When we arrived at Hornopirén it was still raining as mad. We had no problems finding the cabana/cabin we had booked but were not very keen to try to explore the wet and misty town at this time.
The owners had started a fire in the oven and so it was perfectly warm. We made dinner and then fell like stones into our double bed.
After breakfast we drove a few hundred meters to the end of the ferry line and waited. This was the ferry route I had so desperately tried to book. In the end I managed to book it online, but we had to drive to an office (at small detour to Puerto Montt before) to print out the real tickets.
The ferry would pass threw a fjord, let us out at a remote peninsula, where we drove for about 30 minutes on an unpaved road to get to the second ferry. All together we were on the water / the road for 5 hours, before reaching the remote place Caleta Gonzalo in the heart of the Pumalin National Park. Caleta Gonzalo is not even a village, there are about 10 people living on a farm, at a ranger station and the Cabins/Café where we had booked our stay for 2 nights. There was no wifi, no shop, nothing. Just nature, the lovely wooden cabins and the café, where we would eat our breakfasts and dinners.
It was still raining hard - as it had throughout the ferry trip. We got our stuff into the cabins, made ourselves at home and waited for dinner, relaxing a bit and taking a small walk around the area.
I unfortunenately had developped a bladder infection when arriving in the colder part of Chile, with no pharmacy anywhere around at the moment.
The boss of the cafe told me that there was a tiny hospital in the next town, where we would be heading in 2 days anyway, so I waited. She also gave me a hot water bottle and lots of home made remedies like cups of parsley in hot water and pumpkin seeds. She, Soledad, was the nicest host ever!
The cafe crew told me that they had litterally opened this season on the exact day we had arrived. So we were among the first guests this spring.
We received a lot of information on Pumalin Park and about the walks to explore the area.
The next day we chose to take the Arleces walk to a couple of 3.000 year old giant Arlece trees which the Park is desperately trying to protect. There are just a few left.
We also heard the sound of a frog (in 2 different spots). I am almost certain that it might be a nose frog, a rare frog of this area, but I couldn't find them. They were sitting in their tree holes and didn't move.
On the way back to the car I tripped and hurt my ankle. It didn't feel that bad at the time and being as stern-minded as I am I wanted to to the next walk to the waterfalls as well.
This was a very crazy, slippery and wet walk, with climbing almost all of the way up, over steep ladders, slippery wooden steps and tree roots. It took ages and when we reached the first waterfall we had enough. We were both so tired and red in the face and there was nowhere to sit down to rest (too wet and cold) so we quickly started the descend and were pretty happy when we reached the car and later the cabin.
The next morning my left knee was swollen, so I couldn't walk normally. How perfect!
This was the day we would have to drive for an unknown time, between 4-6 hours to our next stop at Puyuhuapi (245 km) and we couldn't be sure where the paved and the unpaved sections of the road were.
We were sure that the part until the next town of Chaitén was unpaved, because we had already driven on it to reach the walks.
So I left this bit to René. I wanted to take over and try out my driving capacity on a paved section.
We almost needed 2 hours to Chaitén, because of the pot holes everywhere and of course we didn't want to ruin our car tires.
There we went to the hospital, where I met an extemely nice doctor, who also spoke English.
I received some medicine and was told to pay later, because the payment office was closed on this Sunday. I will have to pay on our return back North when we come through Chaitén again.
After cruising through this rather unpleasently windy and rainy harbour town to find a spot to eat we found a restaurant (El Volcano), which served so much meat we had to take away some of it for dinner. After that we started our tour.
I had seen a map on the ferry before which pointed out the exact sections of paved/unpaved roads and I was really surprised in the end that the map must have been older, because almost all of the road to Puyuhuapi was paved. In between there had been two enormous land slides, where they had put gravel to be able to pass through at all.
In the middle of our route, at La Junta, we stopped at the lovely Mi casita de te to drink coffee and each eat a gigantic slice of Pie de Limón (lemon pie). Imagine: they slice a pie into only 8 pieces!
The whole trip was accompanied by more rain, so we didn't stop much to take pictures of the snow covered mountains. I hope for better weather on the way back.
Just when entering the Queulat National Park, some 10 km before Puyuhuapi, the unpaved road started again. We drove past town and straight to our cabanas "Wanderlust". The cabin was small but cozy, we had a kitchen and a tiny heating. There we made ourselves dinner and hung out for a bit before going to sleep.
In the next morning we had a look into the small town of Puyuhuapi. I had learned that it was established by 4 Germans. There are a lot of German street names ("Otto Uebel") and an Original German beer company founded by a Hermann Hopperdietzel. Both names sound a bit funny.
The beer is fine, though - of course we have tried it.
We found a so called supermarket (I expected something bigger than the usual mini market) which had really almost everything, even a thermos and a water cooker for hot tea, but it looked very chaotic.
After that we also made a trip to the famous Ventisquero Colgante, the hanging glacier.
The road was even worse than just a few potholes scattered here and there. There were deep puddles of water, blocking the way and tiny land slide areas, making the road really narrow at places. On top there were warnings of rocks falling, but thankfully we didn't experience any of that.
Once we had arrived at the ranger station I had to give my passport details before we were admitted into the park. We parked the car and followed the easy panoramic view trail, which was okay for my knee, though I acquired some help from René at high steps.
The lookout was quite nice but too far away. That was why we tried the next longer trail to the green lake. We had to cross a big hanging bridge overlooking a wild river. Awesome!
After that the trail was fairly easy, just a bit longer than the first one.
We arrived at the green lake from where you could take boat rides (which we didn't due to very cold wind). At the other end of the lake was the amazing glacier. It was really hanging from a cliff , its melting water coming down in 2 waterfalls. Clouds were hanging in the mountains right and left from it, but after some time the sun came out and shone on the entire valley.
On the way back I took a few pictures of the river and the mossy forest as well.
We returned to Puyuhuapi and had some kuchen and lemon pie and cooked our own pasta with tomato sauce...mmmh.
On Tuesday René's cold, that had been increasing over a few days, was getting worse and instead of taking a tour to another forest + another waterfall in the South as planned we chilled in the cabin. René slept for another 2 hours and I continued writing my blog. At noon we drove north to explore lake Risopatron, which lies right next to the Carreterra Austral. We had to discover that there was just one place where we could get to the lake shore, which lay on the grounds of the El Pangue Lodge.
We decided to drink a coffee there and ask if we could have a look around, which was okay.
Later we learned that the lake (that was 11 km long) belonged to the owner of the lodge and that the road had not been there for so long. Before, people had to cross the river by boat because there was no road at all.
After drinking our coffee and talking to the waiter, who told us quite something about the ongoing unrest in Chile's bigger cities and the spreading of its news via social media (he said Valparaiso's city center was really destroyed - good that we changed our plans!), we went outside to the lake.
There was a mossy green meadow stretching onto the lake shore. An 'ash-headed goose' (with light red body) and 4 ibis were looking for worms there, when we passed. We went onto a small wooden pier onto the lake and looked around. It was vast with green mountains all around us.
In the vicinity there was a wooden bridge, which I later crossed, while René returned to the car.
The bridge led to a walking trail, of which I didn't know the length so I just went for a little while and took pictures of the plants around me. Then I went back.
For dinner we went to a local bar & restaurant (actually the only on that was open) at Puyuhuapi and had a nice meal with a our first pisco sour (a traditional chilenean drink) ever. It is - as the name states - really sour but tastes good, maybe a bit too strong.
There is a thing about bridges here that is quite curious: they all have names where there is only jungle or forest - or in some cases, they don't have names, that's why those are called Puente sin nombre, bridge without a name.
Other great names are
Puente Caballero Muerto (Dead Man)
Punte Rio Frio (Cold River)
and Puente Hermann Hopperdietzel.
The latter is a descendant of one of the German founders of Puyuhuapi and produces beer in the area.
The next days we were to travel back to the area where we had started our trip in the Lake District and Northern Patagonia: we had to give back our car at Puerto Montt and to board a ship that will take us to Southern Patagonia on a 4-day-trip.
There was one huge difference to the trip back: the sun was shining!
Finally we could see all of the snowy mountain tops around us, take more photos of the mesmorizing landscape and enjoy ourselves even more.
First we passed by La Junta's little tea house to have a lunch, buy a cake to go and drive for some more (approx. 4 hours).
In Chaiten, which appeared much more friendly this time, I payed my debts at the hospital office before driving to our cabana at the edge of town. There was a fireplace there and so we decided to do some clothes-washing by hand and hang them in front of the fire (which we would repeat the next day in the next cabin).
On our way through Pumalin Park we took a small walk to the Punta del Lago at Lake Negro.
There as a bird lookout there, but just a few swallows were flying around but no other birds - obviously they were all still asleep.
The only one we had never seen, but could hear now and have heard for quite a few days was still a mystery to us. It sounded like a sort of tiny dinosaur (okay, I have watched Jurassic Park too often maybe) and a forest chicken. I am determined to find out, how it looks.
When we arrived at Caleta Gonzalo we drank a coffee at our old cafe and were eagerly greeted by Soledad, who recognized us from a few days before. She wished us a pleasent trip and off we went on the first ferry of the day (the short one). It was so warm that I could even step outside for a longer time to take pictures.
A bunch of brown hawks had entered the ship and were soaring all around us. One or two even participated on our boat trip to the Northern part of Pumalin Park where we had to drive through the jungle once mor to get to ferry number two. The longer trip was very relaxed. When arriving at Hornopirén we expirienced first hand what kind of tricky business it is to 'park' a car ferry.
One guy was standing on the open platform gesturing wildly to the captain to go left, right, front... In the end we could drive off the ferry, bought some stuff in a cramped mini market and drove on to the Rincon del Gaucho cabin, just a little behind the town. There were horses, chicken, goats and a bunch of happily barking dogs there. One of them took a liking to René and vice versa and so they sat in front of the cabin for a while cuddling.
The owner gave us 4 eggs for dinner and made a fire for us. Mmmmmh, I am starting to like the idea of a fireplace of my own.
Our last day before arriving in Puerto Montt we had to drive to yet another ferry, which leaves every half hour between Puelche and La Arena, crossing a fjord. And on we went along the coast towards Puerto Montt with a small break to have empanadas and a cute pink cake with pink jello on top. Marvellous!
Video of our jungle drive
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