Happy Sounds - A Nature Sounds Podcast

Midnight rain in Patagonia

11.01.2017 - By Zebediah RicePlay

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This rainy nighttime soundscape was captured from a balcony overlooking a small, protected bay on the eastern side of Chiloé Island just before midnight in late autumn. Chiloé Island sits at the northern end of the Patagonian Archipelago, which stretches south for another 1000-plus kilometers. Picturesque snow-covered volcanoes located on the mainlaind can be seen in the distance. The word Chiloé is from the indigenous Mapuche language and means "seagull place". You can hear the gulls off in the distance in an almost regular rhythm throughout this recording. It is a land of cheerfully painted houses, small fishing and farming villages tucked into the rolling green hills or nestled alongside the many little bays and harbors. The island is probably most famous for the hundreds of fastidiously constructed catholic churches built by the Spanish missionaries and conquistadores in the 16th Century. But it also has international recognition thanks to Charles Darwin’s six month stay on the island in 1834, for the fact that the type of potato that is most widely grown throughout the world is indigenous to the island, and its ignominious status as being near the epicenter, in 1960, for the largest earthquake ever recorded. As the rain changes in intensity over the course of the recording you can hear it bouncing off the house and swirling down the side of the building into the bogs and fields below. At times during the recording you can hear the rain really come down hard: even for Chiloé, it was a very wet night. It is a good recording to listen to if you need to drown out background noise during a meditation, studying, while trying to fall asleep or if you just feel like being transported to one of the more remote and beautiful corners of the planet. It is also a calming white noise for a massage session or while writing or reading or looking out the window of a plane or vehicle. If you do decide to visit the island, the Quilquico Hotel is beautiful. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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