The Island of Chiloe, South of Puerto Montt

Chiloé Island is the largest island of the Chiloé Archipelago, off the west coast of Southern Chile, in the Pacific 

The landscape of the northeastern sectors of Chiloé Island is dominated by rolling hills with a mosaic of pastures, forests and cultivated fields. While the western shores are rocky and relatively straight, the eastern and northern shores contain many inlets, bays and peninsulas, and it is here where all towns and cities lie.

Chiloé's history began with the arrival of its first human inhabitants more than 7,000 years ago. When the Spanish conquistadores arrived on Chiloé Island in the 16th century, the island was inhabited by the Chono, Huilliche and Cunco peoples. In 1558, Spanish soldier García Hurtado de Mendoza began an expedition which would culminate in the Chiloé archipelago being claimed for the Spanish crown. The island was originally called New Galicia by the Spanish discoverers, but this name did not stick and the name Chiloé, meaning "place of seagulls" in the Huilliche language, was given to the island.

Castro is famous for its palafitos, traditional wooden stilt houses which were common in many places in Chiloé. Some of them are preserved in the west of the town in a bay called Fiordo de Castro. 

Jesuit missionaries to Chiloé Island, charged with the evangelization of the local population arrived on Chiloé at the turn of the 17th century and built a number of chapels throughout the archipelago. 

By 1767 there were already 79 chapels and today more than 150 wooden churches built in traditional style can be found on the islands, many of these declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Following the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, the Franciscans assumed responsibility for the religious mission to Chiloé from 1771.

Click => here to see the next blog of Southern Chile:

"Drive the magnificent Carretera Austral"