Tantauco Park

Tantauco covers around a hundred and eighteen thousand hectares of southern Chiloe - evergreen forest, peat bog, lakes and an undeveloped coast - bought in 2005 by Sebastian Pinera, then a businessman and later twice president of Chile, and run as a private conservation park. It protects habitat for the Darwin's fox and holds a reintroduction programme for the huemul, and the trekking network includes a multi-day route down to Caleta Inio on the southern coast. Access is deliberately limited and registration is required. Pinera died in a helicopter crash in 2024 near Lago Ranco; the park continues under its foundation.

Background

Tantauco is a private reserve of 1,180 km2 at the south end of Chiloé Island, set up in 2005 to protect 118,000 hectares of the region's ecosystem, and it is run by the foundation Fundación Cultura y Sociedad, formerly Fundación Futuro. Visitors can stay at two campgrounds and walk a 150 km network of trails through nearly untouched Valdivian temperate rainforest. About 2,500 mm of rain falls each year. Endangered species here include the Guaitecas cypress, the huillín otter, the Chilote fox and, offshore, the blue whale.

Source: Wikipedia, "Tantauco Park"

The landscape

• A hundred and eighteen thousand hectares - forest, bog and undeveloped coast.
• Bought privately in 2005 - by a businessman who twice became president.
• Darwin's fox and huemul work - protection and reintroduction programmes.
• A multi-day route to the south coast - ending at Caleta Inio.

When to go

December to March. Several days.

Things to know

Registration is required and numbers on the trails are capped. This is among the wettest country in Chile - rain, mud and bog on every route. Refuges are basic and must be booked. The southern sector needs a boat or a flight.

Nearby

Quellon is east; Chiloe national park is up the western coast.

Key facts