PERFECT ISLANDS
OPOPULATION 160,000
OSIZE 3,241 square miles
Chiloé, it’s often said, is an
island whose character was
inherited from surrounding seas
rather than from the Chilean
mainland: be it through the
fishermen who set out on foggy
mornings to bring home a catch
to make curanto (seafood and
meat steam-cooked over hot
rocks) or the Magellanic and
Humboldt penguins that squint
out to sea from the western
coast. A blustery, green land
that looks not unlike Wales,
Chiloé’s architecture looks like
nothing else in South America,
with its villages of palafitos (stilt
houses, pictured) and WorldHeritage-listed churches, built
wholly from timber, which
creaks sonorously in the Pacific
wind. Among them are the
extroverted church of San
Francisco de Castro, painted
in a curious colour scheme of
mustard yellow and purple,
and the rather more sober 18th-
century Santa Maria de Loreto,
held together by wooden pegs.
OGETTING THERE From Singapore,
fly Air France to Chile's Santiago via
Paris. From Kuala Lumpur, fly Malaysia
Airlines via Sydney, Australia. LAN
flies onwards to Chiloé's Castro
airport (from US$270; lan.com).
Chiloé is also an hour’s drive from
Puerto Montt followed by a short
ferry crossing.Best for Culture
CHILOÉ, CHILE
PHOTOGRAPHS: JULIEN BOÉ/500PX, MICHELE FALZONE/AWL IMAGES, UGO MELLONE/SIME/4CORNERS