A long weekend on the Pacific Coast, on a little rural island with breaking surf, fishing villages and outstanding food, was just what the doctor ordered.

It rains three-quarters of the time on Isla Grande de Chiloe, just off the coast of Puerto Montt, a good 7-hour drive from here. But if we hadn’t known that, we’d be thinking this was one heck of a sunny little isle. The light was lovely for the photo-geeks. The rays were strong for those wanting a tan. And everything oozed summer relax.

First, we headed straight across the ferry to a little-known outpost rumoured to have the best oysters in these parts. I’d say they were the best oysters on the continent, less than 15 minutes out of the water. Fresh, chunky, flavourful.

“The best of my life,” one member of our grupito declared.

Then we continued on to the rugged coast of Parque Nacional Chiloe. There, we frolicked on the beach, hiked, explored thick forests and had some truly spectacular - spectacularly simple in fact - grilled corvina and salmon. Paired with an easy Sauvignon Blanc, a lush green avocado-heaven salad and some aji pebre (Chile’s national ’salsa’), it was balance and bliss on a simple little table.

“I’m in my own personal heaven,” said a mate about the meal, and she’s based in Europe most of the year.

While the lodging situation was, well, not ideal, the scene in the tiny village of Cucao was full of positives. We walked home under the stars, dancing on the bridge to the meringue coming out of the local town hall, where a wedding was being celebrated.

Cucao’s seafood empanadas were stunningly yummy (noticing a pattern here?). So good, in fact, we went back twice and on the second visit the nearly iliterate touthless man who fried them up in a little shack next to the estuary wrote out the recipe on a paper napkin. That’s for the record books.

After more beach roaming, surf watching, wind blowing and that real sense of escape and relaxation a big wide open ocean can only provide, we went back to ‘civilization’.

Castro, the largest town on Chiloe, has unique buildings called palafitos that were built on stilts over the tide, allowing fishermen to tie their boats to the stilts. A few are now gentrified. We spent the night at a gorgeous little inn inside an old palafito.

Before sleep, of course, we went hunting for gastronomic heaven.

In Castro, we turned left just behind a tacky tourist trap, walked to the back of the parking lot and into a simple galpon (garage-like structure) to find a huge pile of seafood cooking under leaves - curanto a la hoya.

Wow, the mussels, clams and oysters tasted like none we’d had before. The chorizo sausage and roasted pork were equally smokey and earthy. We ordered another round. We washed it down with una cerveza Escudo and toasted our grand fortune.

And now, back on the other side of the Andes to Bariloche where an asado awaits tonight.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 3:14 pm and is filed under A life of adventure, Chile, Comida + Vino: Food + Wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.