Chiloé

Chiloé feels detached from the rest of Chile, and islanders will tell you it is. Cut off by water and wrapped in cloud for much of the year, it developed its own architecture, cuisine and folklore. Sixteen wooden churches built by Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries carry a joint UNESCO listing, constructed entirely of native timber using shipbuilding techniques, with shingled walls and vaulted interiors that look like upturned hulls. Along the waterfronts at Castro stand palafitos, houses on stilts over the tidal channel, painted in colours that survive the grey. The island's signature dish, curanto, is cooked in a pit with hot stones under leaves. Local myth is taken seriously enough to be printed on maps: the Trauco, the Pincoya, the ghost ship Caleuche.

What you actually see

• The wooden churches - the UNESCO-listed shingle churches at Castro, Achao, Dalcahue and elsewhere.
• Palafitos of Castro - stilt houses over the tidal channel, several now guesthouses.
• Chiloé National Park - temperate rainforest and long empty Pacific beaches on the west coast.
• A curanto - the pit-cooked shellfish, meat and potato feast, best arranged locally.

When to go

December to March is the southern summer and the only reliably drier window; even then, rain is a fixture. Winter is dark, wet and much quieter, which some travellers prefer. Ferries run year-round but the crossing gets rough.

Honest expectations

It rains a great deal, and visitors expecting Patagonian sunshine are often surprised by weeks of grey. Distances on the island are longer than the map suggests and buses are slow, so a rental car helps. Several of the sixteen churches are far apart and a few are only reachable by boat, so pick three or four rather than attempting the set.

Nearby

Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas are on the mainland; the Carretera Austral starts south.