Here is how Lonely Planet introduces the Carretera Austral (Southern Highway): one serious drive, it winds along some of Patagonia’s most dramatic scenery, with exuberant rainforest, scrubby steppe, smoking volcanoes, snow-dusted mountains, and expansive farmsteads framed in windows. But it’s water that truly defines this landscape, from the clear cascading rivers to the turquoise lakes, massive glaciers, and labyrinthine fjords.
This was an exceptional week among an exceptional yearlong journey since we started a year ago. The entire week, I kept reflecting on just how good it felt to be here. You can tell from the description that it was going to be incredibly beautiful, but on top of that, it’s so quiet – it’s not overpopulated with tourists (granted we are here shortly after summer has ended), I suppose because it takes effort to get here. And the people along the way – like just about everywhere we have been – so friendly. This has been one of my favorite weeks.
We were off the ferry last Thursday morning in Puerto Cisnes and despite our late departure the night before in Quellon, we arrived around 8:30am, about an hour early. It was overcast and drizzly and stayed that way for most of Thursday’s drive. Our first stop was the tiny village of Villa Amengual and we found a hostel that welcomed us for breakfast. Scrambled eggs, toast, butter, jam, ham, cheese, and tea. We continued south and arrived at our first destination – Villa Cerro Castillo. The drive was around six hours overall and we grabbed lunch at one of the few restaurants in the village – Restaurant Ruta 7 Sur (Ruta 7 is the road number for the Carretera Austral). I had ceviche and Sandy had grilled merluza (hake fish). Then it was off to our cabin for two nights. We were warned clearly that four-wheel drive was strongly recommended. Well, Taylor being a Suzuki Swift is not even close. As we made our way the four miles on the gravel road toward our cabin, we finally got to the hill that warranted those recommendations. Going in this direction it was downhill, so it wasn’t a problem. We stopped midway and attempted to go in reverse to see if we’d be able to make it back up the hill. Taylor was able to go in reverse up the hill for a short distance without difficulty. That was a relief, but because we still had to go back up on Saturday, it stayed on my mind – thinking of what our options were if we had trouble on Saturday. Speaking of Taylor, here she is.
Our cabin was absolutely perfect.
The setting is out of a storybook surrounded by the mountains of the Cerro Castillo National Park. We had groceries to eat spaghetti both nights there because we knew we had the equipment to at least be able to do that with the pot we bought back in Ushuaia. We had a wood pellet stove for warmth. With our meal on Friday night, we enjoyed Kunstmann Miel beer. This is one of my favorite dining room table views we’ve had anywhere.
While at the cabin, we went for a walk along the estuary and river by the cabin and then along the road for a cardio walk. That included going back and checking out the hill we’d have to navigate on Saturday to get a plan in mind for how to make it back up. We had some trouble with the propane gas on Friday, so we changed the tanks out, but we could not figure out how to attach the regulator securely. The cleaning person came over and showed me how to do it but then realized the battery was dead for the water heater, so she got that resolved. For our walk, we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and potato chips. One of the best things about staying here – the nighttime sky. The stars and Milky Way were out in their full glory – the moonrise over the mountains was spectacular. Love that! And it was so quiet – no barking dogs, no cars, no planes. We’d come back here in a heartbeat.
Saturday, it was time to head north – as long as we could get up that hill. Well, we did and didn’t have any problem. Starting with decent momentum, staying in a low gear, and keeping a steady pace – piece of cake. Thankfully, it was dry. If the road had been wet, I don’t think there is any way Taylor could have made it up the hill. We left around 9:30am. We stopped in Villa Manihuales to get gas and picnic in the park they have. We considered stopping to see the Ventisquero Colgante glacier along the way and doing a short walk out to the observation point. By the time we made it there, the National Park was closed, but we were able to see it from the road.
So far, the road has been great. There was concern about some of it not being paved, but everything has been paved to this point. As we arrived at our overnight stop in Puyuhuapi around 4pm, a police checkpoint stopped us and checked our paperwork – vehicle registration and my passport. No problem. Puyuhuapi is a small town, about the population of Owen where Sandy grew up (less than 1,000 people). Puyuhuapi was settled by four German immigrants and the town retains a reverence for their work in building the town. They put together a walking tour of 12 sites around the town, which we did while we were waiting for the restaurant we wanted to eat at to open for dinner at 7.
We ate at El Muelle and we both had salmon with veggies – it was very good. We tried two of the local brewery’s beers – Hopperdietzel blonde and red and neither of them were very good. They also had Kunstmann Miel, so we switched to that. On our way home, a volleyball match was taking place in the gym, so we watched for a little while. Cute town and a nice overnight stay for us.
On Sunday, we got ourselves packed up and then walked to Ensenada for breakfast. It’s another hostel and they welcomed us with the same breakfast that the hostel on Thursday had. We went back to the AirBnB to get the car and before leaving Puyuhuapi, we stopped at the cemetery. It is very customary to decorate the grave sites with beautiful and elaborate artificial floral arrangements.
As we drove north, Ricardo from last night’s AirBnB had told us about the Yelcho Glacier. There is a great boardwalk along the stream that leads to various lookouts of that glacier and we enjoyed a brief walk and stretch break to see the glacier.
We arrived at our next spot along the highway around 3:30pm – Chaiten. This is a town of around 3,000 people. We walked a little by the water and then visited the city’s museum that opened two years ago. It’s small, but they have put together a great story of how this town bounced back from the volcanic eruption at the nearby Chaiten Volcano in 2008. We were very impressed by both geologists who work at the museum. They are committed to telling the story and educating people about how the town was evacuated and subsequently restored. It’s a really interesting story of the government wanting the town to be rebuilt ten miles up the road, outside of the danger zone in case another eruption takes place. The people of the town wouldn’t let it happen and they have rebuilt the town in its original location.
For dinner, we went to El Quijote, where we met Javier, the owner. He was totally entertaining. He opened only for us. Sandy had merluza and I had grilled beef. We shared three different beers. Javier was cooking for a large party later in the evening and he likes his vodka tonics while he is cooking, so he was enjoying his drinks and he was playing the music quite loud and showing us how good he is at air guitar on Scorpions songs. It was a ton of fun. After dinner, we went to the Chucao Bosque cabanas (cabins) and met Ignacio. He checked us in and showed us how to use the vintage wood-burning stove for heat. I had too much fun with it that night and made the cabin too hot for Sandy’s comfort as we went to sleep. She may still be sweating….
Monday’s plan was to do a couple of hikes. First, we grabbed breakfast at La Peregrina coffee shop and they made sandwiches to take with us on our hikes. Breakfast for me was eggs and bacon on toast and for Sandy, eggs and avocado on toast. The sandwiches were grilled chicken with avocado and tomato. After breakfast, we drove a little short of an hour to our first hike – the Sendero Alerces (Alerces trail). This was a short 45-minute hike through the forest with Alerce trees. These are similar to the redwoods in California. They grow up to 200 feet tall and can live for thousands of years. The oldest one we saw on this trail was about 1500 years old. Crazy!
We drove to the second hike, which was to the Chaiten Volcano. We left on this one at 1pm and it took about 90 minutes to get to the top. It was a lot steeper than we were thinking. It was quite the workout.
At the top, we had great views of the volcano, where there is still steam coming out even after 17 years. It is considered an active volcano and they continually monitor it to be ready for when it erupts again.
We enjoyed a rest and our sandwiches at the top and then made our way back down. The trail was really well done – they had nine stations posted along the way with information about the area. It was a beautiful day – sunny and warm. We learned that this area gets rain on average 300 days each year, so we were grateful to have had the excellent weather we have had while in this area.
Back in town, we drove around the area a little and saw the part of town where people are living again. It was illegal to live in the south part of town until 2019 because of the damage from the volcano. It is now legal to live there, but that part of town does not get government support, so they live there at their own risk. The piping still has contaminates from the volcano. For dinner, we went to El Volcan at the recommendation of Ignacio. Sandy had salmon and veggies. I had the chupe de centolla. This is a king crab dish that is kind of like a stew with lots of crab and a mixture that was kind of like a cornmeal. It was awesome. We were very impressed by the amount of crab in the dish.
On Tuesday, it was time to move further north. We left the cabin at 8:15 and stopped for breakfast again at La Peregrina. We left there at 9:15 and arrived at Caleta Gonzalo at 10:25. We had ferry tickets for 12:30pm and knew we needed to be there a couple of hours early.
While we waited, we went into the little museum they have there as a part of the Douglas Tompkins Pumalin National Park. What a great museum. We got to learn about the history of the Tompkins (Douglas and Kristine) and how they acquired a bunch of land and then gifted it to Chile to be used as a national park. Unfortunately, we only made it through the first room when the museum staff member let us know that they were starting to check tickets for the ferry. We hustled back to the car to see that people had already started boarding the ferry. Good thing our museum friend was looking out for us. We boarded and the ferry left at 11:20. This ferry ride was 30 minutes long and then we all drove about 15 minutes to get the second ferry that would take us to Hornopiren. That ferry didn’t come until 2pm, so we walked around, Sandy did stretches and exercises, I read my National Geographic magazine. We boarded and then worked on some of our future plans during this three-and-a-half hour ride. It was beautiful scenery of course. Ferry travel in this part of the world is very common and is a great way to get around. Upon arrival, we drove five minutes to tonight’s stay and then walked to Entre Montana for dinner. We both had salmon and veggies. We have been eating a lot of fish here. There are fisheries all over the place. As a matter of fact, Chile is the second largest producer of salmon in the world, second to Norway.
And that brings us to today, Wednesday, and our last stretch on the Carretera Austral. We left our apartment at 10:30 this morning and stopped at Faro’s Café on the water for chai latte, hot chocolate, a chocolate muffin, and a blueberry kuchen.
We left Hornopiren at 11 and had one more ferry to board. We only had to wait a few minutes (this is one where you don’t need an advance ticket, you just pull up and they take as many cars as they can) and boarded for the 30-minute crossing. That put us in Puerto Varas at 2pm. We stopped at Zaatar for shawarmas for lunch – delicious! We also had fresh juices. We checked into our apartment at 3:30 and got ourselves unpacked. It’s nice to be staying in one spot again for several days. We mapped out our plan for our time here in Puerto Varas, walked to the mall to check it out, and then went to Casavaldes for dinner. We both had the sea bass in the house specialty sauce and it was fantastic. One of the best fish dishes I have had.
That puts a bow on our trip on the Carretera Austral. We weren’t sure if we were going to do it because we didn’t know the condition of the road. After consulting people in Puerto Montt a couple of weeks ago, we decided to go for it and we are so glad we did. It was a very special week and I would love to return to this part of Chile someday.
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