Peguins, Otters and a rush for the boat

Sunset on Chiloe, doesn´t it make our car look pretty?
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We headed off to puerto montt with the intention of getting a ferry to chaiten, further south down the careterra austral.  However the ferries were booked up until next week but we got a spot on the ferry leaving from Quellon on the island of chiloe for midday the next day.  A word about the company that runs these ferries - navierra Austral -they are really bad at customer service, they don´t answer the phone or emails, they don´t update the timetable on their website nd apparently if you do get through to them they say that they need 48hrs to confirm whether there is space or not.  best to visit the office if you can.

Arriving back on the mainland, note height fans jamie has grown a lot this past year
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Anyway this meant we had to drive the length of Chiloe.  We decided to do this tomorrow and spend the night in Ancud in the north of the island.  This was partly so we could take a boat trip to a penguin colony on the Islotes de Puñihuil.  we went with some fishermen and saw humboldt and magellanic penguins (apparently- i couldn´t tell the difference) three types of cormorants (ditto, although some did have red feet), pelicans and sea otters.

we went with some fishermen and saw humboldt and magellanic penguins (apparently- i couldn´t tell the difference) three types of cormorants (ditto, although some did have red feet), pelicans and sea otters.

The drive to the ferry at Quellon was a little frantic as we got stuck behind some lorries and were running out of time, what we saw of the island through the windows looked pretty and pastoral, but not overly dramatic.   the ferry ride was 6hrs and went quite quickly - don´t pay the extra for a better seat, the normal ones are fine.  we drove through chaiten to get some miles on the clock and stopped at a cabaña by the side of the road -pretty basic and not cheap, a gringo tax methinks.  but we weren´t there long.