Activity Summary
Tuesday 21st November - Day 413 (continued)
Drive to Villa Cerro Castillo
Mirador with beautiful windy road with mountains and buttercups
Hostel Sendero Patagonia - mountains and puppies
Wednesday 22nd November - Day 414
Nicola migraine so played with puppies and frequented some cafes
Luke:
Sendero Estero Parada / Camping El Neozelandes
Cerro Castillo amphitheatre
Reunited:
Drive to Puerto Rio Tranquilo
Summary
Villa Cerro Castillo
Absolutely tiny place but it’s stunning. Has fuel, bread and some half decent cafes.
Cerro Castillo National Park
Luke’s favourite National park in the Carretera Austral and gutted it wasn’t open for the other trails. One of the more expensive ones apparently but given there was so much snow this fee was waived.
The mountains are quality and more hikes of a Luke appropriate length.
Accommodation
VCC - Hostel Sendero Patagonia
Number of nights - 1
Price per night per person - £20
Positives:
The views are stunning
Puppies! And friendly dogs
Private cabin was quite nice
Lovely hot shower
Communal kitchen
Really sound people worked there
Negatives:
A bit rustic
Recommend?
Yes absolutely.
Diary
Tuesday 21st November - Day 413 (continued)
The drive to Villa Cerro Castillo was quite pleasant. The roads were mainly paved and as the weather was behaving finally we got some great views of snow capped mountains as we descended into the more mountainous valley.
Finally we were able to see and vibe off of the beautiful Patagonian terrain.
One of the best views along the road trip was on this leg. The road topped out and went down the mountainside to a mirador that overlooked a beautiful windy road below.
The road was quality with the mass of yellow from some sort of buttercup flower in bloom.
To the right we got our first views of the dirty jagged mountain tops covered with snow on the trip.
Lovely spot for a stop on the way.
In Villa Cerro Castillo we pulled into the hostel Luke had booked via WhatsApp, Hostel Sendero Patagonia. One of the guys who worked there appeared and looked wholly confused at our arrival which was a pretty bad sign - turns out Luke should have sent a reminder because the dorm room he had booked was completely MIA and being refurbed. Fortunately for us one of the two private cabins they have was free so we weren’t homeless. It also turned out to be a really nice cabin with heater, private bathroom and plenty of thick blankets.
The views around the hostel were amazing, Cerro Castillo’s jagged summit not quite visible due to cloud cover but the rest of the mountain range was glorious.
Quote from Nicola, ‘this is the best accomodation ever’. The reason wasn’t the amazing mountains in the backdrop or the nice private cabin we had but simply because there were 3 very friendly adult dogs running around wanting love and a mass of puppies. So Nicola spent every minute possible outside (until it got too cold / the puppies went away) playing with them.
Views and puppies made for a memorable stay.
There was another German couple who were staying in the other cabin which helped Luke get a big walk lined up. The Laguna Cerro Castillo hike, which is supposed to be one of the best hikes in Patagonia, was full blown closed due to snow that came up to waist height and he was absolutely gutted.
But he had a replacement that was well recommended.
Wednesday 22nd November - Day 414
Initially we had both planned to hike the Sendero Estero Parada / Camping El Neozelandes together but Nicola had the start of a migraine so sensibly bowed out to start recovery.
So Nicola spent the day chilling in the cabin until kicked out, playing with the puppies and going to a couple of cafes around the village until Luke reappeared later in the day.
Luke story time:
Leaving Nicola be, I had a nice breakfast talking to the guide/Hostel employee and having an enjoyable time listening to a New Zealand band called L.A.B.
It was a short drive to the Sendero Estero Parada trailhead but I was cut 2.5km short because of a massive of ‘doble tracción’ warning signs and the one that made me not go any further was a ‘solo 4x4’ on a big red sign and other similar cars parked heading the warning. Really glad I parked up as the next drop was aggressively steep and rutted with car ending rocks. The MG would not have made it back up.
The extra 5km wasn’t too dramatic and it had seriously nice intro views of the surrounding mountain ranges.
I had seriously lucked out with the weather for the whole of the ascent.
At the start of the trail I checked in with the CONAF guys who had waived the National Park fee, assuming because everything was closed. Saved around £20, which is stupidly high for a NP fee…
The only fee payable was to the guys at Camping El Neozelandes to walk on private land. Not an expensive CLP1,500 cost.
The ascent to the hike summit began. The start through sort of farmland wasn’t anything exciting but they did have helpful yellow posts to signal the trail route. Nice and easy to find.
The trail went along the valley carved by the Rio Estero Parada.
It was pretty cloudy at the start of my hike so views over Cerro Castillo were blocked a bit.
I didn’t see too many people apart from some trail runners I kept overlapping with.
There was a lot of forest cover walking which was easy because it was dry and occasionally topped out for a view over some snow covered mountains in the distance.
Eventually the dense forest ended and I had my first close up of the evil looking Cerro Castillo peaks overhead.
At this point the start of the snow hit. It started off pretty easy and abated quickly.
The jovial snow walking vibes ended up hiking through a good couple of kilometres of snow. The trail was easy enough to follow thanks to previous trekkers but it was deep in parts so the risk of post-holing was very much present.
Having not eaten anything since breakfast and seeing I was near the end meant I didn’t have masses of energy to get through this part that required more focus than I wanted to provide.
Halfway through was a small clearing which gave me my first sights of the Cerro Castillo amphitheatre and my second excitable and out loud ‘phwoar’ moment.
The Neozelandes camp was covered in deep snow. The trail runners and some battle hardened campers, tent pitched up and all, were having lunch on some benches. Not a place I would have wanted to stay.
100-200m on the route to Laguna Duff took me out of the snow covered trees and out into the open plane of the Cerro Castillo amphitheatre. It was absolutely sensational and the cloud cover was minimal at this point.
Cerro Castillo to the right.
Middle range of what looked like perfect snow cover.
Great spot for selfie stick pictures.
I sat on a rock overlooking the river and mountains for my lunch. The trail runners at this point tried continuing to Laguna Duff but the snow was far too deep and turned around.
The weather turned pretty quickly after 20 or so minutes, cloud cover rolling in and the wind picking up quite dramatically. The right time to turn tail and head back.
The views down were nowhere near as good until hitting the river lower down again. Some guys with skis at this point passed me by going up and I couldn’t help but be impressed.
I said my goodbyes to Cerro Castillo and returned to the car, ankles sadly blistered to high heaven that would cause me a lot of annoying problems for the rest of the Carretera Austral. Sad times, I miss my Meindls.
Distance = 23km
Elevation = 902m
Max elevation = 1,156m
Walking time = 4hrs 34mins
Elapsed time = 5hrs 11mins
Team reunited:
Luke, now back at the hostel, collected Nicola and we were quickly on our way to Puerto Rio Tranquilo. There was a fantastic viewpoint overlooking the route Luke had just walked immediately out of town.
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