Things to do
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Faro Punta Corona
The lighthouse of 1859 on the northern tip of the island, one of the oldest on the Chilean coast, marking the western entrance of the Chacao channel where the Pacific swell meets the tide. The navy keeps it and the grounds open to visitors in daylight; the drive from Ancud follows the bay past Fuerte Ahui on the same gravel road.
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Fuerte Ahui
The larger Spanish fort on the headland across the bay from Ancud, built in the 1770s to close the channel with crossfire from San Antonio, its stone walls and gun platforms restored on a point above the water. Reached by a gravel road round the bay, about 40 minutes, with the Corona lighthouse a little further on.
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Fuerte San Antonio
The Spanish battery above the harbour where the royalist garrison of Chiloé surrendered in January 1826, the last Spanish flag lowered in Chile. A few cannon on a grass rampart and a wide view over the Chacao channel remain; it is a ten-minute walk up from the market and open without a ticket.
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Islotes de Puñihuil
Three rocky islets off a black-sand bay where Humboldt and Magellanic penguins nest side by side, the only colony in the world shared by the two species. Boats take visitors out from the beach in about half an hour, September to March, boarding from a trolley run into the surf; the road from Ancud is 27 kilometres, the last part gravel.
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Museo Regional
The island's regional museum, in a modern building beside the square, with the story of the Chono and Huilliche peoples, the Spanish fortifications and the 1960 earthquake that sank the coast by two metres. A replica of the Ancud, the schooner that took possession of the Strait of Magellan in 1843, stands in the courtyard.