Castro, Chile, South America

I arrived in Puerto Montt after a nice twelve hour bus ride. I think I got 3-4 hours of sleep, so I’m pretty happy with that. I got into the main bus terminal at 9:30am and found the next bus heading to Castro on Chiloe at 10:45am. There’s not much gong on in the bus terminal, so I just sat around and waited there. The next four hour bus ride proved to be so much worse than the twelve hour one had been. A woman sat next to me with her four year old son on her lap. This kid was so annoying. He cried really loudly for the first hour, and then continued to kick and flail for the next three hours while his mom held him in place. I wouldn’t have cared except for the fact that he kept kicking and smacking me, and the mother didn’t care at all! I think she was just happy that he wasn’t kicking her as much.

It was an absolutely miserable ride, but I managed to get to Castro without killing the kid or the mother, so I think I deserve a big pat on the back for that. I saw my hostel while the bus was pulling into the station, and it is a two minute walk from the bus terminal. I love it when that happens. The hostel is more of a house than a hostel, but it’s pretty nice. I have a really tiny room to myself, it can barely fit the twin bed in it, but at least I don’t have to share. The woman that runs it is this lovely little old granny who greeted me with a big hug and kiss on the cheek. It feels like I have just arrived at grandma’s house and I’ve been given the spare room for the night.

The one thing that really surprises me about this place is how good the internet is here. I saw a billboard on my way into Castro saying that they have fibre optic internet here, and it must be true. It is lightning fast! It’s definitely a good thing to have here, because there is nearly nothing to do in this town. It turns out there’s really not much to do on this island, so I’m just going to relax and enjoy my time here.

I went out for dinner at a place near the main square and had a pretty good pizza. I met a traveling couple from Switzerland and talked to them for about an hour. Philip and Fabian are in their first month of traveling out of six, so I was able to give them some recommendations on what to see on their way north. They were very nice. I had a quick walk around town after dinner to see that there was nothing to see, and now I’m back at the hostel. I’m using the time and the awesome internet to catch up on some phone calls and tv shows that I’ve not had time for in the last couple of weeks. I think tomorrow is going to be another quiet day, but I’m very okay with that.