Breakfast in Hotel Esmeralda is served on the 4th floor with huge windows giving a great view to sea and the church. The view was not so great this morning though because it was still raining. Breakfast was quite good by Chilean standards. Apart from the Nescafe coffee, we were given yoghurt, toast, ham, cheese plus a couple of cookies and a large slice of cake.

We met Carlee and Andy, as arranged, at 11am at the Rural bus terminal to take a bus to Achao on Isla Quinchao, one of the 39 smaller islands that are part of the Chiloé Island group. Achao has the oldest church, Iglesia Santa Maria de Loreto, in Chiloé. It is completely made out of wood and doesn't even use nails, only masterful joinery and woodwork.

After our church visit, we walked down to the sea front where it was very windy and rainy. There wasn't much to see at this time of the year, perhaps in the summer it's a bit more pleasant. The beach was full of washed up debris from the sea and there was a small artisan market.

Our intention was to have lunch at a restaurant in Achao, but of the three we saw none looked open. It was only midday though and for Chile that's a little early for lunch. We decided to take the bus to Curaco de Velez, a small village enroute back to the main island, in the hope of finding an open restaurant there. On the way back to the bus station, we passed a pet store with heaps of dogs hanging around outside. Maybe the pet store fed them, but it just looked hilarious that they chose that shop to hang out at.

It didn't take long to drive to Curaco de Velez, which was mostly built in the late 16th century, but this place was worse than Achao, literally everything was closed here. After taking a photo of the green church we were on the next bus, within 15 minutes, and heading for the ferry to take us back to Dalcahue on the main island.

The rain was beginning to get heavier so we ducked into the first restaurant we found. It wasn't a flash place by any means, but there were a few people in who didn't look like tourists so we decided to give it a go. We ordered Curato, a local speciality that consisted of a plate of mussels and clams with broth and a side plate with sausage, a fist sized piece of pork, a quarter chicken and two types of potato cake things. It was a messy and really filling meal that could probably have been shared although David managed to eat all of his and some of Maria's. Even the beer came in big sizes, they only had Escudo in 1.2 litre bottles, much to David's delight.

We had a quick look in the artisan market that was full of wool products while we waited on the bus. It was really more to do with staying out the rain, but Maria bought some ankle warmers for the cold days ahead in Patagonia.

Back in Castro we went for coffee and cake at Cafe Blanco before spending a rainy evening watching television.