Chile Forum

Yeh, whoever suggested Quellon to you was setting you up, I think the best parts of Chiloe are around Dalcahue and the Island of Quinchao.

You have seen a bit of Chile most Chileans will never see and all will want to talk to you about.

Believe it or not...Quellón has one redeeming establishment!! Marco and I were forced to go find lunch somewhere in town because the hotel was only serving dinner tonight and nothing else. So we asked the receptionist if there was any place in particular that she recommended. She suggested that we go to restaurant near the bay called Tierra del Fuego. So we called a taxi and amazingly...a clean nicely-kept cab shows up to pick us up!! We asked him about the restaurant and even he said it was one of the best restaurants in town.



So I had ordered the Salmón con Salsa Margherita con Papas Duquesa (little balls of fried mashed potatoes stuffed with cheese)....this dish was awesome!! Except...I can see why you say that they eat sand here. The Salsa Margherita had clams in it...and the clams obviously weren't cleaned properly because you could taste the bits of sand in them....it wasn't much...but it was definitely noticeable. And the salmon was seasoned just right...and, thankfully, it was cooked throroughly...but it wasn't filleted properly because I was having to pull out bones as I was eating it. Otherwise...it was a pretty good dish that had some decent flavor to it.


as well as Palta Reina...which was Palta (avocado) stuffed with chicken in a mayonnaise dressing. It wasn't bad for being a simple dish....and the mayo wasn't overdone!


Marco had ordered Machas a la Parmesana (Clams covered with Parmesan cheese). He said they were really good...but he had the same experience as me...with the sand. I tried one and they did taste pretty good...but a little on the tough side. They were over-steamed.


I guess for anyone who comes to visit Quellón or who has visited Quellón in the past...I would suggest definitely trying this place and see for yourself. Oh...and the dishes were reasonably priced for the quality of the food. About $19,000 pesos for both Marco and I...that was for the 3 dishes shown above, an extra order of the Papas Dequesa, a Pisco Sour, and 2 bebidas. The thing I like seeing is that it was moderately busy with customers and they also have a hotel above the restaurant. There were many guests coming in and out of the building, which is more than what the Patagonia Insular has at the moment. I would assume that maybe this place would be a better place to stay...it was clean...the service was good...and it was right in front of the bay...and in a good central location with the rest of the city.

It was still freakin difficult to get a taxi on the way back to the hotel though. Damn taxis.

nwdiver wrote:Yeh, whoever suggested Quellon to you was setting you up, I think the best parts of Chiloe are around Dalcahue and the Island of Quinchao.

You have seen a bit of Chile most Chileans will never see and all will want to talk to you about.

Well...technically...no one suggested it. My boyfriend had bought discounted rooms from places that he found on Groupon. He got douped on Quellón because if you go to Patagonia Insular Hotel's website, they have a link to their picture galleries. One of the galleries shows pictures of the town from a pleasant perspective. Boy did those pictures lie!! But we're learning our lessons. The whole trip was a surprise to me. At first, all I knew was that we were going to the south and he was handling all the details. I didn't find out until after 3 days on our trip, while we were staying in Frutillar, that he had gotten the hotel deals on Groupon.

So first lesson learned....just because a cheap hotel room is being offered on Groupon...don't buy it until you've seen other offers and checked out other places in the area. Especially be sure to check out your surroundings and places of attraction. And be sure to plan out ahead as to how you're going to get there. Marco and I have been winging the whole transportation thing the entire way down here. So far we've been pretty lucky...but if I had made the choice to come down here by myself, I would've planned ahead to know how am I going to get from Point A to Point B.

Also, I told Marco that next time, we are just going to stay in one city for a week and visit. I love that I've been able to visit 3 different places in southern Chile, but I wish I had more time to spend in each. Especially in the Frutillar area. I know I definately want to go back to visit Valdivia. We had passed thru there and much of it reminded me of where I live in Louisiana, with the huge exception of the mountains in the background!! And I also would've loved to have visited in Puerto Varas which was highly recommended to us by several people. Anyway....that's all.

The traffic you saw around the in-town hotel maybe because its the day before the ferry arrives and leaves, the population has an upswing on those days. Quellon (sorry no accent) is famous for its carvers, look around.

nwdiver wrote:. Quellon (sorry no accent)

Here, I'll let you use some of mine. Keep them in a safe place.

á é í ó ú

Marco and I just left the hotel and got a ride to the bus terminal here in Quellón by none other than Osama bin Laden himself!! The U.S. Government has lied to us again!! Osama is alive and well and is making a living as a taxi driver in Quellón!!

Weird, I saw Bin Laden selling some cheap toys in Buenos Aires this weekend.

.
Wrong. Osama is working as a sous-chef in a picada in Matamoros.

Well the man did get around pretty fast in the Middle East...maybe he does the same here in South America!