Activity Summary
Wednesday 22nd November - Day 414 (continued)
Drive to Puerto Rio Tranquilo
Stress about car insurance
Thursday 23rd November - Day 415
Laguna San Rafael National Park
Glaciar Exploradores
Friday 24th November - Day 416
Marble caves / Cavernas de Marmol
Boat tour on General Carerra lake
Drive to Cochrane
Summary
Puerto Rio Tranquilo
Really nice small town with quite a few things to do. Worth a couple of days here.
Laguna San Rafael National Park
Not an easy National park to get to, a good hour and a half drive along gravel roads that take you well away from civilization. Fortunately the gravel roads were in pretty decent condition.
As a result of glacier instability, there were no boat tours running to and onto the glacier. The only open option was the self guided hike around the edge which was pretty cool, but again expensive for what it is.
Accommodation
Puerto Rio Tranquilo - Rimaya Hostel
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £30
Positives:
Nice owner
Comfy, warm beds
Loved the no shoe rule (provided slippers)
Decent bathrooms, despite being shared
Negatives:
Annoying that 2 nights was the minimum
Expensive for what it was
Could do with more heat
Recommend?
Better accomodation the next visit
Diary
Wednesday 22nd November - Day 414 (continued)
And so ended the Ruta 7 tarmac. The drive to Puerto Rio Tranquilo was fine but the max speed Luke could really do without risking losing control on the gravel or busting a tire was 40kph.
By the time we reached Tranquilo he was pooped. Having a 23km hike and then a 3 hour drive fully focussed on not obliterating the rental car was a long day for him.
The hostel was very nice and on stepping through the doors, forced to replace our shoes for woollen slippers, a level of relief swept over him. This didn’t last long sadly as we ended up trawling through the T&Cs of our rental car on booking.com and found we may not have been insured on gravel roads. First rent-a-car however said nothing about this and so we concluded we were fine. Fortunately nothing happened on a gravel road so we never had to put this to the test…
But it was a very stressful moment for us. More care was certainly given for the rest of the gravel road driving.
Thursday 23rd November - Day 415
Off the back of our stressful car insurance realisation the night before, we weren’t really all that enthused about driving an hour and a half on gravel roads to the Laguna San Rafael National Park. But Luke’s Carpe Diem mentality won out. The drive further and further away from civilization didn’t make Nicola relaxed at all and her migraine was causing her a lot of problems, problems that are far more complex than a simple headache as Luke would come to learn. Ever learning this guy.
Our Airbnb host said the road was pretty good and with the sunshine it proved to be quite simple to traverse. At the CONAF registration point we checked in and then got shown to our Glacier Exploradores trail.
National Park details:
Cost per person = CLP11k
Payment = cash in person
Sector = self guided section
CONAF Reservation required = wasn’t checked but it is recommended
The NP guys weren’t lying when they said it was very up and down. The trail took us along the glacial lake, yo-yoing over a combination of park created structures, rock and root.
Every now and again we would emerge from the trees and have wicked views over the lower parts of the glacier that was covered in rock flour hiding its icy depths.
In the distance the Exploradores glacier could be seen in the valley.
The walk did go on for a bit, the main decision being whether to go right or left to a respective viewpoint. We were told right was best and followed this advice.
A viewing platform took us as close as we could get to the glacier.
With the help of our trusty binoculars we could get a better look at the dutty crevasses in the ice.
A spot of lunch was cut short by a consistent attack of what we dubbed ‘wiggly worms’, these small insects that would land on us and wiggle around like worms. Made eating tuna pasta quite difficult.
The views over the glacier, lake and surrounding mountains and trees were really nice.
Turning tail we went back to the car, Nicola struggling a bit with dizziness and Luke crying about his ankle blisters.
Distance = 6.69km
Elevation = 457m
Max elevation = 245m
Walking time = 2hrs 13mins
Elapsed time = 2hrs 50mins
It was a long day for a short walk but glad we did it. Mainly because the car survived.
Our usual Austral wind down was done from the comfort of our room rather than the communal space because it was far too cold there. Also the people seemed a bit strange… not your usual backpackers on this leg of the trip it seems.
Friday 24th November - Day 416
The best weather day of the trip for what felt like an age. Sadly it wouldn’t hold going forward and timed a bit unfortunately so that Luke didn’t have a big hike planned.
But it did make the General Carerra lake, the largest lake in Chile and second biggest in South America that rolls into Argentina, pop as we had a boat tour around the Marble caves.
Nicola was loving life on a calm lake that had some amazing colours and doing a relaxing tour that required little to no challenge.
The marble caves were beautiful, able to appreciate them from inside as the boat captain navigated the narrow spaces with great skill and success.
The best views were looking back over the lake with the marble caves on one side and the snow capped mountains in the backdrop.
Some of these caves / features had names as follows:
Chapel
Cavern
Cathedral
The boat tour was good relaxing fun and had a perfect day for it.
The lady at the tour office had undercharged us and because we were in such a good mood we ended up confessing to her mistake and paying the difference.
Now early afternoon we had some sandwiches and drove to Cochrane.
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