patagonia Chili

Patagonia Chili started in Puerto Natales, which appeared to be a very windy town and I cannot imagine what it would be like here in winter. As its summer now and its cold brrr and very windy. Puerto Natales is the gateway to the famous Torres del Paine National Park, but this park has become so popular that everything is very expensive and you have to prebook everything. Most people walk the “W” or “O” track which are multiday hikes. I did some walks of the “W” track, I did the hike to the actual torres del paine  on a day hike. It was a very long day but the reward was beautyfull when i finally got up there. The last bit of the walk is quite steep and it seems never ending. The other 2 walks I did from a campsite that I had managed to prebook, I had rented a tent and all the gear from the hostel and off I went, for this specific campsite you needed to take a ferry and there was a long line of people waiting but I had faith I would get on but no…. they closed the line in front of my nose☹ which meant waiting 1.5 hours.

But we got rewarded with 2 fox cubs playing on the island opposite, which was very enjoyable to watch. Of course I was first to get on the next ferry and after arriving at the campsite and putting up the tent I started the walk i wanted to do that day. Which was to a glacier that hits the water in 2 different points. It was very nice but very very windy up there. That night I put on many clothes and crawled in my sleeping bag, so cold I was not but I was far from comfortable. After a rough night I got up with the intention to walk to another view point, but it was very rainy… After waiting for a while and checking the weather conditions with the locals I decided to start the hike hoping it would clear up. I walked 8.5 km and than decided to stop and go back as the weather was getting worse and i could not see much. Actually I got rained on really bad and was soaking wet when I got back. Of course when you are camping there is no way of drying your clothes, so everyone was sitting in the kitchen eating warm food. When I took a shower it was cold, so I went to bed very early to get warm in my sleeping bag. But that night the wind came and a few times I really thought I was going to fly with my tent😊 That was a point I really asked myself “Why do I want to do this, I am cold, wet, tired and not having a lot of fun”… Suppose its all part of the journey…

After 2 nights in a tent I repacked my bags and boarded a ferry, that was going to take me through the chillian fjords to the beginning of the ”caretta austral”, the only road through patagonia chili.

The ferry was a experience in itself, comfortable seats that could go backwards quite far, nice blanket. They played movies and served breakfast, lunch and dinner. To my surprise from the 150 people on board most were chilian, i think maybe 15 people were foreigners. The weather was not great so the views were not so good. But nevertheless i spent some time on the deck and saw a big albatross really close to the boat, and a rainbow on the rocks. I was hoping the dolphins would join us, but not this time… Sometimes they even see whales or orca’s. We stopped once in a little remote village, where people and goods were getting off board and others joined us, we had an hour to walk around which was nice. We were suppose to arrive in Caleta Tortel at 22.00 but because the sea was rough we had a 6 hour delay which meant arriving at 4.00 in the morning. Me and some other people had not managed to arrange accomodation but luckily some people were waiting for us, so it was quite easy to find accomodation. Caletta Tortel is famous as it completely build on wooden poles and the houses are connected with boardwalks. As the rocks are so steep and the ground is quite swampy. In the beginning of town you have a big carpark, as cars cannot enter the village.I did a walk on the mountain and found out how swampy the ground can get. It was an interesting place and we ended up with a nice group of people in the hostel. The woman that owned it was weird though, she tried to make me pay 3 times, accusing people of eating more than 1 bread in the morning when in reality she miscounted the amount of people. when she asked us how the bread was one girl said nicely it was a bit dry, to which she replied that she could bake it herself next time. We all left together… And I was offered a lift to Cochrane with a father and two teenage sons, which was great as it was raining bad. We ended up again with some of the same people in a hostel in Cochrane. 

Cochrane itself was a nice, cozy, little place with some national parks close by. We went to one of them called Patagonia National Park, this park used to be an old estancia that was bought by the owner of north face 10 years ago. He removed all the fences and replanted native species and prepared the place as a national park. It took all those years for the earth to recoppurate from the damage that was done by the sheep and cattle farming. And now its a beautyfull national park that hardly anyone knows about. But as most places in Chili you really need a tent and a car if you want to get anywhere, so its on my list for next time chili. This time we hitchhiked in and just got a glimpse from it all. The same person that gave me a lift back from the national park to the hostel picked me up the next day to drop me off in Rio Tranquillo. Here you have marmol caves in beautyfull shape, and when the sun hits it right, colours. The boat ride back was a tough one though, high waves, freezing cold glacier water all over me, and not a happy me…

My original plan was to hitchhike the whole carretera austral but in Rio Tranquillo were way too many people trying to hitchhike, we were the first ones but they stood so close to us that people than think you are a group and they will not stop. So i decided i was not going to let them ruin my day and took a bus. But than it appeared all busses were full, but the driver offered us to sit in the path. Pfff that was a hard journey for 5 hours☹

In Coyhaique I just organized myself finally having a good internet connection and the next day I set of to Puyuhuapi, I made it in 5 lifts. And fell in love with this little place so peacefull… Close to here is the national park Quelat and there is a hanging glacier with waterfalls comming of it, so the next day I hiked the trail to see this. On the trail I saw a girl that I keep meeting in the most random places, called Sophie. We met again in the afternoon for a chat and I moved to her hostel the next day.

That weekend the local festival started and we had so much fun dancing with the locals, seeing how they prepare their food and how they had all sort of competitions going on… Puyuhuapi is laying in a fjord so there is lots of wildlife around. We took a little tour to see the natural hotsprings and it was so cool, the dolphins joined us, we saw a seastar and some other wildlife and the hotsprings were small but very natural if you did not know you would not see it. When we arrived the water was 70 degrees celcius and because the tide came in the water was mixing with the cold water of the lake and became nice to put your feet in. I really enjoyed my time here

Sophie and I hitched together to Chaiten, on the way we passed a village that was hid by disaster last year. Part of a glacier and the mountain broke off and came down the hill taking half the village, everything was still so visible. Scary on one hand but also the reality in Chili, an earthquake of 6, they are not worried about at all, landslides happen, vulcanoes erupt, thats chili they say😊

In Chaiten we went to Pumalin national park and climbed an active vulcano, it erupted 10 years ago and before that time nobody knew it was a volcano, hahahaha… It was beautyfull up there, weird landscape as the trees that died because of the eruption were still there as you can see on the pictures. We also did some other hikes in the national park comming into a close encounter with a very beautyfull colourfull little animal, see the pictures. We stayed one night in a tiny village (7 families in total) on the beach and saw the dolphins in the evening.

From Chaiten I went straight to Puerto Montt, where my dear friend Tanja would arrive to visit me for 2 weeks. I managed to hitch hike it from the first ferry, the mechanic from the ferry offered me a lift dropping me off in front of the hostel, lucky me😊

PS I am really behind with my blog so will try to post again soon...