Schlagwort-Archive: Chile

Chile, World Trip 2018-19

Hitchhiking the Carretera Austral – Part 1 (North)

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During the days in Puerto Varas, we had made up our mind that we wanted to travel along the Carretera Austral in a bit of a different way than usual – by hitchhiking! We stocked up on food and supplies in Puerto Varas, then took two busses first, to get us out of the city area of PV/Puerto Montt where it is unlikely to catch a ride. In Caleta La Arena, we boarded a ferry for 30 min as there is no road connection. At the end of the ferry ride, we went downstairs and asked some cars whether they were going to Hornopirén and whether we could join them. I felt a bit awkward doing so, but fortunately the 2nd car we asked was a really friendly guy who had lots of space for us! Even though he drove as fast as possible, we didn’t make it past a road block on time anymore though and ended up getting stuck waiting in Caleta Manzano for 3 h! Ouuff. After trying to find a different road (which didn’t exist) and getting the car properly stuck in the mud, our host-driver finally gave up and we had the best empanadas ever!! Yum. After all, not such a bad stopover.

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When we finally arrived, Hornopirén positively surprised us! I didn’t expect much, but it’s actually a cute little town in a pretty setting. We also found one of the cheapest campings of our trip there. It’s not a bad spot to walk around for a couple of hours in the afternoon when waiting for the ferry to Caleta Gonzalo which only leaves twice a day in the morning.

 

Contrary to what we found online, there are actually 2 different ferry companies whereas SOMARCO was about half the price of the other one! Easy choice then… and off we were! It’s actually 2 ferries that you take, interrupted by a short 12 km drive in between. Luckily, we met a French woman again who we knew from Puerto Varas and who gave us a ride. The ferry rides were nice and relaxing with some pretty scenery around.

 

From Caleta Gonzalo, we got a ride with 3 students from Santiago and squeezed into their car for about 40 min to our little campsite at Lago Blanco in Pumalin national park. It was a nice camping directly on the lake and for free! Not a bad day…

 

Next day, we went on to hike the most famous trail of the national park – up to a viewpoint near Chaiten volcano crater. This volcano destroyed the village of Chaiten in 2008 with a big unexpected eruption. While it was not the most spectacular volcano for us to see, the views along the hike were nice and I liked the 2 coloured lakes at the top! Lots of steps though, steps, steps and more steps. The trail basically only consisted of steps. My knees were not happy.

 

Looking at the weather forecast, we then quickly decided to head as far to Queulat national park as possible that day. We very quickly got a ride to Chaiten, then waited about an hour at different spots for our next ride Villa Santa Lucía. When we got dropped off at this tiny village in the middle of nowhere, I had little hopes of making it further that day… but we got lucky again! A guy on his way back to Coyhaique picked us up and dropped us directly at the camping of the Hanging Glacier in Queulat national park. Awesome! Another successful day.

 

I called next day „the day when our luck ran out“. Everything had been going so well until then, and we were hoping to catch the last sunny-ish morning before some rainy days in Queulat NP. We woke up early and the sky was blue, some tiny clouds on the horizon. While we quickly had breakfast and packed up, the sky had turned almost completely grey. Damn! We still thought it might open up again or we would still get an ok view, so quickly started our hike. About 2 h later, we arrived at the viewpoint to this view…

 

So sad. Check Google picture search for Ventisquero Colgante (hanging glacier) and you might understand our disappointment and frustration. We had a long, lucky day with lots of hitchhiking to get here on time – and then this! Also, getting away from here turned out more difficult than expected. There were almost no cars and we waited 2 h for a ride. When an elderly couple finally picked us up, we were very lucky again – getting to our final destination Coyhaique in just one go! Also, they picked us up just in time before some heavy rains came in and invited us for tea and apple empanadas on the way. People are so friendly here! Along the ride, the weather gradually got better and we were surprised by the pretty surroundings of Coyhaique! Too bad we can’t afford a rental car to drive around ourselves – but at least we walked around town to some viewpoints next day.

 

Also, we had to get a bit organized again and stock up on food. Coyhaique is kind of the capital of Carretera Austral, the only bigger city that has some more amenities. After this, we headed further to the more Southern part of the Carretera Austral…

Chile, World Trip 2018-19

Puerto Varas – more volcanoes

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We spent two days in Puerto Varas – one day we did a lot of shopping: Mathijs needed new shoes, I needed a warmer jacket and pants and we both needed to stock up on food and plan our upcoming adventure going South on the Carretera Austral. We also visited the information office for Pumalin national park and enjoyed the pretty views over the lake of Osorno volcano. 

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The other day, we went active again and hopped on a bus to Vicente Perez Rosales national park to go on a hike. Right from the beginning we had amazing views of Osorno volcano. What made it even better were our favourite yellow bushes blooming everywhere. Later on our trip we learned that these are apparently an invasive species… Oops! We still find them very pretty.

What was less nice during this hike were the hundreds of horse flies constantly buzzing around our heads and biting when we stood still for too long. Guess we just had to hike fast then! We soon reached the Mirador, the endpoint of our hike from where we had pretty views over the surrounding mountains and lake while enjoying our lunch.

It was a nice hike to do from Puerto Varas and easy enough as a day trip. After one more night in our hostel camping, we set off for the Carretera Austral next morning…

Chile, World Trip 2018-19

Pucón – in the shadow of the volcano

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Time for a long bus ride again! After all our relaxing time in Viña del Mar, we were ready for a change in scenery and hopped on a night bus down to Pucón where our Couchsurfing host picked us up at the bus station. We had not slept much that night and the weather was grey and windy, so we got some organizational stuff done, checked out some camping gear (still need to buy a stove etc) and then dropped into bed! (the photo below is from a sunnier day in Pucon)

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Well rested, we were ready for a hike. The sun was shining again and we were looking forward to see Huerquehue national park. It was a 1 h ride on the bus and we realized that we had to hike quite fast in order to make the 14.10 bus back to the city. The bus times are a bit stupid: You arrive at 9.45 to then go on a 5 h hike whereas there’s a bus at 14.10 and the next one only at 17.10. Annoying. Anyways, we decided to give it a go and try to make the 14.10 bus to still have some more time to buy outdoor equipment in the city. So we power-hiked through the forest, through the mud and up many steps. Up, up, up we went. Luckily, the trail wasn’t that interesting until the first two viewpoints – which were super pretty with volcano Villarica being the star of all photos.

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Later on, the path straightened out mostly and we reached the three lakes: Lago Chico, Lago el Toro and Lago Verde. The first two were very pretty and we took so many pictures! Especially Lago el Toro was very picturesque with a snowy mountain in the back. We should have stayed here for lunch, a perfect spot and quiet, since most people went to Laguna Verde first…

…which was also pretty but not as much as Lago el Toro and there were very few spots to sit and have lunch. By that time, we had decided against the 14.10 bus and instead decided to walk a bit around the lakes and enjoy the scenery a bit more, rather than feel rushed the whole day. So after some time in the sun and lots more photos here and there, we hiked back – which actually took longer than expected! So in the end I guess the 14.10 bus would have been unrealistic anyways and we were glad we had decided for the later bus option.

Next day – next national park! This time we were off with all our luggage to Santuario El Cañi – a private reserve which offers camping. We had to stay at the reception camping which was not nice and didn’t have any facilities except a basic and dirty toilet and cold shower. If we had less luggage, we would have preferred one of the campsites higher up the mountain.

So after setting up our tent, we started the hike with our day bags only – which was good, because the trail went up very steeply for quite a while. I enjoyed the hike much more than the day before though: We were in no rush to make some bus at the end of the day, there were much less other people and Mathijs found me a good walking stick. Also, we got a really nice map from the park with little stations, descriptions, time estimates etc. It made the walk as a whole really enjoyable because instead of thinking about the whole trail, we went from one station to the next – some with some nice views over the area. Later, the trail flattened out a bit and we reached a couple of pretty lakes where we took our lunch break when we found a good spot. Learned from the day before!

Re-energized, we made our way up the last steep climb to the mirador. So far, we had missed the WOW factor about this hike… well, once we reached the top not anymore! We were treated with an amazing view in all directions, lakes to our feet and snow-capped volcanoes on the horizon. A total of four volcanoes can be spotted from up here, of which Villarica and Lanin are the most picturesque ones. What added to the views were the cool araucania trees growing everywhere – some of the strangest looking trees I’ve ever seen.

We thoroughly enjoyed the views and then slowly made our way down the mountain, taking our time not to arrive too early at the campsite where there was not much left to do other than have picnic dinner and fight over our food with numerous cats and dogs. Camping life!