Taitao Peninsula

Spanish explorers and Jesuits that sailed south from Chiloé Archipelago in the 17th and 18th centuries regularly avoided rounding Taitao Peninsula entering instead the Gulf of Penas after a brief land crossing at the isthmus of Ofqui. While attempting to pass the Gulf of Penas in 1741, a storm caught the British ship, HMS Wager, causing it to wreck on (the eventual) Wager Island, on the Guayaneco Archipelago. Some of the survivors, including John Byron, were led into the Spanish settlements of the Chiloé Archipelago by the Chono chieftain Martín Olleta via Presidente Ríos Lake.

Writer Benjamín Subercaseaux visited the Taitao Peninsula in 1946, reportedly having seen footprints and fresh human feces he thought indicated the indigenous Chono people, as known from the historical record, still lived in the region.

As result of its difficult terrain and rugged isolation, the peninsula is largely unexplored.

Flora

The vegetation of the peninsula varies based on exposure and other factors. Along the western fringes of the peninsula, towards Tres Montes, a shrubland of roughly 2 meter tall Pilgerodendron uvifera and Nothofagus nitida grows. Amidst this shrubland, occasional peat bogs can be found, and forests dot the landscape. In the central parts of the peninsula, including on the shores of Presidente Ríos Lake, forests of Nothofagus betuloides and Drimys winteri can be found. Cushion peatlands of Donatia fascicularis and Oreobolus obtusangulus occupy the higher mountains of the peninsula. To the east, near San Rafael Lake, a N. betuloides forest with an understory of Desfontainia fulgens, Blechnum magellanicum, Fuchsia magellanica and Raukaua laetevirens grows.