This thing is awesome. The Chilean route 7 that runs from Puerto Montt down the coast through the mountains down through Patagonia until Villa O’Higgins, Chile Chico for us.
Without a doubt the number #1 tip I will give to anyone for a vacation. Take one month or three months off grab your bike, grab a motorcycle, grab a camper van, grab a tent in your thumb and take this place up and down. It has everything and more that the entire Patagonia has. Actually seen a lot of people doing this on their bike so that’s pretty cool.
After the 2nd ferry from Hornopiren, the freezing ferry of an icy cold death, at least the showed Batman, the real adventure began with The insanely beautiful Carretera Austral in all of its gravel roads in the jungle goodness. After the shorter and warmer ferry 3 we were in Pumalin National Park. Amazing.
Pumalin National Park / Chaitén
The best thing about Pumalin national Park is that it’s free and beautiful. Each of the hikes and things to do also have a campsite relatively near. After getting our camping spot in little Chaitén, we knocked down two hikes in one day.
First was the Cascada Escondidas. At first I was really worried that all the hikes would be as well built up as this one, but apparently it was a one time thing and totally awesome. The entire trail had hand cut trees chopped, carved and tied together for steps, ladders and paths. It was raining but the slippery wood made it more exciting.
First was the Cascada Bajo, which I actually preferred, more in your face. Later came the Cascade Alta. Not much to say about waterfalls really. Water…falls.
Next hike was the Chaitén Volcano. 600m is normally easy, but it was straight up like a Gipfel Angriff the entire time. Pauses were needed. Got to the top, the thing is still smoking. Apparently in 2008 it lit up pretty good.
Then I think it was German Christmas, that’s actually the day before JC’s bday but german who flip seriously out if you wish them 1 day early think it’s doch ok to do it to the man upstairs. Hit up Santana Bárbara beach which is much nicer than the one in Cali cause no one is there and it’s clean. Xmas Dinner.
Pile of 3 (or more) types of meat and cheese
Finally on our way outta Chaitén a day or two later we hit up another Pumalin hike to see our first Patagonian glacier. (Frozen waterfall ha ha) Was a hike straight to it but this lookout was challenging enough. Don’t know how this works but this is a glacier on volcano Michinmahuida.
From a distance…
After that, hit up a thermal bath, while not pure natural, was kinda a swimming pool… the water was damn hot, way hotter than any hot tub, in competition with a Finnish sauna. Was nice after the hikes.
Queluat National Park / Puyuhuapi
Puyuhuapi was founded by 3 Germans in 1945. Apparently they came out of Nürnberg and were at some party. Tiny town with 20 mini supermercados, none of which had cereal, but free laundry at our campsite which actually was a setback but a learning experience. Got here with such terrible weather, tried to go to the park but nearly zero visibility and it pouring rain, good time to turn around and waste a day in the village watching our laundry dry.
On our way out of town we went first things first again the Queluat, great weather, did a great hike which started with a long bridge with max 4 people. With only 4 people in front of us, took only a half hour for the thousand selfies and photos they took.
The end had a hanging glacier and a waterfall, both at once!
And at the bottom a lil lake with a boat for the lazy. Not for us this time 🙂
Pictures are worth a thousand words, seeing it is worth a billion
But I’ll keep the word count low. As mentioned when I wrote that the pictures don’t do it justice here, i fully realized this on the path further south. We went over the Queluat pass, an insanely hairpin, windy, curvy, serpentine and steep path with terrible road conditions, which was awesome, and the entire time we were just in awe. The landscape changed every 30 minutes, and each view was more intense than the previous. All the way down to Coyahaquie where we stopped just for a cash machine and groceries. The little town was actually too busy and hectic for us, so the drive continued to Villa Cerro Castillo for more insane scenery and landscapes. We got a camping spot with an insane view.
Villa Cerro Castillo and National Park
So in the morning we got up early to go up to the mountains in the background. Walk was intense but rewarding, as when we reached the top we just stopped as the peaks of the mountain bared down on us with the definition of “blue” as a lake below it. Brought some sandwiches this time.
Puerto Rio Tranquillo, Baja Exploradores Glacier, San Rafael Laguna and Glacier
After a complete 120km bouncy gravel road without a drop of concrete, we were done vibrating in Puerto Rio Tranquillo, small little town on a huge lake. Gonna be here for a while, grabbed a campsite for 3 days.
Day 1, December 31st. went to the marble caves. Apparently in many pictures of Patagonia, though I have never seen them. There is a marble church, marble cathedral, and marble something or other, Pope house, no idea. We hopped in a tandem kayak and just went in circles. No problems in Oz or Sweden, but this one refused to go straight. Was nice we had a private Tour though, guy took a couple thousand pictures for us. He knew in advance how to apply half a dozen filters. And, much unlike everything else here, pictures with filters are the only way to make them exceptionally pretty, but I was probably just sour from the kayak. One thing for sure, with the names of these places, had Holy Diver in my head the whole time.
New Years Eve dinner was nice. Not pricey and wine included. Afterwords was a tiny party with the other campers at the camp ground, even went into the town to a party for 15 minutes. Good times.
2nd of Jan we parked our car on the beach and hopped in a van with some others for a car ride and boat ride out to San Rafael Laguna and glacier. Really amazing, really beautiful, and really sad. They have markers of how fast the thing is deteriorating, and basically you can watch it disintegrate with your own eyes. Really beautiful, but really sad. I give the thing 10 years max, all of the glaciers.
And that was it for us on the Carretera Austral. It continues but we ventured off to Chile Chico and the Patagonian National Park. A lot of people can go on foot or bike via the ferry from Villa OHiggins down to El Chalten which I would recommend, we did some 1000+km drive which I’ll mention later. Would rather have stayed on the Carretera. Would definitely do this again and just spend months here. Insane amount to do and see and just flat out beautiful.
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