Castro's church is the first thing that makes visitors to Chiloé stop talking. San Francisco stands on the Plaza de Armas of the island's capital, a big building with a corrugated-metal skin painted in yellow and violet, two towers and a wooden interior that is mostly hand-cut native timber. It was built in the early twentieth century to replace an earlier church that burned, by an Italian architect, and it is one of the sixteen Chiloé churches that UNESCO listed in 2000. The rest are mostly smaller and older, scattered along the coast, built by Jesuit missionaries and their Chilote carpenters, who were boat builders first and used what they knew. If you tip your head back inside, the vaulted ceiling looks like an upturned hull.
Getting here is half the fun. The Panamericana, Route 5, comes south across the Chacao Channel by ferry, and the crossing takes about half an hour with dolphins sometimes alongside. From the ferry the road runs down the island through rolling green hills, pasture and small farms, with the odd flash of sea. It is open, windy and frequently wet, so pack proper waterproofs and expect gravel-edge surprises on some secondary roads. Chiloé's rain feels cooler and softer than it looks on the forecast, and the light afterwards, with steam off the tarmac and silver channels beyond the hedges, is why you carry a camera.
Castro itself is a proper town of around thirty thousand, with fuel stations, workshops, supermarkets and plenty of cafes. The old stilt houses, the palafitos, line the waterfront at the edge of the town, painted in bright colours and raised on poles above the tidal water. Look at them near high tide, when the sea is under the floorboards. For lunch, ask for curanto, the island's dish of shellfish, meat and potato cooked in a pit or a pot, a meal built for people who spent the day in cold weather.
Dalcahue and Chonchi, both a short ride away, have their own churches and markets, and you can easily spend a day looping between them. Put petrol in Castro in any case, since the southern part of the island thins out quickly. Keep an eye on the weather and give the church a proper half hour, and you will see why the island's carpenters are still famous.