There was a difficult choice at Puerto Montt – to take Ruta 7 from the start on the mainland, or to take a ferry across to the island of Chiloé, go to the other end and take another ferry to Chaitén, back on the mainland, 200km after the start of R7. The Chiloé route won on the promise of some different indigenous culture and the avoidance of a significant stretch of ripio – unpaved road.

The island is attractive, with rather less cultivation than we’d beeen seeing. Plenty of southern beech forest, and land looking like ‘less favoured areas’ of Scotland. The tourist board has obviously been selling the line hard; sadly, we found little in the way of the promised indigenous culture. Perhaps it reappears around 15th January with the main flush of tourists. The campgrounds were open, but we were still generally alone.