Activity Summary
Sunday 19th November - Day 411
Drive / ferry to Castro (Chiloé Island)
Lunch at AMUKAN Gourmet
Ferry to Chaitén
Monday 20th November - Day 412
Check in at 3am
Bypass Chaitén activities
Drive to Coyhaique
Transport
Puerto Montt -> Chaitén
Missed the goddamn ferry.
Puerto Montt -> Castro -> Chaitén
Drive to Pargua
Local shuttle ferry to Chiloe island - CLP14k per car
Drive to Castro
Naviera Austral ferry to Chaitén
Drive to accomodation
Accommodation
Chaitén - Hospedaje Crece
Number of nights - 1
Price per night per person - £15
Positives:
Owner stayed up all night waiting for us to check in - clearly a usual problem
Warm
Private room
So happy to have a room post ferry
Kitchen
Negatives:
Shared bathroom
Thin walls
Check out at 10am
Small bed
Cold with nought but a communal fire
Recommend?
For a night, yes. Any longer - probably not
Diary
Sunday 19th November - Day 411
The nice hotel made up for some of the stress the evening before. Breakfast was substantial and pretty decent and then we were on our way at a sensible time to get to Chiloe island before our new revised 5pm ferry.
The drive to Pargua felt like the start of our Carretera Austral driving. Long clear roads with barely anyone in sight, removing all the stress of driving around small crowded cities we had been subjected to of late.
Once in Pargua, a small village on the coast, we were directed straight into a ferry and not long after set off to Chacao on Chiloe island. At CLP14k for the car it was going to be quite a bit cheaper to go via Castro to Chaitén. Hindsight’s a wonderful thing.
Again it was easy driving to Castro where we’d arrived around 1pm and well ahead of the ferry check in time. Luke checked we were in the right spot with the nice people at AMUKAN Gourmet restaurant and then sat down for some lunch there. Food wasn’t bad but Luke did have to send back his quesadilla to be reheated.
The place was quite small and there was a constant stream of people trying to come and sit down so once we’d eaten, rather than kill time in the cafe like we usually would, we sat in the car watching TV for an hour or so. The mass of cars accumulating around the entrance was a good sign but Nicola was super stressed so Luke had the pleasure of trundling through the rain to check with the solitary guy who was hiding away from everyone at the port. Thankfully he confirmed the gate would open at around 3.30pm but the lack of Naviera staff throughout this entire experience was shocking.
Once opened we were one of the first through the gate but ended up waiting a while anyway for entry.
Being so close to the front of the queue had a major downside. The car ended up being out down into the hold which we would end up regretting later on.
Our 5pm ferry took off at around 5.30pm and what was supposed to be 5 hours and eta of 10.30pm ended up being 9 hours and arriving at 2.30am. Funnily enough this ended up being a small victory as it was an estimated 3.30am arrival by the ship workers.
We got a pretty nice table and chair set up around the edge of the boat, rather than sit in our allocated seats which sucked. Once hitting the middle of the Reloncaví Sound and away from the protection of the islands, the wind picked up quite a bit and there was some serious sway. At this point it made Nicola quite stressed and sleeping was quite a challenge. We both managed to get a little shut eye before pulling in.
Monday 20th November - Day 412
At 2.30am Luke had the not so pleasant experience of trying to get the MG up a steep ramp with little grip. Basically an absolute repeat of the supermarket in Puerto Montt.
Another car with infinitely more power than our car struggled and despite Luke trying to gas it, got beached half way up and stopped all traffic dead. The shameful roll down was horrible and like we did in Asia on a bike, Nicola stepped out to shed some weight and this time he was successful. Just. Too much stress at 3am.
Our accomodation host was kind enough to wait up and let us in, clearly having vast experience with ferry problems and said the day before it got in at 5am. We were so happy to be finally on the Carretera Austral where we only had to rely on ourselves to get around and then crawl into bed.
Check out was at 10am sadly so we didn’t get much of a lie but took our time eating breakfast, preparing lunch and got straight on our long drive to Coyhaique, bypassing activities in Chaiten because of the ferry delay and also Queulat because it wasn’t open on a Monday or Tuesday.
The weather was absolutely horrendous between Chaiten and Coyhaique so delaying the activities here ended up being a lucky good decision.
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