Puerto Montt y Isla de Chiloe, 20-24 Septiembre.

From Pucon we headed south to Puerto Montt. We travelled on the final day of the bicentenary celebrations which turns out was a full recovery day for the Chileans, arriving to a city shutdown. Thankfully we had a bag of cornflakes with us that served as a delightful dinner for two that night.

Puerto Montt is the original ‘end of the road’ for most land-based travel in Chile to Patagonia; and now serves as the official gateway south. Our time here gave us a breather from snow-capped Andes and lakes (not that we are sick if them!). 

Puerto Montt



Artisan markets



Palafitos - seafood markets and restaurants.




Elvis and his lady - Puerto Montt waterfront.


We had 4 days in the area so decided to jump on a bus, which drove onto a ferry, which took us to the neighbouring island of Chiloe. The second largest island in South America, Chiloe is known for its Unesco heritage listed timber churches, and seafood. Staying in a small town called Castro our time was thus spent looking at warped timber structures and sampling the local pescado and mariscos – shellfish & fish.

Puerto Montt and Chiloe although now based around the Fishing industry (mainly salmon); the economy was originally based around larch (type of timber) production which explained an inherent and almost religious devotion to the timber shingle.

Isla de Chiloe was a very unique place but unfortunately we didn’t have the time to do it properly. It is the first area that we have found to be very run down and dirty - compared with what we have seen so far.


Iglesia San Francisco de Castro - Plaza de Armas.

Iglesia de Nercon - One of the 16 famous timber churches on the Island.

Residential Palafitos

Curanto - a traditional dish of shellfish, chicken, pork, chorizo, potato, potato bread and onion cooked underground wrapped in leaf. Deliciously ugly!!

Most sealed roads on the Chilean side of the Andes heading south end here – so in order to catch the Chilean fiord's and thousands of islands, we booked the Navimag ferry – a four day 1000km trip south.