lukewilliams459

Dec 28, 20234 min read

Coyhaique (part I)

Activity Summary

Monday 20th November - Day 412 (continued)

Drive to Coyhaique
Tried having a few viewpoint stops along the way
Salto El Cóndor
Saunter through Coyhaique
Austral wind down

Tuesday 21st November - Day 413

Coyhaique National Park
Sendero Los Carreros loop
Drive to Villa Cerro Castillo

Summary

Coyhaique

Nice small city. Easy to get around and plenty of stock up options including the only supermarket on the Carretera Austral.

Apart from this there isn’t a whole lot to do that’s exciting in the area.

Coyhaique National Park

Probably the worst National park on the Ruta 7 for the fixed cost of CLP11k. But it was nice to stretch our legs for a decent enough hike length.

Tickets / National Park information: CONAF website

Accommodation

Coyhaique - Airbnb, shared home

Number of nights - 1

Price per night per person - £12

Positives:

Cheap as chips
Comfy enough room
Central location

Negatives:

Shared space
Not tidy or clean
Terrible shower

Recommend?

Not really. Much prefer whole apartments.

Diary

Monday 20th November - Day 412 (continued)

The drive to Coyhaique was a wet and windy affair. We did stop a couple of times along the way with the aim of taking in the sights but Ruta 7 turned out to be a bit shitty for a quick pull over for viewpoints.

At one point it started snowing. So naturally Luke sent Nicola out to take a photo.

The earliest marked viewpoint Luke had was Salto Padre García. This was awfully placed at the start of the worst section of the road along Ruta 7, a steep, rocky road full of hairpin bends that required run ups to crawl over and around. Absolutely horrible scenes and hence we passed up on the viewpoint.

Once over the shit show of a road we topped out and were on our way down perfectly smooth tarmac with a sigh of relief. The Salto El Cóndor viewpoint had a massive lay by and only a short walk over to the waterfall which was well a visit.

Despite the rain.

By the time we got to Coyhaique it was sunny and dry. First views were over a giant half dome like rock overlooking the town.

To keep costs down and as we were only in the city for a night, we went for cheap accomodation and didn’t enjoy sharing someone's home. Would pay extra for a place to ourselves in future, it’s just too awkward cooking and interacting with people in their own home.

Coyhaique is famous for having the only supermarket along the Carretera Austral but because we had stocked up so well on food in Puerto Montt for the whole 2 weeks trip it was a visit more to stretch our legs and top up on bread.

We had a quick saunter through town which was quite nice and then spent our time in the Airbnb. Every night along the Carretera Austral we would be in our accommodation by late afternoon, relax, cook some decent food (the benefit of having an Airbnb over a hostel) and call it a night nice and early. We will call it The Austral wind down going forward.

Tuesday 21st November - Day 413

While sharing our Airbnb hosts' communal spaces was awks, the room was super comfy and we were well rested come morning.

Once packed up we drove to Coyhaique National Park for our day's walk. It was quite an unpleasant drive to get to the trailhead, up a steep rocky road and had timed it rather poorly so we were following a slower car than even ours, giving huge risk of ‘beached Luke, the third edition’.

We hadn’t registered which proved a minor problem at the gate. Fortunately being so close to Coyhaique we had internet signal but we wouldn’t be making that mistake again for any other National Park.

National Park details:

Cost per person = CLP11k
Payment = card in person
Sector = only one available
CONAF Reservation required = yes

The weather across Patagonia had been shocking for a while. A La Niña year meant heavy snow and rainfall had continued well into the summer shoulder season we were now travelling and seriously ran the risk of derailing every walk Luke planned. He was already pretty miserable about the rain but having all his planned hikes closed was very upsetting.

In Coyhaique, the National park was open thankfully but the more challenging Las Piedras hike was closed. So we set off on the only open loop trail, Sendero Los Carreros.

It started with the majority of the climbing and was largely forest walking throughout.

The wildlife started strong with plenty of birds flying around and singing, especially some parrots chilling in a tree. Binoculars were out pretty quickly.

The first part topped out at a pretty weak mirador viewpoint, partly overlooking the city and more impressively, the snow capped mountains.

A short walk further took us to the Laguna verde where we set up shop for a short lunch break in one of the wooden huts overlooking the lake.

The lake water was a lovely colour when the sun came out and could see a number of fish chilling in the current.

A pontoon ran around the lake which gave better views of the mountain, lake and trees.

Post the lake scenery the walk got a bit boring. Clearly the path had had to be re-dug due to bad weather and we ended up walking along a fresh mud path through dead looking conifer trees for an age.