CHILOÉ CHILE

Chiloé is a large island in an archipelago off Chile’s west coast. (Did we mention that Chile has a very long coast??) Castro, the island's main city, is a charming little place with houses built on stilts and churches with VERY crowded cemeteries. You’ll read a bit about the churches in tomorrow’s homily. The historian on board has told a disturbing story of how the (16th C) Spanish conquistadors decimated (more than decimated: reduced by 95%) the population with guns and germs; Jesuit missionaries followed with their church construction plan. Chiloé’s economy then prospered with a rich lumber industry, almost gone through deforestation. Now every inch of coast is peppered with small brightly colored plastic floats, signs of burgeoning salmon and mussel farms. Some of the mussels are bright orange and the size of your hand, they say. So watch out.

Her's another story of the excellent Chilean immigration officials. Jude Deveraux (novelist) was ahead of us in the line to enter. An official took a photo of each of us as we presented our vaccination certificate and affidavit (creepy); another singled Jude out and told her to wipe her mouth. Jude expressed her confusion about what to do; the official got very angry and demonstrated nose blowing. Jude blew her nose. She was then removed from the line and another PCR test was done (this would be the 10th for ship's passengers). This makes no sense because PCR results take time and we were back on the ship before results could have been reported. But then lots of things don't make sense here. Our next onboard Covid test is tomorrow (our 11th).

We chose to dine at the Pool Grill, where we cooked gorgeous beef on hot rocks (500 degrees) brought to the table. Now on to the Chilean fjords.

XXOO Bill and Hope