Bahía Inglesa

James >> The day began with a walk from our hostal, along the water front. We passed a group of gypsies living in their brightly coloured tents, then along a beach, which smelt... a little like burning rubber and a little like dead fish... We then found ourselves on the piers of Caldera. Initially they looked similar to anywhere else in the world (Kathryn strongly disagrees, the Chileans seem to paint their boats in colours as equally bright as their houses). But as we drew closer we saw men cutting up huge tuna, and other people bidding (we think) for the most recent chunk cut off, or maybe just buying it. Other tuna were going straight into a large refrigerated truck. The waste from the tuna was being hurled into the water to awaiting Sea Lions that were absolutely HUGE... at best guess 250kg! The dogs living at the pier were as equally delighted with the show from the sea lions and spent most of the time barking furiously... despite only being the equivilant of a bite size snack!
We then caught a taxi to Bahía Inglesa. The taxis here are of course a little different. Caldera being tiny (population 15 000... yeah okay, it's as big as Devonport) and a long way from anywhere, doesn't really have a lot of options for destinations, so all the Taxis seem to do

the same route. Essentially you jump into a taxi, and they will take you where you want to go for a set price. For instance from Caldera to Bahía Inglesa is $1000 clp ($2 aud) per person. Along the way, you can expect the driver to pick up anyone who hails the cab until it is full. If you are lucky you get to ride with small children who proceed to cover you with their milk when they get full...
Bahía Inglesa is supposedly a resort town in Chile (the Caribbian of Chile we were told), but because it's low season there was maybe 1 or 2 other people on the beach. We stopped for a drink that turned into lunch at a very good restaurant before walking along the beach, appreciating the strange smell and dipping our toes in the barely tolerable water. Thinking that we are about level with Brisbane we were expecting much warmer waters! We then headed along the foreshore, past the ever-present collectors of seaweed (still not sure what they do with it) to what we think was an abalone farm. Since we were stuck for a few days we thought we might do some diving. There are three operators in Bahía Inglesa; 1 never responded to my calls, 1 was closed for winter and the third sounded positive until eventually telling us the weather was too turbulent (must have been under the water).