Moraleda Channel in the context of José de Moraleda y Montero

The Taitao Peninsula (Spanish: Península de Taitao) is a westward-facing landmass on the south-central Pacific west coast of Chile. The peninsula is connected to the mainland via the narrow Isthmus of Ofqui, over which tribal peoples and early missionaries often traveled to avoid navigating the peninsula's treacherous waters, carrying their boats and belongings overland between the Moraleda Channel and Gulf of Penas. The Taitao Peninsula is situated in the Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region, and part of the landmass is located inside the boundaries of Laguna San Rafael National Park. The Presidente Ríos Lake, with a surface area of 352 square kilometres (136 sq mi), lies in the center of the peninsula. A southward-incurving projection of its outer shoreline is known as Tres Montes peninsula, the most southerly point of the cape of the same name.

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.

The Chonos Archipelago is a series of low, mountainous, elongated islands with deep bays, traces of a submerged Chilean Coast Range. Most of the islands are forested with little or no human settlement. The deep Moraleda Channel separates the islands of the Chonos Archipelago from the mainland of Chile and from Magdalena Island.

The largest islands are Melchor Island, Benjamin Island, Traiguén Island, Riveros Island, Cuptana Island, James Island, Victoria Island, Simpson Island, Level Island, Luz Island.

The sea of Chiloé (Spanish: Mar de Chiloé or Mar Chilote) is a marginal sea off the coast of Chile that is separated from the Pacific Ocean by Chiloé Island. The sea of Chiloé is connected to the open sea by Chacao Channel in the north and Gulf of Corcovado in the south. The host many of Chiloé Archipelago's islands as well as some other islands around Reloncaví Sound. The shores of the sea of Chiloé shows at various places channels, sounds and in the east also fjords. To the south beyond the Gulf of Corcovado the Sea of Chiloé gives way to Moraleda Channel.