Experience the best of Castro

Castro was founded in 1567 and stands on the east coast of Chiloé, on a narrow estuary where fishing boats and palafitos, rows of brightly painted houses on stilts, lean over the tidal flats. On the Plaza de Armas, the church of San Francisco, built in 1912, is one of the wooden churches of Chiloé inscribed as a World Heritage site, with a yellow and violet exterior of corrugated metal sheets and a wooden interior.

Across the island, villages such as Dalcahue and Achao, on Quinchao island, have more of the wooden churches, and Chiloé National Park, on the wild Pacific coast, has forest and dunes. Chiloé's folklore includes the Trauco, a small forest spirit, and the Caleuche, a ghost ship.

Curanto, a stew of shellfish, pork, chicken and potatoes, is traditionally steamed in a pit in the ground under leaves. Chiloé grows hundreds of native potato varieties, which are boiled, baked and made into breads. Rain is frequent all year, and summer is the driest and brightest season.