Caucahué is an island located in the Caucahué Channel, Chiloé Province,

Los Lagos Region Los Lagos Region ( es, Región de Los Lagos , ''Region of the Lakes'') is one of Chile's 16 regions, which are first order administrative divisions, and comprises four provinces: Chiloé, Llanquihue, Osorno and Palena. The region contains ...

(Region of the Lakes), Commune of

Quemchi Quemchi is a Chilean List of towns in Chile, town and Communes of Chile, commune in Los Lagos Region, in Chiloé Province, on the eastern shore of Chiloé Island. It acquired certain celebrity because the famous Chilean writer Francisco Coloane wa ...

in southern

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. It has a population of 354 according to the 2017 census, this is almost a halving relative to the 638 inhabitants recorded in the 2001 Chilean census. The island supplies the city of Quemchi with farm and sea products. The name Cahucahué comes from

Mapudungun Mapuche (, Mapuche & Spanish: , or Mapudungun; from ' 'land' and ' 'speak, speech') is an Araucanian language related to Huilliche spoken in south-central Chile and west-central Argentina by the Mapuche people (from ''mapu'' 'land' and ''che ...

(the

Mapuche The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who sha ...

language), and means “place of many seagulls”, from the words ''káwka'' or ''kawkaw'', meaning "big seagull", and ''we'', meaning place"'. Caucahue Island used to be home to the now-extinct Caucahue people. The Caucahue were one of the canoe-going peoples that lived in the southernmost regions of

. They were hunter gatherers and made good use of the sea's resources, living off

sea food The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of water, body of saline water, salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote List of seas, second-order sections of ...

seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of '' Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...

and minor

game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...

that they found on the island and its surrounding areas. Along with farming, today's inhabitants of the island still use the sea as a livelihood, and sell their seafood and farm produce at the

free market located right across the channel on

Chiloé Island Chiloé Island ( es, Isla de Chiloé, , ) also known as Greater Island of Chiloé (''Isla Grande de Chiloé''), is the largest island of the Chiloé Archipelago off the west coast of Chile, in the Pacific Ocean. The island is located in southern ...

. The island is divided into four parts: Queler, Morro Lobos Bajo, Morro Lobos Alto and Quinterquén. It has four schools, each with one teacher: "Escuela Queler", "Escuela Caucahué", "Escuela Morro Lobos" and "Escuela Quinterquén".wikimapia datasheet
wikimapia retrieved on June 16, 2015 It is connected to the mainland via the town of

. A daily boat service runs from Quemchi to the island and private boats are also available for the 20 minute trip. Caucahue's natural vegetation is Valdivian temperate rain forest and it has a temperate climate with constant rain all year round.

References

{{Chiloe Archipelago Ecoregions of Chile Pacific islands of Chile Islands of Chiloé Archipelago