Week 8 and 9: Traveling to Tenaun

30 Sec. Update: The last two weeks have been two of the busiest and eventful weeks during my time in Chile and I have been struggling to find time to write. Last week I traveled south thirteen hours by bus to Chiloe, an archipelago in Northern Pagagonia that is only accessible by ferry. Because of its physical separation from Chile, for hundreds of years the island remained culturally isolated developing its own distinctive food and traditions. For three days days, I explored the archipelago sampling its unique seafood dishes and wooden architecture. Traveling to Chiloe made me acutely aware that my time in Chile is half-way over and my uncertainty about I'm going to extend my stay. I have a lot of thinking to do before my next post.

Only in the “Skinny One” (Border Hold-Up): My original plan this weekend was NOT to go to Chiloe. I had planned to go to Bariloche a beautiful lakefront town high up in the Andes on the border between Chile and Argentina, but fate had a different plan for me. At the end of a 10 hour bus journey to the border, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that having a US Passport and Chilean Visa was not enough to cross the border, but in fact I needed a Chilean government-issued ID card.

Maybe I should have just offered a bribe, but after pleading for any possible alternative and making desperate phone calls to my host-family and field director, I was abandoned at the border by the bus company. Stuck within 100 yards of Argentina gave me lots of time to think about the artificiality of national borders and who holds the right to cross them. Before this moment, I had so easily crossed borders without thinking of the privileges embodied in a passport. Yet here I held a US passport, permission and an endorsement from the wealthiest and most-powerful country in the world, and I still could not cross the border into Argentina. Eventually, I decided that larger forces were at work and I was not supposed to leave Chile yet. After another 4 hour bus ride away from the nearest bus hub, I regrouped and decided to head further south to Chiloe.

Chasing Chiloe: Despite being first colonized by Spain in 1567, due to the channel of water separating the island from the mainland and its heavy rainfall year-round, Chiloe has maintained a distinctive wood-inspired architectural style, an active folklore of witches and demons, and a lush green landscape. In modernity, the Chilean government has constructed an elaborate series of ferries and roads connecting the islands to the mainland and bringing with rapid development of the islands and tourism.

Traveling to Chiloe in early-September (at the end of Chile's winter) is the island's low-season. This was apparent everywhere I went. I only saw a half-dozen other foreigners the entire time I was traversing the islands. Every bus I rode was full of only Chilotes (the people of Chiloe) and I was often the only person staying at my hostals. I ate in world-famous restaurants and I would be the sole patron (in case you were wondering, the service still moved at a snail's pace). Traveling off-peak was a unique opportunity to see the day-to-day life in Chile before the flood of tourists in the summer months.

Most of Chiloe's food is inspired by the oceans that surrounds the islands. The most popular dish is Curanto, a seafood and meat stew that is prepared in a pit of coals in dug into the ground. I sampled Curanto at several of the towns that I visited. When served, it greets the eye as a mountain of oysters, clams, chicken, lamb, and beef with sides of potato cakes and gravy. Finishing an entire plate of Curanto is no small feat, it is customary to start eating the terrestrial meat first and then move on to the shellfish. The gravy serves as way to “re-heat” any of the meat that starts to get cold as you devour the piles of meat. Not exactly vegetarian fare.

Chiloe is most-famous for its distinctive churches with their tall narrow towers, brilliant colors, and unique wood construction techniques which utilizes wooden pegs instead of nails. Inspired by the pictures of the churches I saw in my guidebooks, my mission during my time in Chiloe was to see as many of the churches as I could. Over the course of the three days I traveled to 6 towns in 72 hours.

Tenaun, My El Dorado: Tenaun was my El Dorado during my travels to Chiloe. Having seen pictures of Tenaun's striking blue church in guidebooks, Tenaun was the place that first captured my imagination and drew me to Chiloe. A beach town of less than 500 people, Tenaun is located in a remote region of the island so naturally I had to find a way to see its iconic church.

Getting to Tenaun was a journey in itself. Despite consulting a bus driver who repeatedly assured me that the bus I was boarding was going to Tenaun, I later found out that the bus I had been riding on was in fact NOT going to Tenaun. Dropped off at a desolate intersection with nothing but my backpack, I was pointed in the direction of Tenaun by the bus driver and started walking. Standing at the intersection, I noticed a car coming down the road headed in the same direction so I hitched a ride. After about ten minutes, I was dropped off in a small landlocked town that couldn't have had more than a hundred people with no brilliant blue church in sight (i.e. NOT Tenaun).

The sun was shining and the sky was clear, so I figured that I would laugh off my situation and I continued walking towards where I hoped I would find Tenaun. Eventually after twenty minutes of walking a dusty bus came rambling down the road with a sign labeled Tenaun. This was the bus that I was supposed to catch back at the bus station. I hopped on board and completed my final leg of my journey. It had taken me two buses, a short hike, and hitched ride to get to Tenaun, but somehow I made it. The last stretch of road to Tenaun was a bumpy steep dirt pitch that came down out of the hills and I was rewarded with a stunning view of the church that I traveled so far to see.

The adventure didn't end upon my arrival though. Finding a place to stay or even a place to eat in a town of 500 people during the off-season is no easy task. After I snapped a few pictures of the church I began the walk down town's “main street” and found that all of the restaurants and hostals were closed for the season. A small corner market was open so I asked if there was any place to eat and I was given the address down the street of a residence that sometimes serves food. I knocked on the door and was promptly told that they didn't have any food to serve. After I pleaded a bit (I had practice from my experience at the Argentinian border), I was told that I could eat lunch with the family. The family seemed to like me and was interested to hear my stories about life in the United States, so I decided to push my luck a little further to ask if they had an extra bed for the night. And that is how I ended up living for a day with a family in Tenaun.

Epiphanies while Traveling: Maybe it was being abandoned by a bus driver in the middle of an intersection in rural Chiloe or views of snow-capped volcanoes driving down the Pan-American highway or maybe it is simply my growing love for an awkward looking country that I used to know nothing about, but at some moment during my recent travels I realized that I'm not ready to leave Chile any time soon. I realized that I need this country as much as much as I've lead myself to believe that my students need me.

I have approval from the Chilean government to stay a semester through the end of June but I still have a lot of thinking to do before I sign the dotted line. Would I move to another part of Chile, such as the arid Northern-most desserts or the isolated Southern-Patagonian colonies? Or would I stick with the community and the family that I love so dearly? Or maybe by November I will be ready to return to my actual family and the life waiting for me back in California? This past weekend marked the half-way point of my time in Chile and I am not quite ready to break-up with the country that I am so enamored with.