Thanks for visiting from LinkedIn. Most sites, including this one, may not display properly inside the LinkedIn app. For the best experience, tap the three dots in the top right corner of your screen and choose “Open in Browser.” ~ Jason | Big World Made Small
▶
Tap to access the full episode Then press play to listen.

Episode #35: Cyril Christensen

Director

Chiloe Natural

Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast Cover Art
Download Cover Art to Share

Follow, Rate, or Provide a Testimonial

Guest Bio

Cyril Christensen, originally from Santiago, Chile, is the Director of Chiloe Natural, a premier tour operator specializing in immersive and sustainable nature and cultural private tours in the Chiloé archipelago. With a background in forestry and experience as a Park Ranger for the Chilean Forest Service, Cyril has dedicated over a decade to showcasing the unique beauty and biodiversity of Chiloé. His commitment to conservation and exploration has positioned Chiloe Natural as a leader in responsible tourism in the region.

Show Summary

In this episode, Cyril Christensen shares his journey from working as a Park Ranger to founding Chiloe Natural. He discusses the rich cultural heritage and natural landscapes of the Chiloé archipelago, the importance of sustainable tourism practices, and his dedication to providing authentic experiences that connect travelers with the wonders of the natural and cultural world. Cyril also reflects on the challenges and rewards of operating a tour company focused on conservation and community engagement.

Key Takeaways

  • ✓ Sustainable Tourism: Implementing eco-friendly and community-centric practices is essential for preserving natural habitats and supporting local cultures.
  • ✓ Cultural Preservation: Engaging with and promoting local traditions enriches the travel experience and ensures the longevity of cultural heritage.
  • ✓ Authentic Experiences: Providing genuine and immersive tours fosters deeper connections between travelers and destinations.
  • ✓ Conservation Efforts: Active involvement in environmental preservation is crucial for maintaining biodiversity and natural beauty.
  • ✓ Community Engagement: Collaborating with local communities enhances tourism offerings and supports regional development.

What You’ll Find on Chiloe Natural’s Platform

  • ✓ Nature Tours: Explorations of forests, oceans, fjords, rivers, and lakes, offering a deep connection with Chiloé’s diverse ecosystems.
  • ✓ Church Routes: Guided visits to UNESCO World Heritage wooden churches, showcasing the region’s unique architectural heritage.
  • ✓ Special Interest Activities: Tailored experiences such as birdwatching, kayaking, photography, horseback riding, cooking classes, and knife forging.
  • ✓ Multi-Day Tours: Customized programs that allow travelers to choose their own adventures, ensuring a personalized experience.
  • ✓ Scientific Tourism: Opportunities to engage in educational and research-focused tours, promoting a deeper understanding of the natural world.

👉 Visit Chiloe Natural’s Official Website to explore their offerings and learn more about Cyril Christensen’s contributions to sustainable tourism in Chiloé.

Learn more about Chiloe Natural and connect with Cyril at:

https://www.chiloenatural.com/

Big World Made Small guest features are invitation-only and selected based on story, experience, and fit with the show. Guest support helps make the episode possible, but it does not determine who is featured. This helps keep the show free of third-party ads and interruptions while keeping the focus on real, story-driven conversations.

Guest access: enter your password to unlock your resources.

Guest & Partner Resources (Private)

Thank you Cyril, for being a Podcast Guest with us.

We’d love to have you join us at the next level and get even more out of your appearance on the Big World Made Small Podcast.

Below you will find access to tools to help you promote your episode and get the most from your partnership benefits. This section is only visible when you use the link we sent, or by entering the password BWMS8873. Do not share the email we sent, or the password, unless you want the person to access the following resources.

Follow, Rate, or Provide a Testimonial

Please use this tracking link to share with your audience:
https://bigworldmadesmall.com/guest/cyril-christensen/?ref=guest8873

Cover Art

This is available to all podcast guests.

Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast Cover Art

Download the file to use on your website or social media posts.

Download Cover Art to Share

Buzzsprout Audio Player

This is available to all podcast guests.

This is the best option for website embeds, especially prior to the release date. Guests can listen to your episode on your website. This player keeps listeners on your site, which is why I use it.

Use this code to embed your Buzzsprout Player directly on your website:

<div id="buzzsprout-player-14731123"></div><script src="https://www.buzzsprout.com/2216718/episodes/14731123-adventure-travel-with-cyril-christensen-chiloe-natural.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-14731123&player=small" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>

Full-Length YouTube Video Player

This is available to Base Camp, Expedition, and Summit Partners.

Upgrade to unlock these benefits.

45 Minute One-on-One Website Review

This is available to Base Camp, Expedition, and Summit Partners.

Upgrade to unlock these benefits.

Big World Made Small Podcast Pitch Portal©

This is available to Expedition & Summit Partners.

Upgrade to unlock these benefits.

All Video & Audio Files with Rights to Repurpose

This is available to Expedition and Summit Partners.

Upgrade to unlock these benefits.

45 Minute Content Strategy Session

This is available to Expedition and Summit Partners.

Upgrade to unlock these benefits.

Custom Branded Video Clips (12 clips)

This is available to Summit Partners.

Upgrade to unlock these benefits.

2 x 45 Minute Digital Marketing Strategy Sessions

This is available to Summit Partners.

Upgrade to unlock these benefits.

Review & Suggest Topic Tags

Review Episode Topics

Suggestions only

These topic suggestions help keep this episode profile accurate and easier to find. Your suggestions will be reviewed before any changes are made.

Select up to 8 topic tags.
Suggested new topics will not be added automatically. They will be reviewed first.

Podcast Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.

So we’re here with Cyril Christensen. We’re here with Cyril Christensen with Chiloe Natural. I’m kind of giggling a little bit here because I, for those of you listening, that was about the third or fourth take before I got it right. So anyway, hey Cyril, so happy to have you here on the show today. It’s just a great honor. I’ve been in your neck of the woods. I have not been on Chiloe Island. So I look forward to hearing about that, but.

Also wanna just jump in and learn a little bit about you. So welcome to the show, Cyril. Thank you, Jason. I’m also very, very happy to be on the show. Well, Cyril, so you know how when you’re out with your clients and you’re out doing this stuff and you guys sit down and have this conversation maybe around the campfire, dinner, stuff like that, and people are always asking you all those questions? Oh yeah, in general, it’s that way. We usually sit down during,

of dinner time or sometimes as you say, in a campfire sharing a glass of wine. And yeah, basically that’s when our experiences get more personal and we kind of share not only about Chilue and the destination, but in general life. Yeah, so that’s really what we’re doing here today. We’re just gonna have that conversation and I’m so happy that you are here to be a part of it.

Let’s start with the first question. I know everybody always asks, how did you get into this? Well, I was raised by my parents who really enjoyed traveling. So we did a lot of traveling and traveling is always a very, very nice experience and get to know other cultures and other people. And…

Jason Elkins (02:55.278)
Yeah, until the day I kind of fell in love with the island of Chiloé. I’m originally from Santiago, the Chile, from the capital of Chile. And we just kind of settled there with Macarena, my wife. And I said, well, if I enjoy so much traveling, I might as well kind of interpret the island and show it to our fellow travelers that come visit. Very cool. Did your parents have a connection with Chiloé or did you visit Chiloé as a child or?

How did you end up on Chile? Well, I’ll try to make it really, really short, but it’s a long story. We used to do a lot of camping as a family. And once in the south of Chile, we got this huge storm, a five day storm. And basically we ended up soaked with basically sleeping bags and tents. I’m talking about this old tents that the Canadian type that were

built Nadell in Canvas. So my mom actually said, okay, this is the last year we’re camping. And my dad said, you know, next year we could actually rent a little cabin on the island of Chiloe. And we actually arrived to this bay called Kaulin and my dad just fell in love with the place. And he said, this is the place I want to retire and have my bones buried here. And –

And yeah, and we started, I was 12 years old. The first time we arrived to Chiloe with my family, we rented this little cabin. And as I say, my dad just fell in love with the place and he started looking for a piece of land to buy. It took him two years to actually buy land in Chiloe. And yeah, we made it our vacation home. My dad worked as a psychologist in a school in Santiago.

So we had long vacations. We pretty much had two, three months vacation and we would just kind of disappear to Chiloe. All that time we would spend Christmas there. And yeah, basically we started kind of falling in love with the island and it became, end of the day, it became kind of the headquarters to the family. It would be the place where we would get together with cousins, with…

Jason Elkins (05:19.914)
with the people who we love the most, we would get together there and yeah, Chilue became our vacation home at first. And then later in life, it became kind of our permanent residence. Very cool. I get that. And I might be wrong. I’ve been to the area. You don’t get snowstorms like that on Chilue, do you?

No, no, we don’t. So that’s the other reason. The snow, I think that made an impact on both. Oh, definitely. It wasn’t snow, but it was a lot of rain that actually kind of kicked us out from that camping site and on the Lake District in Chile. That was Lago Ranco in that area. But yeah, we do get a lot of rain. I usually.

You see the amount of rain we get in Chilue, we get about 2 ,400 millimeters of rain a year. You’ll have to do the, you know, we use the metric system down here. And for you to get an idea, Seattle gets about 800 millimeters of rain or precipitation. So we actually get three times more rain than Seattle. So it can get quite rainy on the island. Is that.

typically a seasonal thing. So somebody listening to this right now that’s like, oh, I’d love to go to Chile and maybe visit, but I really don’t like the rain. What would you, how do you advise them? Oh, definitely seasonal. I mean, we can get rain throughout the year. I mean, year round, but yeah, I mean, in general in our winter, which would be June, July, August is the rainiest time of the year.

but January, February, actually the weather is quite nice. Okay, and are you able to run your tours year round? Do people come in during your winter? What does that look like? Well, it’s quite seasonal. Chilue tourism in Chilue is very, very seasonal. And in general, we now we’re working throughout the year.

Jason Elkins (07:30.83)
but we also like taking long vacations and we have this little cabin in Ecuador where am I at this moment. And yeah, our idea is to really work hard during the high season and pretty much escape the Chilote winter for three, four months when it’s pouring cats and dogs. Okay, so you don’t even want to be there at that time. I got that.

So maybe I should have brought this up sooner because I’m sure there’s other people out there listening that are like, Chiloé. Okay, Chiloé, they made the connection. They saw something in the show notes before they listen to this call. But so when you bump into someone at an airport or you’re out doing your thing and you tell someone about Chiloé and they say, where is that? How do you describe that? What’s the easiest way to describe where that is to help people kind of get a picture? Because this is a podcast.

So we can’t show a map or anything, but what do you think? How do you describe where it’s at? Yeah, we can’t show a map, but if you’ve seen a map of Chile, you know it’s a very, very long and thin country. And you see that the further south you go, the coast starts to crumble. And basically, the island of Chile is that big island where the coast starts to crumble.

It’s considered to be the gateway to the Chilean Patagonia. So if you see this, as I say, this is a very, very long map and you see the bigger island where the fjords and canals start appearing. Chilue is that big island. It’s actually an archipelago. It’s a big island and with 40 smaller islands on the east side of the island. Wow. And that, and correct me if I’m wrong, that’s considered, you’re still considered northern Patagonia.

you have actually understood the Gateway to Patagonia, is that correct? Yes, well, you know, Patagonia is such a strong name. Everybody wants to be part of Patagonia. Actually, people in the South of Santiago call themselves the Gateway to Patagonia. But everybody’s. Yeah, everybody. I mean, it’s such a strong name that actually and it sells really, really well. So.

Jason Elkins (09:48.91)
But geographically, I would say that Patagonia in Chile starts, as I say, where the coast starts to crumble. So with the island of Chiloé. And you just kind of, I guess it would be southwest of Portamont. That’s what I’m trying to Yeah, yeah. Actually, just southwest. Yeah, south. It’s directly south from Portamont.

You can fly directly into Chiloé, is that correct? Or do most people fly into Portamonte and make their way over? Or what is, if somebody wanted to go there, what would that look like? Well, actually we have direct flights today from Santiago to Chiloé and connectivity has been much, much better now than what it used to be when we started going there some 30, some years ago. But yeah, actually we do have two low cost airlines and Latam is also,

Well, was flying until August 1st and they’re reviewing the possibility of flying back to Chiloé. But actually it’s an hour and a half flight from Santiago. Okay, all right, gotcha. And when I was in the area, I did something interesting and I wonder, it seems like it would tie in fairly well with what you’re doing. If someone wanted to come spend some time on Chiloé, was the Lake District crossing?

was kind of an interesting thing, you know, from Bariloche over to Port of Montes. It’s a bigger boat. It’s not maybe the most authentic adventure, but it has beautiful scenery. And it’s one thing you can do is, you know, if you’re over in Northern Patagonia and Argentina, to take that Lake Bistro crossing over and then, you know, meet up with you guys over in Chiloac, right? What do you think of that? I mean…

Most likely, actually we do get a lot of guests coming from Argentina through the Lake crossing from Bariloche to Puerto Montt, specifically the Petro Hue area. And yeah, they would arrive to Puerto Montt or Puerto Varas. And we can also arrange picking them up in the mainland in Puerto Montt or Puerto Varas and driving them to Chilue. Okay, all right. And the reason I bring that up is,

Jason Elkins (12:06.798)
I think maybe there’s some people out there that have a little bit more awareness of, you know, maybe they’ve heard of that Lake District crossing or they’ve heard of Fort Domblant. Maybe they’re going down there for something else and they really just aren’t that familiar with Chiloé. So the point being that I think it’s just a fascinating area with so many things to see and do. And we’re going to get really specific about Chiloé here in just a second. But before we jump into that.

I want to ask you, so as a tour guide, as a tour operator, what is it you enjoy the most about the people connection? What is like, what do you like about that?

Well, it’s actually the kind of knowing people from all over the world. Once I was asked if I don’t get kind of bored of pretty much guiding all of these tours and they’re pretty much all the same and every time and I repeat myself so many times, but I always see it as it’s always a new experience because I’m never telling the same person.

the story. So yeah, but and usually we try to kind of connect and kind of connect the dots and see, okay, what’s similar if our guests are from the UK or from South Africa or the US or wherever they’re from, kind of to connect the story and how geography and everything. So yeah, it’s always a learning experience.

both for our visitors and as well for us tour guides. Yeah, I’ve always felt that a lot of the people that go do trips like this, they’re not necessarily going for the mountain, the river, maybe the island. It really is about connection, shared experiences. And whether you’re sharing that with someone in your family or you’re sharing that with a local guide or a local family.

Jason Elkins (14:10.798)
That’s what’s great about this is you can just go really connect with people in beautiful places. Maybe sometimes it’s the river or the mountain or the island that’s the excuse for taking the trip. But like I personally, I wouldn’t want to go anywhere if there was nobody there. I mean, it could be amazingly beautiful, but if I didn’t have the opportunity to connect with with locals or to share the experience with somebody, it’s just, that’s a whole different thing. So, so I get that part of, you know, yeah, it’s, it’s you’ve been on that.

you’ve been to that place many times, but you haven’t been on that trip or that tour with the person that’s in front of you. It’s experiencing it for the first time. And to share that, to see that excitement in their eyes or the awe when they see some amazing bird or do something, I get that. That’s very, very cool. Now flip side of that, what’s the part you don’t like? What’s the part that maybe people don’t realize is going on behind the scenes?

What’s the part, because most jobs have some sort of something that you could do, you know, take it or leave it. So what is that for you? Yeah, well, in general, it’s, I mean, we put so much passion sometimes in our experiences and in our tours that, yeah, when you see that people aren’t really interested or sometimes kind of they say, yeah, they don’t actually realize that Chilue is full, it has so many things. So,

the history, the nature, the adventure. And yeah, I always talk about this wow moments or wow places where you arrive in a place and you actually say, wow, I mean, it’s amazing. This church was fully built in wood without nails at first. And yeah, and some people say, well, churches, you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. And then, yeah, that’s sometimes a bit disappointing.

Oh, but yeah, actually, that’s the fewer times and mostly I really enjoy, but yeah, it’s sometimes with the lack of interest or the lack of passion. And maybe it’s my fault being so passionate on what I do that I expect everybody coming here to be as passionate as I am. Well, so that answer just really gave me insight into you as a person and as a guide.

Jason Elkins (16:35.662)
Right? Cause you care. That’s the thing. You care. You really want your clients to have a good time. It’s not like, okay, I just want to get through the day, whether they enjoy it or not. We’re going from point A to point B. And when you’re the type of person that just, you know, you want them to have a good time. You want to share these things with them. So every once in a while we get one that’s maybe just, I don’t know. I’m not going to make any disparaging remarks about anybody, but if a scenario like you just described, I see how that could be kind of a.

But that’s actually a really good reflection on you. So that’s pretty cool. Thank you. You mentioned churches and last time we spoke, you mentioned that the churches were part of it. There’s a lot of stuff, but you just mentioned it again. So tell me more about that. I’ve never been. So what is special about the churches on Chilue Island? Well, Chilue has over 60 wooden churches. At one stage, there were over 100.

churches scattered throughout the archipelago. 16 of which of these churches have been declared World Heritage by UNESCO the year 2000. So it’s pretty amazing. And it’s not only the wooden building that some are really, really nice. And I invite everybody to kind of look into the UNESCO churches. But it’s also the relation that they still have with the community. I mean, the church is…

Still, this wooden church, some have been built 100 or more than 100 years ago, and they’re still part of the community. They will offer services every Sunday or every other Sunday, depending on the availability of a priest. But actually, it is kind of the religious culture. And basically, if I go kind of back to that,

The churches were built by the Jesuits when they came in with the Spanish conquistadores. And they, because the weather was so hideous, they could actually do their mission, what they called the circular mission, throughout the archipelago only in summertime, because in winter they couldn’t sail around. So the best way to kind of keep their mission going throughout the years was building a church and leaving.

Jason Elkins (18:58.638)
local in charge of the church until next year when they came back and continue kind of their mission. They would stay two or three days in one place, kind of left everything working and okay with a local person and then they would come back the next year. That makes perfect sense. So, this gentleman…

still predominantly Catholic. I know most of Latin America is, but I’m curious, are there any other churches or any other religious heritage there in the area that’s significant? Well, yeah, I would say that 95 % of the local community in Chilue is Roman Catholic and they’re very, very Catholic, especially the kind of the older generations. There’s a lot of religious festivities also that are

also quite interesting if you get a chance of being here when one of them is happening, where as I say, these churches are scattered throughout the archipelago. So they will actually sail to the smaller islands and take out their saints and dress them in different robes. And it is pretty amazing to see how traditions that have been going on for centuries are still alive on the island. You know, I find it

very fascinating, I have spent quite a bit of time in South America and Central America. And one thing that people might not realize, if you grew up in the US, for example, and you maybe never left the US or you have maybe you’ve traveled to Europe, but if you haven’t been to Latin America, this to hear us talking about Catholic Church, honestly, like.

There might be some people tuning in right now. They’re like, well, why would I go all the way there to see anything related to the Catholic Church? I’ve got one down the street. But I’ll tell you, it’s different in the Latin world. And I have seen things that just like these are Catholic processions down the street, around the church, all these things going on that like I never saw growing up in the US. And it’s fascinating. It really is. So I can only imagine that on Chinoahe, you have similar types of things.

Jason Elkins (21:16.75)
And it’s just a different thing. So anybody that’s listening to this, even whether you’re interested in religion or not, it’s a cultural thing. Which leads me to another question is, because we’re talking about this and this is the Adventure Travel Podcast. So from your perspective, what do you think about the term adventure travel? What does that mean to you? And because I know you’re a member of the Adventure Travel Trade Association.

We are. You consider yourself an adventure tour operator, correct? Definitely. Yeah. So tell me what’s your angle on it? How do you describe it and how do you envision the people, like your clients, your ideal clients when it comes to being adventure travelers or whatever kind of tourists you would perceive them as? Well, actually, when I travel myself, I always see it as an adventure.

even if it’s a bird watching tour, or if it’s basically sightseeing, or it’s always going to be an adventure. As I was saying, we used to go to Chilue since I was 12 years old, very, very, and the adventure, we would actually take the train down to Puerto Montt and then drive to Chilue when the train actually went all the way to Puerto Montt. And yeah, the adventure started in Santiago getting on that

train, it took us a day and a night to get down there. So yeah, I mean, adventure is such a wide concept that actually a cooking class can be an adventure or just kind of a sunset is also an adventure. As you mentioned, we are members of ATTA, the Adventure Travel Trade Association. And we do offer,

Lots of adventures in Chilue, and as I say, from cooking classes to sightseeing, we have a knife forging class as well. So yeah, we try to make every experience and every traveler that comes to Chilue kind of remember those books as when we were kids, or when we were kids called Choose Your Own Adventure. We pretty much do something like that. We try to tailor our

Jason Elkins (23:37.518)
experiences to make them an adventure. I mean, everybody kind of travels to have something to take back home and what better than a whole new adventure. You don’t have to like climb Kilimanjaro or go wingsuiting in Switzerland or whatever to be an adventure traveler. Absolutely. I agree with you completely. I actually think it’s, you know, the two requirements in my mind that make you an adventure traveler.

are one is just the ability to get out of your comfort zone a little bit. And two is just curiosity. If you can do those two things, there’s all kinds of adventures to be had regardless of where it is, like a cooking class on Chilo Way, that sounds awesome. And going paragliding somewhere sounds awesome as well. So it’s a great combination. So tell us about a few other things that people might not be aware of.

when it comes to Chiloé, so they can kind of get some ideas of other things that they can do while they’re there as well. Well, Chiloé has a little of everything. Historically, it’s quite interesting. It was the last stronghold of the Spanish Empire when actually Chiloé became independent later than the rest of Chile. Chile became independent in 1818 and Chiloé was still part of the crown.

until 1824. So, yeah, it historically is quite interesting. It has a couple of forts and canyons you can see around some of the most important cities. But also nature. And again, it’s the gateway to Patagonia. It’s an island and you know how islands are. Time is so much different in…

On islands. So yeah, everything’s kind of laid back there. And there’s talking about a cooking class. There’s a typical dish in Chiloe called Kuranto, which is actually shellfish and different kinds of meats cooked over hot stones. Think of a clam bake, but or a hangi in New Zealand. Pretty much Chiloe has its own version of this pit bake.

Jason Elkins (25:59.502)
And that is also quite interesting in seeing the culinary side of Chiloe. And obviously being an island and being an archipelago, having a protected side, we do a lot of kayaking there. Horseback riding is also quite nice. Yeah, but pretty much there’s an adventure for anyone in Chiloe, for everyone and anyone. I’m curious because I have gone snorkeling there.

in the area? It was cold. The water was cold. So I’m curious, is that something people do on Chilo A or is that just, I was with an operation that it was kind of a one -off weird thing. I don’t think it was a normal thing to do. It was cold. So I’m curious, is that something people do on Chilo A? Is that something you do or what? Yeah, we don’t go snorkeling as you say. It’s, or…

scuba diving and even though there’s a huge muscle industry there and there’s a lot of divers who work there. You have to think though the coast of Chile in general and specifically the island of Chile is influenced by the Humboldt current which is a cold current that pretty much bathes the whole coast of Chile up to Peru and Ecuador. So water is pretty cold.

making it also a great advantage to have really, really good shellfish and seafood. So yeah, instead of snorkeling and we tried to focus on – We stay on top of the kayak? Yeah, absolutely. And having this good shellfish and maritime life, it is quite nice to go to a restaurant and have mussels and abalones.

And yeah, fish, I mean, eating in Chilue is also an adventure itself. You’d mentioned American animals, wildlife, and I know that there’s some interesting animals, mammals that come by the area. I’m not sure if that’s something you’re able to share with your guests, but you’ve got whales sometimes, right? And then obviously you’ve got like sea lions, which I enjoy. I loved kayaking with the sea lions. I thought that was pretty cool.

Jason Elkins (28:19.438)
Yeah, well, actually we get a lot of requests about offering well watching tours. And the thing is, Wales are resident here in Tulu. It’s not a migratory route like you see here in Ecuador and or in the West Coast and in the States, where you can actually, you know, that at a certain time of the year, Wales will be migrating there.

You can see whales here, but you are so big that they could be here one day and be gone the next day. So you don’t want to plan a tour around that. Absolutely. Yeah. We can’t really offer people up to be disappointed in this. Yeah. So we usually offer kind of maritime life and pelagic birds where we will go see penguins and.

I don’t know, albatrosses and yeah, but kind of pelagic birds. Maybe if you see a whale, you if you see a whale, it’s going to be the cherry on the cake. Yeah, I remember one trip I was on down there. I think we spent two, three full days on one of those rubber -flated boats just bouncing around on the water looking for whales.

Jason Elkins (29:34.446)
The group I went back with a client. We had a helicopter come pick us out. I went back with the client and then the rest of the group saw the whales about 30 minutes after she and she and I had had left. So so I do understand that it’s maybe not something you want to count on, but it’s still pretty cool. So yeah, it’s it’s a beautiful area. Is there anything that that we have forgotten? Oh, you know what? Like how about this? The people that come down maybe.

Let’s just say first time to Chile. What do you think they should know? Is there any like that they might not expect any tips or tricks or whatever to help people kind of acclimate to Chile and kind of get their heads around it that you wish that they maybe, maybe you sent a trip planner to them, but they missed make part. They didn’t read it very thorough. Cause if they’re like me, that could happen. So what do you want people to know about your area before they come?

Well, you can see Chile on the map and it is a very, very long country. We have the driest desert in the north of Chile and it could run down all the way to Antarctica. So, yeah, weather can be very, very tricky when traveling throughout Chile. The three main destinations or what people, guests will come and visit Chile are, well, obviously the vineyards and the kind of central area.

San Pedro de Atacama in the north, which is an oasis in the Atacama desert, and then Torres del Paine in the heart of Patagonia, very, very down south. So yeah, Chilue is pretty much in the middle between Santiago and Torres del Paine. So why not stop in Chilue and make a visit to Chilue on your way to San Pedro, or in your way, I mean to Torres del Paine, or on your way back to…

to Santiago, it is right there. But usually the main recommendation I do kind of for people to pack and visit Chile is basically dress up in layers. It can get very, very hot and very, very cold, especially in the North of Chile or in the desert. But yeah, always be prepared. We always say be prepared for the best.

Jason Elkins (31:57.358)
I mean, I’m sorry, expect. Oh, I can’t really remember those quotes, but it hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst because the weather is it can be very, very temperamental. Is there anything that people should know about? There’s a I cannot think of the name of it, but in the Lake District, there is an insect that shows up. I believe it was February.

but I don’t know if you get them there. Do you know what I’m talking about? I cannot remember the name of it, but it’s annoying. Oh, well, it’s a kind of a horse fly. We call them poliwachos or… Yeah, it’s like a horse fly and they can be really, really annoying. I mean, they’re usually close to the water and Chilue being an island, so pretty much… Okay, as you have them there. They’re everywhere. Yeah, they can be quite annoying. The good thing is the last four…

10 days or 15 days, two weeks. And the same way they arrived, they will disappear. And after those two weeks. But yeah, I’ve had to cancel kayaking trips because of how annoying they can be. I mean, they won’t let you paddle or, but yeah, it’s part of nature. I mean, I’m in Ecuador at this moment and I’m fighting mosquitoes all day long because I’ve been all over.

by mosquitoes. It’s part of the nature. They were here much before we were. So yeah, basically we have to cope with nature as well. And I’d heard that sometimes just the color of clothing you wear can make a difference. So if somebody is coming and has a conversation with you, I’m sure you can discuss the likelihood of that being an issue. Because if their timing is right, it won’t.

It really matter, but if they are coming during that time, I remember there were some suggestions about, I think it was don’t wear blue. Yeah, usually dark colors, blue, black. They really tend to go, be attracted to those colors. I always say if you happen to be in Chilue when the Discoli Huachos are around, wear white and light colors.

Jason Elkins (34:21.582)
And silly, we joke about having our guides wear black. I was just going to ask you, I was like, you make an amazing guide, wear a dark blue shirt to make sure all the bugs come to you instead of your clients. That’s, yeah, I like that. Very cool. All right. Well, I, wait, is there anything else you want to touch on? Just great conversation. I feel like there, we could go a bunch of different directions.

But I think you’ve given a great recap of that, kind of giving people an idea of kind of where your passion and personality lies. And that’s kind of the goal. So anything you’d like to add that you’d like people to know about. No, as I said before, I mean, if you are traveling to Chile and probably your destinations are going to be San Pedro de Atacama, Torres del Paine, Easter Island, maybe.

If you’re down here, you might as well give Chiloé a chance and see what it has to offer. We usually talk about the independent republic of Chiloé. There’s nothing like Chiloé and the rest of Chile. So if you come to Chiloé, it’s definitely going to be an experience by itself.

And Chilo is a place that somebody can just go on their own. They don’t need a tour. They can book flight and find a place to stay. So it’s completely accessible to maybe the do -it -yourselfers. But then if you’ve got somebody that’s kind of a do -it -yourselfer, they can still reach out to you to set up some tours and trips and stuff like that. Oh, sure. And we can put together maybe a self -guided trip. We can arrange also their car rental and basically have someone just give them the keys to a car and…

and they can drive at their own pace throughout the island and see what the highlights are. So yeah, basically it’s no need to take a tour. I mean, obviously we would love to receive that, but actually, yeah, anyone can come and it’s pretty friendly, especially the rural areas of Chiloe.

Jason Elkins (36:39.374)
I always say stay away from kind of the urban areas because Chilue has been growing a lot, especially since the pandemic where a lot of Chileans realized that actually they could work from home and could, yeah, pretty much migrate from the larger cities. And a lot of people have come to live to Chilue. So yeah, the urban areas, we do get some traffic jams and they…

kind of the not nicest part of traveling or developing cities. Just a lot better, a lot of better other stuff. A lot of stuff that’s better to see. I can’t absolutely speak. Yeah. All right. And for somebody that speaks zero Spanish. Oh, you might as well. Yeah. Contact me. I mean, I can share my social media or.

our website. And yeah, if you contact us, all of our, our staff is bilingual. So yeah, we would love to help you even if you don’t book a tour, we would be glad to help you and show you. That’s very nice. That’s very nice. That’s a, that’s a very nice offer. So I’m going to have your website and details so people can connect with you and have that conversation and or whatever conversation, you know, you choose to have that’s a bit.

I think that they’ll be in very good hands, which is why I asked you to come on here. I’m just really impressed with what I’ve seen and heard about your organization, your operation, and look forward to meeting you myself at some point, hopefully in the near future. I’m headed back to South America actually this weekend. So I’ll have to swing by and check out CheetoE. So I’m super excited about that. So, well, Cyril, thank you so much for joining us today. And I’ll let you get back to, I think you were tracking down your bags because the airline left them. So I’ll…

or they didn’t make it with you. You can get back to work on that or whatever it was you’re doing. But it eventually will arrive. So that doesn’t happen on every trip in Chile? Your bags usually make it with you?

Jason Elkins (38:50.638)
No, no, no, no, no. It was actually flying from Chile to Ecuador. They actually arrived. Another guest just took them by mistake. So, I mean, took my bag by mistake. So it wasn’t even the airline’s fault. It was somebody who was just traveling and distracted and took a bag that was similar to his.

You need to put like my little pony stickers all over your suitcase or something. So nobody will want to touch it. Cyril, well, thank you so much. Send my regards to your wife and hopefully I’ll see you down in Chile soon. Absolutely. Thank you, Jason. It’s been great being on your show. Well, thank you so much. I’ll see you. Ciao. Hang on a sec. We ended. Let me stop the recording.

Return to Top of Page

all episodes
all episodes

Follow 205+ Leaders and the Stories That Shape the Adventure Travel World on the Big World Made Small Podcast

Access the stories here, or on your favorite platform; wherever you prefer.

Get Expert Interviews Delivered Directly to Your Inbox

Join the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast community and we’ll send you new podcast episodes weekly, and make sure you hear about exclusive and relevant opportunities that you won’t find elsewhere.