Travel Bugs

After our epic multi-day hike in Patagonia, we decided to now explore the area by car. We flew north to a town called Puerto Montt and rented a car from the airport. From here we made the long and oft-times arduous journey south. The idea was to see animals, glaciers, mountains, and do some further day hikes. This road trip is along the Carretera Austral (Ruta 7) and covers 1240kms of road through the rural Patagonian landscape.

The reality was that the weather did not cooperate for most of our journey. This was disappointing and we couldn’t actually see any of the things we were hoping to see. No mountains, no glaciers, no animals. Also, with tired legs after doing the W trek, we had low motivation to do extra hiking.

We first had to get supplies in Puerto Montt before heading to La Arena about an hour away to catch a quick ferry to Puelche. We found a grocery store called Unimarq and though we tried to be efficient, Michelle and I took an hour to get everything on our list. I knew through experience in Argentine Patagonia that we would not find the freshest or most economical options along the way, and that it was best to buy a cooler and most of our groceries before embarking on our road trip.

We had a bit of trouble locating a store that sold coolers…but after some roadside Googling, we found a store called Lider, which seemed to be the Chilean version of Walmart. Once there, we were bummed we hadn’t just gone there from the airport. They had groceries, lunch options, and indeed the elusive cooler. I also found bacon, something Callum was craving. No peanut butter, though. This is something I have had trouble finding in South America.

Once we were organized with cooler, ice, and groceries, we were finally on our way. We made it to the ferry and it was here we finally took the time to celebrate Michelle’s birthday. What a strange birthday for her! We celebrated by buying three giant pieces of different cakes on the ferry and ate them, not knowing that would basically be our dinner for the day.

We drove for some time to get to a small town (just assume all of the towns along the road trip are small) called Hornopirénwhere we checked into the first of many tiny accommodations.  

The next morning was another early start, because we were told we needed to be lined up for the 10am ferry by 8am. This is something we struggled to understand—why we needed to be so very early when we had pre-bought our tickets. We parked amongst all the other vehicles in this tiny town, clogging up the narrow streets and left a sleepy Michelle in the car while we located some much-needed caffeine.

The ferry boarding process was long, and we didn’t leave on time. We got to the other side at Leptepu 3.5 hours later, still had a 15-minute drive to Fiordo Largo and another 45-minute ferry to Caleta Gonzalo…with another hour-long drive to the town of Chaitén, our final destination for the day. Phew! What a day. It was at this point I was wondering why we were doing this…we weren’t particularly having fun. The ferries were not well-equipped, and the sights were a bit samey. This is where Callum planned to do a hike up a volcano, a hike I abandoned 30-minutes into. This decision was rewarded with Michelle’s approval three hours later when her and Cal returned to the sunny carpark where I was waiting. We stayed in Chaitén for two nights in an A-frame 2-story cabin. The rooms were good, the beds acceptable, but the kitchen woefully situated and supplied. Do Chileans even cook? This is what I was beginning to wonder.  

The next stop on our road trip was the village of Puyuhuapi, which was less than three hours away.  A shorter driving day was a nice change with time in the afternoon to explore a bit. Unfortunately, Callum succumbed to a bad head cold and went straight to bed upon our arrival. Michelle and I treated ourselves to a restaurant dinner in town and actually had a really nice meal, just the two of us.

From Puyuhuapi, we had another stressful driving day. It was a few kms outside of the town where the roads became very difficult to drive on. Potholes, loose gravel, rain and heaps of hairpin turns up and down hills is what I contended with as the day’s driver. It was very tiring and lasted about an hour before the roads became paved again. We stopped in a roadside town where we found ourselves some ‘good girl coffee’ (a term coined by Michelle) and some cookies as a reward for surviving thus far. I suppose it’s all part of the adventure.

After four hours of driving, we made it to the city of Coyhaique which was a much larger place where Callum and I were able to resupply our groceries and ice before taking Michelle to the airport in Balmaceda. Balmaceda was the last chance for an airport connecting this part of Patagonia back up to Santiago. Michelle had to return to Canada while Cal and I continued south.

From the Balmaceda airport we drove on towards Villa Cerro Castillo which was a further hour away. Oh, my goodness, that was a very long day of driving. By the time we figured just where in the heck our wi-fi-free cabin was located and checked ourselves in, I could barely keep my eyes open before having a long nap. The place we stayed had a questionable bathroom but an okay kitchen. No Wi-Fi, but a surprise washing machine so we could do laundry—something we didn’t expect to be able to do for at least three more days.

It was in this town Callum had wanted to do a big day hike. I was exhausted and so was he. We didn’t do much and rested instead.

Our final destination was to drive a further 2.5 hours southwest to Puerto Rio Tranquilo. Two hours of this drive was on some of the worst roads I have ever seen. Cue the potholes, ups/downs, twists/turns, and other such unpleasantness. I had this feeling at the beginning of the day that we should just cancel the next few days and head back up to Coyhaquie, which was a more manageable town. I didn’t say anything because I could see the iron will in Callum. It was in this teensy town at the end of this terrible road that I succumbed to Callum’s cold and felt rubbish for the next two days.

Our cabin in this townlet was a single room with a tiny bathroom, no hot water, and terrible internet. We were stuck there, trying to recover from our illness and having to skip out on the thing Callum had planned for us to do there: a boat tour of some marble caves, which we incidentally did not do. The only thing cool that happened was seeing a special bird just outside our window. I mustered the strength to put on shoes and coat and brought out my camera. Callum did not have the same energy and appreciated the bird from my photos instead.

Our return trip up to Puerto Montt was long and arduous and only slightly better than the way down. The sun peeked out a few times. We stopped to look at a couple of waterfalls, had a brief photo shoot in some lupins, stayed in a modern apartment to do some final laundry (Coyhaique), stayed in a wood-fired cabin where we waited over an hour to check in (Chaitén), and ate some amazing wood fired pizza in a restaurant that looked more like some dude’s house (Puerto Montt).

Though on our last few days we were feeling better and did see some beautiful landscapes, I’m not sure it’s enough to recommend this road trip. In order to appreciate it you’d have to be Chilean, as the standards of Airbnbs were very low and finding food was a challenge. You’d also have to be willing to take it slower so as not to burn out like we did, and be lucky with weather so that interesting viewpoints are actually worth seeing. Being able to speak Spanish would have also helped us. It’s crazy to even us that we didn’t learn at least a bit of it before going to South America for three months (busy with work beforehand, going to lots of other places, laziness, etc).

Perhaps we are spoiled. We come from two countries where road trips are a bit more interesting with better roads, more animals, and amazing scenery. We are westerners with a certain standard of living and have higher expectations than the typical South American, is what we figured. We have this opinion because every place we stayed had great reviews from previous guests but we ourselves were underwhelmed and disappointed most of the time.

You never know unless you go. We went, we found out, and we are chalking it up to the lowest point in our seven months of continuous travel. We hope this post helps other travellers as they plan similar trips to aide them in managing their expectations. Some people love the Carretera Austral. Good for them! We merely survived it.