Chiloé is an island of rain, wood and faith, lying off the coast of southern Chile across the narrow Chacao channel, and its wooden churches are its great treasure. Built by island carpenters following a tradition introduced by Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and continued by Franciscans, they combine European church forms with local shipbuilding skills, using native timbers and covering the walls with overlapping wooden shingles called tejuelas. Sixteen of them were listed by UNESCO in 2000, and the church of Santa María de Rilán is one of them. It stands on the Rilán peninsula, east of Castro, facing a quiet inlet, its tall tower and painted wooden facade rising above the low houses and green fields of the village.
The churches were built by the communities themselves, through the minga, a tradition of collective work in which neighbours help each other with big tasks, from harvesting potatoes to moving entire houses across the land or water on rollers and boats. Inside, the churches are often painted in bright colours, with vaulted ceilings resembling the inverted hulls of boats, and statues of saints carved by local artisans.
The landscape of Chiloé is soft and green, with rolling hills, patchwork fields, forests and countless inlets and islands. It rains a lot, sometimes for days on end, and the weather changes constantly. The island is famous for its potatoes, with hundreds of native varieties, and for curanto, a feast of shellfish, meat, potatoes and dumplings cooked in a pit over hot stones and covered with leaves.
Getting to Chiloé means taking the ferry from Pargua on the mainland to Chacao, a short crossing with frequent departures. From there, Ruta 5, the Pan-American Highway, runs south through Ancud to Castro, the island's capital, where houses on stilts, the palafitos, line the waterfront. The road to Rilán leaves Castro and runs east across the peninsula, partly on gravel, through farmland and forest. Expect wet, slippery surfaces, mud and potholes, and watch for dogs, cattle and sheep. Castro, thirteen kilometres off, is the place to fill the tank; Dalcahue, with its Sunday market, is also nearby. Bring good rain gear; you will need it.