Castro

The palafitos hit you in a wall of colour — tangerine, electric blue, lemon, fuchsia — stilted houses jutting over the harbour on blackened timber legs. Above the waterfront, the Church of San Francisco rises in lavender and orange timber, its towers visible from the ferry approach. Castro smells of woodsmoke, wet wool, and the licor de oro being poured thick and golden at the palafito bars below.

Castro is the capital of Chiloé Island in Chile's Los Lagos Region, a city built on terrain too steep for conventional construction. The palafito stilt houses date from the 19th century, originally erected because the hillside offered no flat ground — their painted facades are now the most photographed architecture in southern Chile. The Church of San Francisco, built in 1906, is the only wooden cathedral in South America listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At low tide, the original 19th-century pier pilings are still visible beneath the modern palafito platforms. The curanto al hoyo — seafood, pork, and potatoes pit-cooked underground on hot stones — is a tradition maintained by families around Castro who cook it only for festivals and visitors who book days in advance.