Activity Summary
Wednesday 15th November - Day 407 (continued)
Llanquihue
Frutillar Bajo
Biergarten Tropera
Drive to Puerto Varas
Walk around Puerto Varas
Thursday 16th November - Day 408
Volcan Osorno
Petrohué Waterfalls
Katarata Grill
Mirador al costado del Salto Petrohué
Mirador del Río Petrohué
Friday 17th November - Day 409
Alerce Andino National Park
Salto Río Chaicas waterfall
Alerce Milenario (Gran Abuelo)
Stay in Puerto Montt
Saturday 18th November - Day 410
Prepare for Carretera Austral road trip
Kill time in Puerto Montt
Missed ferry to Chaitén
Emergency accomodation in Puerto Montt
Summary
Puerto Varas
Nice small town. Very pretty with the alpine inspired buildings and seemingly plenty of opportunity to overspend for a sit down meal, wine and warmth.
Alerce Andino National Park
A pretty remote National park that had a lot of routes closed because of bad weather. But the Salto Río Chaicas waterfall was well worth it, even if it was only a short walk.
Cost pp = CLP6,000
Pay on the door = Yes
Entry times = 9am-3pm
Park close = 5pm
Transport
Carretera Austral
The joys of having a car back. It’s not a good car at all but it was the cheapest on offer, has clearance and we are expecting a more chilled time once away from Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas down south.
Luke drives while Nicola keeps a lookout for an array of hazards from a combination of driving on the wrong side of the road, Chilean roads being a bit bizarre and people being nobs.
Not such relaxing driving in Montt and Varas.
Naviera Austral - ferry to Chaiten
WARNING - THIS COMPANY SUCKS ASS.
Ferry times will change
Ferries can be cancelled
Expensive
The website is useless
The company is basically uncontactable
For a sales based company, fuck all systems in place
But they have a monopoly so they can do what they want. Arrive and check the day before and keep checking throughout. Expect to be stressed.
Accommodation
Puerto Varas - Mapatagonia
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £14
Positives:
Really nice interior
Location is great
Decent kitchen
Warm and a nice log burner
Washing not crazy expensive
Negatives:
No immediate parking, but was some nearby
Walls a bit thin
Recommend?
Yes
Puerto Montt - Departamento 2 habitaciones
Number of nights - 1
Price per night per person - £18
Positives:
Whole apartment
Close to supermarket
Comfortable
Negatives:
Walls a bit thin
Not a great kitchen but the electric hob worked fine
Noisy neighbours
Recommend?
No - a bit expensive for what it was and an Airbnb would be nicer
Puerto Montt - Hotel Seminario
Number of nights - 1
Price per night per person - £19
Positives:
Nice hotel room
Provided breakfast
Comfortable room
Two single beds
Hot water
Nice views
Negatives:
Hotel room, not great with a car full of food
Expensive but we got a good discounted rate being so last minute
Recommend?
Yes
Diary
Wednesday 15th November - Day 407 (continued)
Rather than head straight to Puerto Varas we decided to visit some of the small towns to the north, inspired by German settlers (heard on the grapevine they were likely Nazi’s) some time ago.
The first town on the drive was Llanquihue and on rolling through there wasn’t a whole lot to see. It wasn’t helped by the drill grey backdrop the rain and clouds brought mine.
At Lago Llanquihue we parked up and ate our packed lunch from the shelter of the car. Google informed us that on a clear day, there was supposed to be a lovely view over the lake with the lone peak of Volcan Osorno in the distance and would have made an excellent photo. Instead we got nada and then ran off to Frutillar instead.
Frutillar is split into two parts, Frutillar Bajo being the prettier touristy spot by the lake so we decided on this location. As we parked up the weather was so kind as to grace us with a dry window so we managed to stretch our legs a bit along the lakeside.
The performing arts theatre was pretty jazzy for a small town and screamed wealthy area.
The smell of some fresh fried fish was doing the dirty on us, particularly having had such a bland sandwich lunch from the car, but we were well behaved and settled for a lone hot drink in Biergarten Tropera. The place was lovely, a nice warm fire going on next to us and a wicked array of beers that Luke would have totally sampled had he not just started to figure out Chilean driving.
Late afternoon now we drove to Puerto Varas, sadly timing our journey to our hostel at the peak school run amongst a town that has rather narrow roads and a mass of one way systems that are incredibly poorly signposted. Luke’s approach was to just follow what other cars were doing.
The hostel was right next to a school with no parking outside so Luke had to wait outside while Nicola did the bag run and check in. Considering he would be doing all the driving it would be a comparatively very small unpleasant task while car rich, then passenger princess the rest of the time (once out of cities, too many hazards otherwise).
While the hostel street was chaos and a no go, we did manage to find a nice wide open road to park on called Santiago street, a short 5 minute walk away.
Luke thoroughly enjoyed the decor of the hostel, giving off a nice alpine lodge with a ton of wood and even the log burner to go with it. It may have struggled with a leaky roof and thin walls but it was nice to be in a place that took some pride in its appearance.
The rain continued to hold off into the early evening so we had a short walk around Puerto Varas. It was certainly a lot nicer than Puerto Montt and the small natural pier was pretty.
Again there wasn’t a whole lot in town bar trialling some of the beer houses and spending a fair whack on a disappointing meal out. We resisted, pretty hard after passing up on the beer in the German bier haus earlier, and whipped up a great mushroom white wine gnocchi in a surprisingly pleasant hostel kitchen.
The £4 bottle of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc from the Central Valley region (below Santiago) was surprisingly good.
Thursday 16th November - Day 408
Forecast for the next week, shed tons of rain.
Luke was never optimistic his hiking plans around the area would amount to much with this news, but the perks of having a car meant we could go to and see for certain whether these were stupid ideas. Versus getting the bus there and being miserable the whole time.
First up was an attempt to some more of Volcan Osorno that was so determined to play hide and no seek with us. There was an interesting walk that could be done from the base of the ski lifts up the volcano which on a good day we would have tried before any kind of glacier hiking would have sent us back home.
We were under no illusions this walk would happen and our drive up the mountain was pretty wet and grey. Very pretty though and we got some cracking views of some snow covered mountainside that appeared only because we were in the clouds.
The start of the walk really showed how bad the weather can change closer to 2,000m. No longer sheltered by the mountain, the wind was absolutely savage. Nicola was brave enough to step out with a phone to take a video and was very close to being thrown around like a rag doll.
The car was shaking and after a few minutes we turned tail and ran.
The safer activity option for the day was the nearby Petrohué Waterfalls. A CONAF (Chilean National Park people) run area that cost CLP7kpp for entry and had card payment on the door.
Initially we thought it was a little steep for a seemingly non-National park area with minimal walks around but on walking past the entrance and over to the waterfalls, it was absolutely worth it.
With the water levels so high from the rain and warmer ‘summer’ climate melting the snow around the mountains, the Petrohué waterfall was outstanding. The mass of water was savage and the deep blue colour that was crystal clear was beautiful.
The river was also incredibly interesting. Jagged black volcanic rock lined the river banks as the water cut through, over and around.
The set up was pretty great, with a small network of walkways that stepped out over the river with viewpoints. Being midweek and wet it really wasn’t busy at all which was wonderful.
Both of us were super happy at this point, getting some cracking river porn and with the comfort of a car taking away any stress in our activity. Missed this.
We had a slow walk along the river path stopping for various photos along the way.
At the end of the path we turned back into the forest that ran up a small stream.
The rain had started up again so we sat inside the food place in the park, Katarata Grill, grabbed some cake and coffee and had our lunch.
The last offering of the park was a short walk in the forest that ended at the river. After spending some time admiring a load of birds swooping and feeding on insects we turned around and went back to the car.
We drove to two further roadside viewpoints:
Mirador al costado del Salto Petrohué
Mirador del Río Petrohué
The road seemingly ended at Petrohué town so we did make our way over only to get fazed by a random guy pointing at something and fearing a parking cost we just went around the roundabout and left.
Back at the hostel we cooked and chilled, Nicola refusing Luke’s challenge of a game of scrabble.
Friday 17th November - Day 409
After checking out we drove over to Alerce Andino National Park, more accessible from Puerto Montt and therefore were changing up our accommodation for the evening.
It was about an hour and half worth of driving and the weather just got worse as we got close to the Alerce Milenario hike entrance. By the time we did get to the NP outpost it was full blown hailing so we sat in the car, ate some food and waited for the evil spell to end.
The car park was horribly organised and despite there being plenty of space the parking quality from trekkers was so bad we were forced to go outside the gates. It was CLP6kpp cash only at the NP and we were hella thankful this was an option - we didn’t want to buy a ticket from CONAF online in case the weather was so horrific and wanted to bail.
It did stop downpouring as we started walking but it was by no means dry. Nicola wasn't appropriately waterproofed from leg down and was pretty cold and soaked by the end.
It rained, stopped, downpoured, stopped. Eat, sleep, rave, repeat.
The only walk open was to the Salto Río Chaicas waterfall and Alerce Milenario, an 8km out and back through forest. It was probably about the max we could cope with given the rain to be honest.
The Salto Río Chaicas waterfall was actually insane. We thought the Petrohué falls were spectacular but this guy was something else.
The sheer volume and power of the water was palpable and was shaking the entire boardwalk.
Luke’s jaw was well and truly dropped which some other tourists found quite amusing.
A little further up the path was the Alerce Milenario (Gran Abuelo) tree, at over 3,000 years old it is the oldest tree in South America and one of the oldest in the world.
Next to the waterfalls it really wasn’t the star of the show but it was pretty interesting how different it was to some of the monster Kauri trees we saw in NZ.
Our walk back was a bit unpleasant but it was seriously beautiful with all the moss covered trees and various streams of running water.
At least we had a car. The old couple we met on our Santiago walking tour happened to be here at the same time who told us they had been on bikes for 6 days straight in the shite weather. This sounded rough as fuck.
Now back in Puerto Montt we checked into our new accommodation and tried to dry all our stuff with little success. It was a cold apartment and the heater wasn’t great.
Saturday 18th November - Day 410
Our neighbours were so kind in throwing a party until 3am without inviting us. At least we had two rooms between us and them so it wasn’t awful and Luke was so tired he slept through most of the noise.
Today was going to be a bit shitty with a ferry booked at 11pm to Chaiten. But at least we could kill time in the comfort of a car. With nothing planned (Alerce take 2 cancelled because we didn’t want to be wet all day) we checked out at 11.30am. The first stop was again the Naviera Austral office but once again the fuckers were closed.
Banco BICE nowhere near the main part of town proved to be our cash saviour, finally having an ATM that was open outside of ridiculously shit banking hours. Scotiabank in town only opened until 1pm midweek and is a seriously annoying bank to deal with.
The big Lider was our stop for the big 2 week Carretera Austral road trip shop. Expecting everything to be either lacking or hella expensive down south, we bought a boot load of food that should hopefully see us through at a fraction of the cost. We hope.
A big negative was this experience was hell on Earth on a Saturday and took 30 minutes to queue for check out. The lack of a conveyor belt system and teeny tiny check out desks were so annoying. Once again Luke was seen as a weak gringo by an elderly South American and a lady tried pushing in ahead of him. This time having big guns Nicola got her to fuck off. He’s so weak.
Now mid afternoon we thought going back to the mall would be a sensible place to kill some time. It was more stressful to park in the underground complex than we expected and post this we were pretty unenthusiastic for a wander around the shops so instead sat in the food court and did nothing.
Citing this was an expensive way to kill time, we left the mall for the Jumbo cafe we had drawn many a similarity to of our own personal favourite, the Gamston Morrisons Cafe, but of course being so much worse. It did offer us a place to chill for a few hours though and was right next to a domino's pizza that would be our dinner. Was alright but absolutely nothing on home.
Now around 7pm Luke knew the Naviera office was supposed to have been open for an hour. So trying again, we parked outside and Luke went in to find absolutely no one. The signs on the door helpfully told us where we needed to go to catch the ferry and we then went 500m down the road.
Absolute fuckery time.
We arrived at the entrance to a slightly confused barrier operator but as we were 4 hours early that was expected. At this point he proceeded to tell Luke that he had actually missed the ferry which had departed 2 hours earlier and he should have been informed by email and phone.
Now having been around the ringer somewhat of late with his elongated travels from Mendoza and now this he was well and truly fuming. A loud and long ‘fuck’ with a punching of the air was certainly enough to get Nicola’s attention from within the car and the guy think Luke was a nutter. Not often he has any or the need to vent any rage but this certainly was one of the few.
Fortunately for us the guy spoke some half decent English and meant we could understand that the ferry had been rescheduled, Naviera had failed to tell us and we had missed the ferry to Chaiten. There wouldn’t be a direct one again until Tuesday so his suggestion would be to book the ferry from Castro to Chaiten and drive there the next day. His revised schedule was saying a ferry at 9am for this next day service.
Luke, now back in the car absolutely fuming, actually managed to get hold of someone from Naviera. Turns out the WhatsApp number on the door worked, the only problem was the person on the phone wouldn’t shut up and didn’t speak in easy to understand Spanish. So Luke did pretty well at getting his point across, the problem and what he needed to happen but he could not understand a word the person was asking for on the other end. His persistence in getting the ‘call only’ number to take his WhatsApp messages saved the day and just as he was about to book the tickets the person was resounding and able to change them for us at no cost.
Next task would be trying to get a refund out of these guys. It took this lady 2 hours to get our tickets sorted and start to process a refund, only for her to lose her shit by email and then just stop. It was 10pm but their system should be able to cope with 1 single problem passenger… turns out not.
Luke did take some comfort in the reasoning behind the missed ferry - Naviera had a system cock up and he wasn’t sent the revised time. Absolute bellends.
But we had a revised game plan, booked into an emergency hotel in Puerto Montt and Luke was able to try de-stress from 10pm.
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