We had planned to take a trip to Chiloé National Park and fortunately the weather had improved, it was still a bit overcast but at least it had stopped raining. We made our way across town to the rural bus station and managed to get the last seats on the 10am bus just as it was pulling out. It took 1.5 hours to drive across the island to the park on the west coast. We passed through nice countryside, small villages and along the side of Lago Cucao.

The weather seemed to have brightened up during our journey although it was still a bit windy. We paid our 1,500 peso entry fee and were given a map of the park. It had lots of short walks and we figured that we could probably get round them all.

We decided to walk on the Sendero el Tepual track first, which would take us into the rainforest of the Piuchen mountain range. The paths seemed to be very well maintained with boardwalks in places where it was a bit wet underfoot. That was until we took the Sendero Lahuen loop track. It was very wet underfoot and there were no boardwalks here. After about 5 minutes we gave up trying to hop and jump around the mud and just piled straight through. There was a nice wooden structure giving great views overlooking Lago Cucao, but once you were above the trees it was very windy. Back on the main track, when we reached the end of, there was a small educational loop that had 14 information points on the surrounding forest. It was amazing how different the forest was within 1km of where we had entered. It was different trees and the undergrowth was very dense, to the point that you couldn't see more than 3 metres into it. This of course meant that there was different flora and fauna here too.

Loop completed we walked back on the main path which was in great condition, people with nice clean shoes walking the other way were looking at our muddy shoes with trepidation as they passed but they needn't have worried. After a quick look round the small museum, which contained some artifacts about early life in the area, we set out on the Sendero Dunas de Cucao track. It took us up over forested dunes to a mirador with views out to Pacific Ocean. It was looking very cold and blustery on the coast, but we decided to continue on the Sendero Playa track, through Arrayan forest and across a flat, grassy plain to the beach. As we thought, it was very windy and cold on the exposed ocean front. After a quick photo, we turned our back to the water and headed back inland to the shelter of the forest.

We were lucky that a bus came shortly after we arrived at the bus stop. It took 1.5 hours to get back to Castro and when we neared the edge of town, we jumped off the bus to take some photos of the 'palafitos'. Palafitos are a style of housing in Castro, developed in the mid 16th century, where poles are used to build the house out over the water so it can be used as a pier and to have boats tied up to the stilts. They were very similar to the water's edge huts that we saw in Bocas del Toro, Panama, although here in Chile they are actually proper houses, not just basic huts.

It had been a tiring day even though we hadn't walked so far, perhaps it was the travel, but regardless we decided on a quick dinner at Brujula de Cuerpo. It was a massive cafe style restaurant that was very popular with locals and served simple food. We chose the hot dogs which were nothing spectacular but then again, they were pretty cheap.