! I am not sure how I end up getting so lucky but I sure am happy it happens!

            My next farm, called Alihuen is mostly tree restoration and the fruits and vegetables are fairly new.  The owner, Jeroen Beuckels, came from Belgium and started building his house 6 years ago.  He used to be a chef, also WWOOFed in Australia and Romania, and is a tour guide 9 months of the year.  He lives with very little and the farm is still in the process of becoming self sufficient.  However, I was so happy to work on this farm, not because the work was amazing, but because I found a friend! There was another WWOOFer there and we got along great! Her name is Emma and she is from New York, she started her travels in Argentina learning Spanish then decided to WWOOF a little in Chile and we have plans to meet up in the future.

             At the farm we harvested potatoes and seeds from trees, picked seeds from a native fruit, planted seeds, and picked apples. You might say that is not a lot of work, but harvesting potatoes is a lot of work when the only tools you have are your hands, but we always seemed to laugh and make the best of our potato harvesting time (and yes, we both appreciate our potatoes now).    

            Senor Beuckels strongly advised Emma and I to go somewhere for the weekend and suggested we stay at a Bed and Breakfast just up the hill and go on a horse ride Saturday morning. We took his advice and stayed at the Bed and Breakfast for Friday night and went on a ride Saturday morning. The ride, was the scariest thing I have ever experienced in my life. My horse was not a friendly horse, he did not like Emma’s horse and there was a young wild horse that somehow found its way to us and my horse did not like him either. There were two scary experiences for me: first, we were riding along the beach and my horse just started galloping away and racing Emma’s horse going faster and faster until he decided to stop by going up a hill that just dropped off; second, was when the mysterious wild horse stopped in front of him and started to kick him, my horse raised up and started to buck, and yes I will say that I didn’t even realize the tears of fear until Emma asked if I was alright. Even though the ride itself was not fun it was my first horse ride along the beach and the views I saw were amazing but I will not be getting on any horse in the near future. The rest of our weekend was relaxed and very nice and we were able to explore Castro, a town close by. To sum it up, the experience was great and I was so happy to see Chiloe, it truly is a beautiful island.