Chile Guide
Chiloé
Parque Nacional Chiloé, sector Anay
Every summer, unperturbed by the infamously changeable weather along this particularly exposed stretch of seaboard, hordes of Chilean backpackers descend on PARQUE NACIONAL CHILOÉ, SECTOR ANAY (daily: Jan– Feb 9am–8pm; March– Dec 9am–1pm & 2–7pm; CH$1000; 
www.parquechiloe.com ), 45km southwest of Castro, keen to camp on its twenty kilometres of white-sand beach and to explore the dense forest. This section of the national park (the other is sector Chepu) covers 350 square kilometres of the Cordillera de Piuchen (Piuchen Range), rising up to 800m above sea level. It's reached by a 25-kilometre road that shoots west from a junction on the Panamericana, 20km south of Castro.
At the end of the road is the gateway to the park, the picturesque but ramshackle village of Cucao, dominated by water. Its few streets of tumbledown wooden huts are littered with whalebones, fishing floats and flotsam and jetsam from the Pacific.
Cucao's basic accommodation is in houses near a bridge: La Paloma (no phone; Price: CH$5000-10000) has floor space that you can sleep on, a garden in which you can camp, hot showers and a communal kitchen. Just across the river is the German-owned Parador Darwin
(closed June & July; messages 
65/6333040, www.cucao.cl ; Price: CH$10000-15000) with attractive cabaña rooms and a small restaurant serving goulash, cakes, fish and clams. A little further up the road is El Fogon de Cucao ( 09/9465685, 
elfogondecucao@hotmail.com; Price: CH$15000-25000), a pleasant bed and breakfast that also organizes horse-riding and trekking expeditions. It has a separate restaurant, overlooking the waterfront, which is open to anyone. Out of season, the best place to stay is Hospedaje Paraíso ( 09/2965465; Price: CH$5000-10000), when the snug little kitchen provides respite from the wind and rain. A converted barn next door serves fried fish and boiled potatoes. You can camp in the gardens of most of these places, and there's also a spot for wild camping by the river mouth, with a freshwater spring nearby.
One of the best ways of getting around is by horse, and there are dozens that can be hired from the villagers, either with guides or without.