Friday April 6th, 2012

Lucky for us, the last few days have been lovely. The suns been shining and the weather has been exceptionally warm, considering we are very close to winter. Today however, the skies have turned and the cold is being alittle unkind.

My uncle and Aunt, were off work as it being Good Friday, so they decided it would be a good day to take us on a drive to the fishing towns of Mehuin and Queule to eat some seafood!!!

Mehuin is a small fishing village and is home to a small fish market. There are also a few restaurants that sell many popular seafood dishes and empanadas de marisco (seafood empanadas- yum, yum, yum!!!)

In 1960 Queule, a tiny beach town in the South of Chile was victim to a Tsunami. My dad was 14 years old and remembered hearing about the panic that everyone experience. In more recent times, on February 27th 2010, the people of Queule, unfortunately, had to go through another Tsunami, which did alot of damage to their village.

The drive took us about 2 hours and when we got there, it was packed with tourists looking for a feed and locals selling their stock. I can imagine on a bright, sunny day that it would be quite picturesque, but the cold and fog today, weren't doing us any favours. We looked through the fish markets to see what their most popular catch was of the day was. I could see alot of salmon. And BIG ones.

We soon found a little restaurant hidden between the market stalls and was absolutely packed. We managed to scramble onto a long wooden table and we soon had the young waiter boy bring us a basket of empanadas de marisco. Along with our meal, he brought us a bottle of 1.5L coke and 4 glasses to pour our drinks into. The empanadas de marisco were very delicious. It was my first time trying this type of empanada and I tell you what, I would totally recommend it if you like seafood.

Mehuin

After lunch, we headed back to the car, where there was a family of dogs hanging around. Mama had her pup, which resembled Monty (then again I just say all dogs resemble my pup Monty) following her around, so I dug into my backpack and found a muesli bar. I broke it into tiny pieces and fed it to them. Atleast they'd be getting a small bite to eat today. It just breaks my heart to see so many strays.

Puppy Monty

The town of Queule is only about a 30 minute drive from Mehuin and is a long stretch of beach. My cousin Pilar who lives in Santiago, is from the area and comes here often to holiday with her family. It is a very cutesy town with little beach cabins only the coast. There are Tsunami warning signs everywhere and I can see why. There is nothing to protect this village when a massive wave hits them. All they can do is listen out for the warning sirens and run/ drive up the hills to safety.

Tsunami Warning!!!

Buildings of Queule

Buildings of Queule

My relos tell me just how busy it gets here in summer. Tourists have to book months in advance to secure a holiday cabin or a camping space and alot of locals open up food stalls to make some serious business. Seeing as it's winter now and the coast is quite foggy, it's hard to see the attraction, but I am assured, when summer hits, it's hard to even walk because of the masses of people that visit this part of Chile.

San Pedro- The Saint that protects the Fishermen

Town of Queule

Queule

Queule

Queule

Catching fish in a bottle

On the otherside of the beach, there is a small fishing port, where we stopped before making our way back home to Loncoche. There were a couple of families spending their relaxing Friday afternoon catching fish or just walking around taking in the view. The area is worth a drive by visit... and to stock up on seafood empanadas
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Good Friday Empanadas- Mehuin and Queule remains copyright of the author Two Otters, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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