The reviews of Chiloe intrigued us - the island which evolved for centuries isolated from mainland Chile, had developed a strong, self-reliant culture, rich in folklore, mythology and tradition. Having both read Bruce Chatwin´s ``In Patagonia`` we were also more than a little intrigued, plus a little disgusted, by his account of Chilote witchcraft and the invunche...
In the Chilote folklore, the Invunche is a legendary monster that protects the entrance to a warlock's cave. According to legend, the Invunche was a male child kidnapped by, or sold by his parents to a Brujo chilote (a type of warlock of Chiloé). The Brujo chilote transformed the child into a deformed hairy monster by breaking his legs and twisting them over his back, applying a magic cream over the boy's back to cause thick hairs and, finally splitting his tongue to produce a forked, snake-like, tongue.
We had to go and check the place out!
We read about a hostel in Chonchi in a little booklet about Chile, it sounded lovely:
Rustic and on the sea front
Wild garden
Owner hosts fish suppers and gives tours of his sea food farm
Homemade breakfasts
So we decided to head straight for Chonchi rather than spend any time in Castro, the capital.
The journey from the terminal to Chonchi was beautiful - wild flowers adding patches of yellow to fields of lush green, sparkling water and clear blue, cloudless skies.
When we got to Chonchi we made our way to the hostel, stepping over a old man sprawled in the street who had obviously had a little too much of the local brew. Esmeralda By The Sea looked a little tired when we arrived but the owner swept us in and told us about the local witch down the road who has ten dogs and sets them on people (mental note - do not walk down to the end of the beach). He then proceeded to bombard us with information and tell us about a friend of his who claims their friend was killed by a witch. I was starting to feel a little spooked and wasnt really paying attention to our surroundings and lodgings. So we found oursleves signed up to two nights in a place that can only be described as a dump!
The `wild` garden would be more aptly described as ``over grown`` and ``unkempt``, the toilets were dirty (I had to clean them with my facial wipes!) the shower was a make shift dark thing (it did have hot water which was a bonus), there was no mention of breakfast but there was a dirty kitchen. There were no trips to the owner`s farm and the walls were papper thin so you could hear every conversation, cough and sigh which meant that sleeping wasnt easy. Why did we stay two nights? I really dont know!!!
The saving grace was the resturant round the corner - huge helpings of amazing fish and chips and salad for next to nothing.
Yum!
The first night I didnt sleep well, and it wasnt because of the loud Germans next door, the dogs were going crazy, they were howling for ages and then I was convinced the witch from down the road was below our window. My imagination was in overdrive and I couldnt stop thinking about the descriptions in Chatwin`s book.
The next day we decided we`d try and go fishing. The owner reccommended a lake so off we trotted. On the bus there was a really old woman who I couldnt stop stealing glances at, her grey hair was in long plaits, she had whiskers on her chin (she put Tim`s beard to shame). Her face and hands were weather beaten and lined, she was missing a lot of teeth and she was all in black... I was convinced she was a witch. She got off at a little narrow lane that led to a small house, not somewhere I was going to be visiting in a hurry!
The bus dropped us at the park entrance but when we got to the gate we found it closed and locked. Having got this far we decided to jump over the side and enter the park. It was deathly quiet and a bit spooky and there was no sign of a lake. We walked for about an hour and still didnt find a fishing lake, we did find another lake but there was no way of accessing it. Throughly fed up at having wasted most of the day we made our way back to the entrance and found a map in the deserted office, which also had a dead bird in it, that showed there were two lakes in the park, we realised we must have been dropped off at totally the wrong entrance!
View of the lake we did manage to find
View of the bay
Chonchi has a huge mussel industry
Our hostel, Esmeralda By The Sea - described as wild and rustic we thought it sounded authenic but the reality was unkempt and dirty. I wish we had read this review before...
