Patagonian BaseCamp Lodge Chaiten

... du pont que l on peut contourner pour s enfoncer dans une ville fort calme. Seuls 2 hotels ont de la lumiere grace a des generateurs et la pleine lune donne une couleur plafarde a cette cendre aglutinee. Apres un nouveau tour en ville dans la matinee, on revient vers la jetee ou l on prend un bus vers Villa Santa Lucia. La, on dejeune en face de la place centrale sous les tenelles d une echoppe. Puis, on se place sur le bord ...

... somr other place, couldnt find one, so decided i will sleep outdoors. after a few hours in the town i went back to the port and there i found out that the waiting room is open, so i got a free hospedaje. the next day i took another ferry to a village called hornopiren and today i took the bus to puerto montt, tonight i will go back to santiago.

... pero olvide quitarme los lentes!!! Así que igual no veía nada. Menos mal que Frances iba adelante y yo seguí la luz trasera de su bici, y por suerte en el túnel fueron sólo 500 mts aprox. En la tarde anduvimos unos 18 Kms buscando un bendito camping que aparece en un mapa y nunca lo conseguimos. Terminamos acampando al lado del camino. Por cierto casi sin agua. Total hoy 63 Km. 23 Feb Hoy salimos a las 8:55 am. Record! Aunque creo que se debió a que no, lavamos los ...

... custom generated by stranded passengers, and decided that a bar next to their office would probably do very well. You could call it 'The Travelers' Lament' or the 'Myth of Chiloé' or similar. But before completely despairing, we stopped at a tour company, Chaitur, which said that we might be able to do a bus-ferry-bus option to Puerto Montt tomorrow. Extraordinary. It got stranger - we could even buy ferry tickets, and bus tickets too. So we did. The girl at the ferry desk ...

... how to get out, or, at worst, fill in the time. They suggested we do a bus, boat, bus combination to get to Puerto Montt via the wild Carretera Austral (a road built for political rather than practical reasons, some argue). We went back to the ferry company and this time they had tickets for the next day. We then got the last two seats to Caleta Gonzalo on the bus, where the ferry leaves from. To fill in the afternoon, we got transport back away from the coast ...

Day 189: February 20, 2008 Coyhaique to Caitén The hotel was nice but had very creaky floors so we heard just about every foot step in the morning. It was sunny and clear outside when we got up for breakfast in the second floor dining room. Our hostess served us the standard Chilean breakfast of instant coffee, bread, and jam and talked about life in Coyhaique. Not too many tourists pass through in the winter but that was fine with her; she loved it there. I asked ...

To get off the island of Chiloe, one must either take the bus back the way they came (north), or take a ferry (south). I needed to take the ferry to go south, because going north would have been silly, since I am going south through the continent. Anyways, I got to the ferry terminal to find that advance reservations are needed to take the ferry to Chaiten, and they were booked solid for the next 2 weeks. I was ...

The boat to Chaiten was a real problem. We got to Quellon (where the boat leaves from) and the people said it was full - and the next one was also - it wouldnt have a spacefor a week!!!!! This was obviously a bit of a problem because although Chiloe is nice - it isnt nice for a week. We needed to get off this place - and NOW! we chatted to a guy wearing a pink shirt near the boat who seemed to be in charge - he told us to wait inside and im not sure what happened but ...

... road. So after our delay (which the bus driver must have known about) the driver decided to go faster which made the ride extremely bumpy. I think I have vibrated off most of my fat on these gravel roads. The only bonus was meeting a nice Australian couple so we had a good chat to them while we were waiting. Hopefully we will catch up with them in Argentina somewhere. After 10 hours we arrived in Chaiten and eventually found the hostel we had booked ...

... My emergency fund could not cover all. Fortunately chaiten is also the ferry port to Chiloe,Chile (another province and banking system) and our next planned stop. Upon arrival at the terminal I noticed "VISA" and it nearly brought a tear to my eye. After a short and difficult conversation is Spanish we learned that the "visa machine" was no longer on the province and its on its way to Porto Mont. ????? I think I ...