Nine kilometres south of Pichilemu the Nilahue river spreads into the Cáhuil lagoon, and Pablo Rosés takes people across it in sea kayaks to look at birds. A third of all the wetland bird species recorded in Chile turn up here. The boats are good ones — Venture and Riot hulls, Werner carbon paddles, NRS rescue kit — and they are specific about it on the site, which is unusual enough to be worth trusting.
Three hours gets you the standard circuit; eight hours gets the whole lagoon; a two-day version adds a night glamping on the shore. There are photographic trips where the guide paddles and positions the boat so you can shoot, guided walks on the coast, and an ethnocultural route through the salt pans, the water mill and the local clay workshops — the Cáhuil salinas have been worked since colonial times and are the reason the place exists.
They also run a shop in town, and an eco-campsite at Alto Punta de Lobos. Book online or on WhatsApp; the number is the one on their SERNATUR registration.