Guaitecas Archipelago

The Guaitecas archipelago lies south of Chiloé, among the channels of western Patagonia. Chono families travelled its islands in canoes, gathering food from the sea and using sheltered shores as stopping places. In the eighteenth century Spanish expeditions relied on Chono pilots who knew these intricate waterways; the English sailor John Byron also encountered Chono people after a shipwreck in 1741.