Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilo%C3%A9_Island
奇洛埃島（Isla de Chiloé），又名大奇洛埃島（Isla Grande de Chiloé），是智利中南部奇洛埃群島中最大島嶼，屬湖大區奇洛埃省，面積8394平方公里，人口154,775人（2002年）。首府卡斯特羅市，位於該島東岸。該島北隔查考海峽與大陸相望，東為科爾科瓦多灣，南為喬諾斯群島。 據考證，奇洛埃島為馬鈴薯的主要原產地之一。https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/奇洛埃岛
網上參考書: https://archive.org/details/ChiloeASeparateWorld
延伸閱讀: 奇洛埃島不願和智利一體化 http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_b96391280102yvy2.html
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以下圖片請注意用的樹葉為 giant rhubarb 大黃 or Chilean rhubarb:
大葉蟻塔（Gunnera manicata），又名巨人大黃（源自英語：Brazilian giant-rhubarb/giant rhubarb），是洋二仙草屬的一種植物，原產於巴西馬爾山脈附近地區。它是一種有著巨大葉子的常綠草本植物，高可達2.5公尺（8.2英尺）至4公尺（13英尺），葉子直徑可達4英尺（120公分），植株整體覆蓋面積達9平方公尺（97平方英尺）。葉子底部和莖上有刺，開紅綠色小花，結的果子也很小。 它可作爲觀賞植物種植，亦曾獲皇家園藝學會金獎，但在寒冷地帶種植的話冬天就會枯萎。雖然又叫做巨人大黃，但它實際和大黃並沒有什麽親緣關係。這是一種極其古老的植物，歷史可追溯至1.5億年前。在其原產地，它會被用來治療性感染疾病。(轉載自維基百科)
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圖文轉載自: https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/pgx8nv/curanto-is-a-chilean-meat-feast-cooked-in-a-dirt-pit
Curanto is a Chilean Meat Feast Cooked in a Dirt Pit
I broke vegetarianism to revel in 'curanto,' a Chilean feast of meats, seafood, and potato dumplings wrapped in leaves and cooked in a fire pit.
Chiloé is an archipelago of lush islands off the southwestern coast of Chile with a history as dense and volatile as its cloud patterns. I am traveling to the north shore of Isla Grande on a mission to try curanto, a traditional dish wherein red meat, seafood, and potatoes are cooked underground in a wood-fire pit coated with leaves. The Lonely Planet calls it "Chiloé's gastronomic bombshell," which, after trying it myself, I will confirm. It is a bombshell, indeed.
After a weeklong scavenger hunt looking for a person or place that would cook up the stuff, I enlist the help of my hostel staff and land upon a friendly-seeming home restaurant in Ancud: El Meson Chilote.
Luis Melipichun Avendaño, my soon-to-be culinary spirit guide, greets me one Sunday morning with a firm handshake and a head covered in ash. I catch him in the midst of stage one of the curanto process: firing up the stone-filled pit using flaming chunks of wood. (The word "curanto," after all, translates to "hot rock.")
Within seconds Luis is adding an onslaught of new ingredients: chicken breasts, slabs of pork, and (gasp!) strings of chorizo. His approach is loose, admirably casual, and involves zero utensils or timers. Atop this assemblage of meat and seafood, Luis places a damp towel.
Then come the potato dumplings. Pre-rolled gobs of milcao and chapalele dough—made of potatoes, flour, and water—are plucked from a tray and added to the food heap. Luis pats them down with his bare hands, covering them with another towel. In a snap, he has tugged at the all-encompassing nalca leaves and the whole chabang is wrapped. It looks like a funny vegetal knapsack. It should be noted that this whole process has taken Luis a remarkable one to two minutes to complete—and he is doling out a history lesson about languages spoken on Chiloé all the while.
The last step involves rectangular pieces of tierra—literally, earth—that are thrown onto the pit, trapping any escaping smoke and insulating all the ingredients. The smell is absolutely acrid. If a copywriter were to describe this odor and translate into a marketable scent, it would go something like "Herby Earth Funk" or "Muskier Than Thou Musk."
Reading my mind, Luis asks if I want to step outside for a breath of fresh air. We walk to the lakeside (which is literally 20 steps from the curanto den) to admire the swimming ducks and his neighbors' lumberyards. Live ducks hardly seem like a sight to see after witnessing such diversified animal carnage, but happy with this change of environment and the oxygen upgrade, I indulge.
Luis then serves up some meaty historical bits, which I find as layered and difficult to digest as the meal itself. For the sake of brevity, I direct questions to Luis's background: his father's side is Chono and his mother's is Portuguese. When I ask if he speaks Portuguese though, he laughs, saying that that was too many generation ago to count. Still, he identifies strongly with both sides.
Since the process of making curanto results in an absurd amount of food, a large group is typically required for the full demonstration. So, the week leading up to this event, I had become a sort of curanto evangelist, trying (usually in vain) to convince other backpackers to join me on this epic culinary adventure. And as testament to my lackluster persuasion skills, the eating buddy I end up with came by his own volition.
After learning that I've been vegetarian for six-odd years and that I was raised in a Jewish family that kept kosher, he starts calling me a curanto-vore. I like this—it absolves me of any moral or religious guilt—and I decide he is a fantastic carnivorous cohort.
I start the meal with chicken. It acts like a gateway meat, guiding my way to more unfamiliar terrain. It slips right of the bone and the texture is familiar, which is comforting. With each sliced-off niblet I gain more confidence, and eventually I endeavor into the land of chorizo, pork, clams, and mussels. My partner-in-curanto is gleefully enjoying his pork and glancing at the bounty of shells in front of us.
Two generous portions of clams and mussels are doled out to us, and if I wasn't overwhelmed before, I certainly am now. But then I discover how fun it is to crack open the shells and dissect their insides. I start pretending I'm Amelie, taking joy in each crack of the creme brulée—err, sea meat—and the contrast of textures is wondrous.
The insides of the clams are charred (which I initially took for its natural coloring.) Surprisingly, I enjoy the mussels most, finding them a light antidote to the other, heartier foods in this dish. The texture of the mussels is almost like a duck pâté.
At first the potatoes—papas nativas—seem unnecessary, but soon I find them to be a much-needed palate cleanser. They effectively balance out the conflicting meat flavors on my tongue, and for this, I am grateful. The potatoes themselves have a storied history—in the 19th century, following the Chilean War of Independence from Spain, there was wide-sweeping poverty and a dramatic flour shortage. To feed their families, Chilota women invented a new bread that required little flour and a plethora of potatoes: hence the birth of chapalele and milcao dumplings.
On my last afternoon in Ancud, I walk to an amazing vista with 360 degree views. To the north, I can make out an ominous-looking gray cloud, which my cohort confirms is the recently-erupted volcano Calbulco. In the other direction I see little trails of smoke billowing out from the countryside. I imagine someone, somewhere, is cooking up a curanto.
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智利希望中国公司参与承建查考跨海大桥
2012年07月27日 轉載自: http://finance.sina.com.cn/world/20120727/163812691576.shtml
新华网圣地亚哥7月26日电(记者赵燕燕)智利政府26日表示，希望中国建筑(5.770,0.13,2.30%)公司能够参与修建智利南部奇洛埃岛查考海峡跨海大桥。
智利公共工程部当天说，中国对修建此类大桥具有丰富的经验和技术优势，他们已向中国建筑公司发出用于投标和建设查考大桥的技术资料。智利公共工程部部长劳伦塞·戈尔沃内不久也将率团前往中国考察类似项目。
智利公共工程部还表示，用于建设查考大桥的资金将为政府直接投资，国家将支付修建跨海大桥的所有费用，因此大桥建成后的运营不会采取城市公路项目中采取的让渡特许经营权的方式。
为了纪念智利独立200周年，智利政府计划修建一座横跨查考海峡、连接奇洛埃岛和智利大陆的桥梁，并拟将其命名为“两百周年”，整个项目双向三车道全长2.6公里，总投资约7.4亿美元。
根据预定计划，2012年8月初将开始第一阶段项目工程设计和施工招标资格预审，然后开始进行工程招标，2014年将最终确定中标公司，2015年中标公司将开始施工，预计工程2019年完工并交付使用。
