San Juan is a tiny village on a sheltered inlet on the east coast of Chiloé, the big green island off the coast of southern Chile, and its wooden church stands right by the water, painted white with a tall tower, looking out over the boats moored in the channel. It is one of the sixteen Churches of Chiloé on the World Heritage list, a unique school of wooden architecture that grew out of the Jesuit missions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and was continued by the Franciscans and the islanders themselves. The churches were built by local carpenters using native woods, with techniques borrowed from boat building, and many of them are covered in wooden shingles. Inside, the vaulted ceilings often look like the hull of an upturned ship.
Chiloé has its own culture, distinct from mainland Chile, with myths of witches, ghost ships and forest spirits, such as the Trauco and the Pincoya, and a tradition of community work called minga, in which neighbours help each other, sometimes even moving entire houses across the land or the water with oxen and boats. The landscape is soft and green, with rolling hills, patches of native forest, pastures and fjords, and it rains a lot, in every season.
To reach the island, you take a ferry across the Chacao channel from Pargua, a short crossing with frequent departures, often with dolphins in the water. The Pan-American highway, Route 5, runs down the middle of the island from Ancud to Castro and on to Quellón, where it ends. The road to Dalcahue and San Juan branches off towards the east coast, winding through hills and villages, paved on the main routes, with gravel on the side roads. Rain, wind and mud are constant companions, and the roads can be slippery, so good waterproofs are essential.
Dalcahue, about thirteen kilometres away, is a small town with fuel, shops and a famous Sunday market of crafts and food, and Castro, the island's capital, has the palafitos, wooden houses on stilts over the water, and everything you need. Try curanto, the traditional dish of Chiloé, in which seafood, meat, potatoes and dumplings are cooked in a pit in the ground, covered with nalca leaves and heated with hot stones, a feast for many people.