Carretera Austral – Part 4 – Cochrane to Puerto Varas via Chiloe Island

Our wonderful weather was looking like it was going to come to an end, and I was keen to get through the dirt road and back to Villa Cerro Castillo (where the seal starts/ends) ahead of it. From Cochrane we made it into Puerto Rio Tranquilo mid-morning and instantly had touts pimping their tours to Marble Caves. We ended up just going with the guy who had helped direct us to a car park – which in the end made no real difference. With the poor weather due that afternoon, and it being shoulder season, there were barely enough passengers to justify a boat going out at 11am (which was good as there was lots of space!). Subsequently, everyone who was signed up, regardless of who with, ended up on the same consolidated boat.

The weather wasn’t too bad when we set out, and at the caves themselves it was sunny and still. I was more impressed than I expected – but I’d had very low expectations. Condors nest on the cliffs near the caves so we saw them flying around above us which was an added highlight. The boat trip back was a bit exciting as the wind had picked up creating quite large waves – the boat went airborne several times as we cut across the waves.

The section of road between Puerto Rio Tranquilo and Villa Cerro Castillo was the worst we encountered on the whole trip. There were lots of potholes – which we hadn’t really encountered on any of the other gravel roads. And by this stage it was raining and some sections of the road did not have much traction. There was also more oncoming traffic than we’d had elsewhere – despite all that we only took half an hour longer than the Google estimate.

We stopped at a lookout just out of Villa Cerro Castillo. It was so windy we could barely get in/out of the car, and Tom wasn’t able to hold his camera still enough to take a photo!

When we arrived at our accommodation in Villa Cerro Castillo our host said the wind was at 100km/h – and that was down in the village – I can’t imagine how windy it was on the peaks. Needless to say we didn’t try and secure a guide to go walking this time! I didn’t sleep well as I was waiting for the roof to blow off, or for something to smash into the car. Fortunately neither happened! Given the weather there was little incentive to get moving, indeed there was more reason to stay put, so we checked out as late as possible.

The first half of the drive to Coyhaique was relatively protected but the second half was on open roads and there was a lot of buffeting of the car. Given the forecast for the next couple of days wasn’t great, and we’d largely done what we wanted on the way south, we decided to have two nights in Coyhaique to see off the weather. It was good to have a bit more selection on the dinner front and enjoyed two nice meals (not pizza or burgers) while we were there.

Our main exercise over the time there was a walk along Ruta 7 to Mirador Rio Simpson. I would have liked to climb Cerro Mackay, the prominent peak, but with wind forecasts of up to 70km/h it didn’t seem like the best idea.

There’d been a lot of options on how we could get back to Puerto Varas: back the way we came or ferries from about 3 different places. In the end we’d opted to take the ferry from Puerto Cisnes to Quellón. The reasons for choosing this option were – it limited the repeat driving we had to do, we would get the opportunity to see all of Chiloe Island, and (less importantly) it was an overnight ferry so we’d save a night’s accommodation/didn’t spend all day travelling.

We hadn’t factored in it being a Sunday and many restaurants/cafes being closed en route and in Puerto Cisnes (though it could have been November rather Sunday that was the problem). We were pleasantly surprised to stumble on a cafe which did a decent coffee and excellent mini croissants. Dinner however ended up being hot dogs (completos) from a food truck. As it turned out most of the traffic on the ferry was trucks, and they had to back on, which was quite complex. Unsurprisingly the (few) cars were loaded last and we were allowed to turn around on board making life a lot easier. There weren’t many passengers on board so we happily commandeered a row of three seats each and got a reasonable sleep.

I was quite happy when I woke up and it was light – that meant we should be docking soon, as it was a 12 hour ferry (8pm-8am). Unfortunately Tom then told me we hadn’t moved for some hours…. Checking our position using the GPS/map app we were some 10km south of Melinka (the only stop on the route). We got a free coffee and a packet of biscuits each for breakfast, but no information. And then spaghetti bolognaise got given out for lunch, but still no information. Eventually about 1:30pm we started moving, and got into Melinka at 2pm.

There were a lot of passengers waiting to board, and the ferry was pretty packed by the time we left Melinka around 2:30pm. We finally got into Quellón just after 7pm – 24 hours on the ferry instead of 12! We had a mad dash to the supermarket and then hit the road for our AirBnB which was half way up the island. So much for our leisurely day of sight-seeing. Fortunately we got there just on dark as it would have been tricky to spot the driveway in the dark.

The next day we headed to the sculpture Muelle de las Almas (Pier of the Souls). By complete coincidence our AirBnB host was the artist who created it. Like many things it’s become an instagram favourite, and in peak times gets crazy – as evidenced by the sign advising 2 minutes per person. There was one other couple visiting that morning, so we had as much time as we wanted. It’s a 2km walk each way from the car park, and we had surprisingly good weather.

We then had to toss up whether to go to the newer sculpture which was a much longer walk, or whether to visit Chiloe National Park. We opted for the national park, which was somewhat underwhelming (especially given the entry fees!). Of course, several of the walks were closed. We did everything that was open, I enjoyed Sendero Dunas de Cucao the best.

The next day was (sort of) our final day of the road trip as we were to get back to Puerto Varas that night. It was also the worst weather day – in that it rained on and off the entire day. We had our final ferry to get back onto mainland Chile and then back to the AirBnB we’d stayed in when we arrived.

That night (Wednesday) we discovered that tragically several people had died on the “O Circuit” in a massive storm on Monday. We were due to start the O Circuit on Saturday so we were unsure what that meant for us. So on Thursday we panic-bought some microspikes (given the likely conditions in Torres del Paine), and I got a new pair of boots as the ones I’d started the trip with were unlikely to survive an 8 day hike, particularly if we were walking in snow.

With our shopping behind us, we headed around Lago Llanquihue to Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park. Of course we paid a squillion dollars for 1.5 hours of walking tracks. The waterfalls through the old lava flows at least had some wow factor, so we didn’t feel quite as gouged as Chiloe National Park.

Friday morning we had an early start to fly from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales. I failed to pack my pocket knife in my checked luggage, but fortunately they let me go back and check another bag so I didn’t lose it altogether!

Thus ended our Northern Patagonian adventures.