Will our van be the death of us!?

Issues with our van seem to be a trend we have to keep overcoming in southern South America.  Unfortunately this blog is more about the same.  After overcoming one of the worst ferry rides of our life our van starts struggling to start.  We do still find adventure on the Chiloe archipelago but not without almost putting ourselves into the ocean (not on purpose) and putting most thing we have stored underwater.  This blog also marks the start of a little break from the daily blog format as we hope to keep our expense low to pay for all the repairs we need.  Our plan is to not do anything of note for a week and hope that nothing of note will happen to us.  This means that hopefully when you are reading this blog we are completely caught up in this blog and our Instagram posts.

March 7^th – The diminishing novelty of being on a ferry for the day

Rupert in puppy prison

Our ferry to Puerto Montt was set to leave at 11am meaning we needed to be at the port at 9am.  Paul decided to see what the plan was for people who were supposed to be going to Chiloe Island and the port directed him to go to the ferry companies’ office.  They assured us we would have time to go there and come back so we decided to head to the office. 

The employees were not very empathetic but did give us an email where we could submit receipts for additional gas and ferries we would have to purchase since they canceled the ferry we needed.  Hopefully we will get some money back from this inconvenience.  Unfortunately, the inconvenience grew when we were told that the ferry we were rebooked on was 4 hours late meaning we wouldn’t arrive into Puerto Montt until after midnight. 

Playing the waiting game

'Carcuterie' for dinner

We decided to spend a bit of time exploring an abandoned prison in Chaiten until we realized that the local homeless population was using it as a shelter and we immediately did not feel welcome.  We headed to the port and just waited watching movies and relaxing.  We continued even after we finally were loaded onto the boat.

At first we were still happy to be travelling north towards Chiloe while given the ability to relax all day.  It felt like we were given all the benefits of both a travel day and a relaxing day.  At least this is how we felt until we had been on the ferry for 5 hours.  By this point in the journey the sun had set and the waves of the ocean had grown and we started to question how good our sea legs were.  It seemed like the longer we were on the ferry and the more we thought about the amount of driving we had to do to get to where we wanted to be the more the novelty of this very long ferry disappeared.

 

 March 8^th – The disappointment continues (End of the road Take 4)

At midnight we were still on the boat.  Our hopes of reaching the shore any time soon had been dashed as the boat battled a massive storm front.  For hours we watched the GPS icon on google maps move a few hundred meters an hour as waves crashed over the walls of the ferry.   The pedestrian doors facing the storm had been rachet strapped closed with ceiling panels in the washroom falling down.  We had started to feel a little concerned about our predicament and safety in our van.  We had no idea when we would arrive but decided that closing our eyes would be our best option to hopefully get through the early morning hours.

The boat is falling a part

At 5:45am vehicles started their engines around the van.  We had made it!  We had survived!  Paul quickly jumped into the front seat and we took off. 

Obviously we didn’t go very far as we were exhausted, but not as exhausted as the average passenger of the ferry who did not have a bed to sleep in.  We had nothing to complain about compared to what most people experienced on the ferry.  A ferry that was supposed to arrive at 9pm yesterday arrived almost 9 hours late.

We drove through the empty city to a little pull out by a beach on the outskirts of town.  We set up the van just as a few young men drove up and started playing music.  For a brief second we were annoyed wondering how we would ever get to sleep with this noise, but suddenly it was in the mid afternoon and we had had our nap.

We had hoped to spend just a few moments in Puerto Montt picking up a few things, namely groceries, but a new priority suddenly took precedent.  Paul wanted to see if we could find a new engine air filter as it was filthy, but he had made the mistake of banging all the dirt out of it which broke the filter.  We searched for hours from store to store and had almost given up hope until we went to a store called Filter World (at least that was what its name translated to).  We were slightly optimistic when the first thing we saw when we entered the store was a sign saying certain products were made in Canada, we became more optimistic when their catalog implied that they had the filter we needed.  The smiles on our faces where massive when the employee walked out from the back room with the correct engine filter.  Mission Accomplished.

WE HAVE A FILTER!!!

The reason Paul had banged out the engine air filter was our engine was misfiring when starting.  It would only due it when the engine was hot, which added to our confusion.  We originally thought it was the battery but quickly ruled that out.  As the air filter was incredibly plugged we had hoped that that was the issue.  By the end of the day the van would rarely start on its first try and we knew we had an issue.  Paul’s theory, it was a bad fuel injector.

The goal of the day was to drive 6 hours south to the southern most point of Chiloe to the community of Quellon, where the ferry was supposed to take us.  We wanted to do this as, for some reason, there was another “ending’ to the Pan-American highway there.  We didn’t make too many stops on our 6 hour journey.  Firstly, because it was difficult to start the van, and secondly because we would have to drive back the same way in the near future.  The only stops we did make was for a free shower which are available to drivers of toll roads but are seldomly every used, and to board another ferry to the island of Chiloe.

Another end of the road completed

The drive was long and uneventful.  We knew there was cool things to see not a few kilometers off the road but it was late and we had a goal to reach the end of the road.  Around sunset we finally pulled into Quellon and went straight to the end of the road and the end of their version of the Pan-American highway.  Interestingly Wikipedia does define this as one of the end of the roads with the only other being Ushuaia but nothing about the route made sense to us as there was so much more highway south and the monument indicated that Anchorage was the start of the Pan-American highway.  Obviously the route was designed in the early 1900’s and was designed with the idea of connecting communities.  At that time there were no highways connecting communities south of Quellon in Chile. The start is also up for debate but historically it was Fairbanks.  At least that is what we understand from our own research.  Either way we did our typical photo and sparkling wine popping tradition before settling in for the night and falling asleep hard.

 

March 9^th – Enjoying Salmon Liquor

Surprisingly tasty Salmon Liquor

We had researched a lot about southern Chiloe, hoping to find something to see or do, but there was nothing we were interested in until just outside of the capital of Chiloe; Castro.  We packed up the van and headed north.

As per Wikipedia the Chiloe Province consist of an archipelago known within Chile for its distinctive folklore, mythology, potatoes, cuisine and unique architecture. The culture of Chiloé is the result of mixing of Huilliche, Spanish and Chono influences in centuries of isolation without much contact with the rest of Chile or the Western World. Its cool temperate climate, abundance of sea resources and large and lush forests have also played a major role in shaping life in the islands.  It was Castro where this distinctness was most evident as the communities were colourful, built with wood and had a strong local identity. 

One of our first stops was a distillery that had the only Salmon Liquor in the world (according to them) and was the epidemy of Chiloe in a drink.  We obviously tried it, among everything they had to offer as they had not received very many international visitors.  Everything was good, including the Salmon Liquor.  Obviously it probably wouldn’t be the first thing we would purchase at a liquor store but it didn’t taste like the novelty drink we assumed it would be.  The flavour was subtle and well balanced and would probably elevate a Ceaser; however, it is designed to be sipped straight.  We definitely bought a few bottles to take home with us.  Needless to say we were glad we weren’t driving much more as there heavy handed free samples had us a little tipsy.

Seaside Castro

Cute wooden houses

Castro was unlike anything we had seen previously in Chile.  It was colourful and raw.  It seemed like the people in Chiloe were, on average, slightly poorer than the average mainland Chilean community, but it didn’t feel unsafe.  We did purchase souvenirs in Chiloe much to our surprise as souvenir’s usually take up too much space meaning we typically stick to stickers and Christmas ornaments.  However, we had recently been discussing that due to the rain we have been spending more and more time in the van in “table mode” and some slippers would be awesome.  Serendipitously Chiloe is known for their handmade slippers.  They are amazing and exactly what we would have wanted and they were dirt cheap.  Too cheap to even think about negotiating the price.

Enjoying the surroundings with new slippers

The day slipped away after all our exploration so it was time to find a spot to camp for the night.  Chiloe does not seem to be well visited by the international community, and camping spots are few and far between (especially if you want to wild camp).  After a long drive down a rural road and crossing some really deep puddles that had us worried about our choices we found the perfect spot overlooking a bay.

 

March 10^th – “I’m already underwater”

A few of the UNESCO
churches we saw

Our van had been steadily become harder to start meaning we had to make some hard decisions.  We wanted to spend more time on Chiloe but mechanics and parts were 2 hours north back in the community of Puerto Montt.  As it was Sunday we knew there was no point tackling the issues in the van today, but decided that we would leave Chiloe tomorrow.  That meant we decided to do everything we had planned to do over the next two day, today, while cutting our planned trip to a rural island within the archipelago called Mechuque.

We drove to Dalcahue, known for its markets and handcrafts (where Kendra bought slippers for herself) and after exploring the community we traveled to the island of Quinchao, a very historical area of Chiloe.  We drove to various miradors and stopped to see the oldest wooden church on Chiloe.  Fun fact Chiloe is known for its wooden churches, of which 16 of them are designated as UNESCO world heritage sites. 

Outside the oldest church

Inside the oldest church

Our final stop on the island was Curaco de Velex known for amazing oysters.  They were the freshest we had ever had with many still with seaweed on them.  They were delicious so we bought more and more and more until we were stuffed.  They did not compare to anything we had ever had before.  We don’t even know how to explain these oysters, we just recommend if you are ever in the area to make a special trip and try them yourselves.

The smiles are not as genuine
as we wish they were

We drove to northern Chiloe with the hopes of booking a kayak tour for the next morning to see some Humbolt penguins.  These would be our fifth type of penguin on the trip!  When we arrived, we were surprised and excited that the weather was as good as it gets for kayaking.  We decided to take advantage of the “good” weather and take the tour.  We just didn’t realize that good weather still meant relatively big (for us) waves, and that it would be a self-guided tour.  The guy renting us the kayaks asked us if we had kayaked before, which we had, but our experience was on flat water with a foot controlled rutter.   This was not the kayak tour we had envisioned as water entered the boat, and sunk half of it within the first 10 minutes.  Paul desperately tried to bail out the boat, while saying, “I’m already underwater” then accidently dropped the bail bucket and it sunk to the bottom of the sea.  We desperately paddled back to shore and barely made it back without tipping and entirely sinking our boat.  We were not having fun…

Humbolt Penguins!

After calming down a reevaluating our plan, we ventured back into the sea only going to the first island with penguins, taking a couple pictures with our very wet phones and making our way back to the beach.  We did see penguins, but I don’t think we will be doing another kayak tour on the sea any time soon.

Our final stop of the day was cliffs overlooking a spot known for dolphins, unfortunately the weather got worse by the minute and we stayed in the van for the night.

 

March 11^th – Now our clothes are underwater!

We had hoped to stay at our camping spot as we had hoped the weather would improve, alas it never did.  We drove to Puerto Montt to a mechanic but they were too busy to see us today; we were able to make an appointment for tomorrow.

Rupert inspecting the the stow-and-go

Before we were able to speak to the mechanic we were trying to decided if we wanted to book an Airbnb or just camp tonight.  Humorously laundry service is very expensive in Chile, but booking an Airbnb with a laundry machine tends to only be $15 CAD more then going to a laundromat.  No matter our decision we knew that we needed to retrieve our dirty clothes from our stow-and-go so we opened up the hatch to our additional storage area and were met with a big surprise.  It was full of water, our clothes among all other things we had stored down below were underwater.

Sometimes we feel like we can not catch a break.

Our guess is that the water came from when we drove through the very deep puddle a couple days ago on Chiloe, but we were also concerned that it was due to a plugged drain causing water to enter the van flowing to the lowest area of vehicle, which would be the stow-and-go.  Regardless we had a lot of wet things that needed to dry out and a lot of things to investigate.

  We booked an Airbnb and spent the rest of the day washing clothes and relaxing.

 

March 12^th - The Haunting from San Pedro

The 2-hour walk back to the Airbnb
helped clear our heads

Bright and early, we arrived at the mechanic and dropped off the vehicle, we then spent the morning walking back to the Airbnb.  Our hope was by the end of the day we would have a well running van and be planning our future drive towards the Argentina border.  Unfortunately we learned that would not be an option for us.

While we sat in the Airbnb doing more laundry we received a text from the mechanic.  It was not the fuel injectors that were causing us issues, it was the fuel pump.  This is the same issue we had on the Lagunas Route in Bolivia and the issue we assumed was corrected.  Frustratingly we learned that the fuel pump does not exist in Chile meaning that the mechanic in San Pedro lied to us.  He had “fixed” the fuel pump and charged us for a new one.  It is great that it lasted 10,000 kms, but if he was honest we could have ordered one long ago. 

The joys of
shipping parts

Our only option to fix the van was to order parts.  Ideally we could have stored the van at the mechanics shop but the mechanic didn’t have room for the van, so Paul grabbed an Uber and headed back to the mechanic.  He then spent a bunch of time asking questions of the mechanic and ordering parts (after confirming with the mechanic he was ordering the correct ones).   His thought was if the van has to be in the shop and we have to order parts anyway let’s get everything fixed now.  One thing the mechanic was confident they could fix was our ABS speed sensor issue which prevented us from using cruise control.  Hopefully when the van gets fixed we will be able to use cruise control once again.

After getting the van back to the Airbnb we were exhausted.  All this news was pretty emotionally draining so we decided not to do anything else today.

 

March 13^th – Investigating our water excursion

Our biggest concern, right now, is that we have a drainage issue in our van causing water to pool in our stow-and-go.  We hope our issue is caused by holes in the stow-and-go, likely caused by gravel roads, speed bumps, among other things, but don’t feel like driving around looking for puddles to prove our theory.  Luckily, for troubleshooting purposes, Puerto Montt is known for rain so we kept on checking to see if there was any accumulation of water after large rain storms.  We then grabbed our water container and dumped 5 liters in each drainage area and waited for water to accumulate.  Thankfully none did.

We couldn’t be happier to have holes in our stow-and-go as this was something we could fix ourselves. 

To celebrate we jumped in an uber and headed downtown to the well reviewed microbrewery for some drinks before we walked to the tourist section of Puerto Montt known as Angelmo.  This area is where you can buy various souvenirs and fish.  These souvenirs are similar to what is found in Chiloe but with a slightly higher price point.  The fish was delicious, as the area is also known for great seafood restaurants, using fish purchased from the market below.  We ended up having a great meal looking down at the water and the various sea lions hoping for some scraps from some of the market vendors

March 14^th – The fuel pump is failing us

It was time to leave our Airbnb, we packed up the van and started driving to a hardware store to pick up supplies to fix the holes in our stow-in-go.  We wondered how to spend the next week waiting for the parts to arrive and discussed going to Argentina, exploring the region around Puerto Montt or just driving to the far more touristy town of Puerto Varas. 

No pictures taken today, so here is a
picture of a sea lion we took yesterday!

After we started driving towards downtown we learned all our plans had to change.  Our van died in the middle of downtown, but at least we were able to start it once again.  We had no idea how many more kilometres we could drive before we were in the same predicament as we were in Bolivia, unable to start the van at all.  We decided to book an Airbnb with parking for the next 8 nights.  As we drove to the Airbnb the van stalled one last time before we parked it, hopefully until we have the parts in our hand.   

It was disheartening knowing that we would not be able to, or at least willing to, drive around the area.  Our plan now is to take it easy, and schedule relaxing time now rather than in Buenos Aires after the van had shipped.  This will allow us to explore Uruguay after shipping rather than before. 

We spent the evening exploring the neighbourhood of our new Airbnb, one thing we like about this Airbnb is its proximity to restaurants and grocery stores, however, it doesn’t have a kitchen and is no where near downtown.  Looks like we will still be relaying on the van to do some cooking.  Either way we are excited to make the most of the next week or so!

 

March 15^th – Meeting up with fellow travelers

Over a year ago in Guanajuato Mexico we met up with Tausha and Josh.  We were sick at the time with Covid, but they gave us food and medicine to improve ourselves.  We’ve stayed in contact over the last year and were so excited to learn that they would be arriving in Puerto Montt today on a cruise.  After messaging back and forth we had a plan to meet downtown. 

We spent hours catching up and chatting until the cruise ship was preparing to leave the area meaning we had to hustle to the cruise ship port to say our final goodbyes.  Spending the day over a few pints with friends definitely was a highlight of the last few weeks and helped us forget any issues with the van we were having.

 

March 16^th – Start of a week off

The next week or so is going to look different from the normal daily blog updates.  As we are planning on spending as little money as possible we do not have any plans on doing anything interesting or of note.  In general, we will be at the Airbnb cooking food purchased from a supermarket 10 minutes on foot away while completing a few tasks online/around the van.  If there is anything to report we will probably summarize it in the start of our next blog post.  Hopefully the next time we right will be about how the van is up and running and we are making our way to Argentina.

Exploring the famous Carretera Austral

The Carretera Austral is known throughout South America as the ultimate road trip route.  Communities are small, with the population of the entire 1,2000 km route being only around ~100,000 people.  The road is full of travelers, both domestic and international on bicycles and campervans reminding us of traveling back in Canada.  It is an area of diverse landscapes, beautiful views, glaciers and rainforests.  We enjoyed it but worry that the amount of tourists and lack of facilities and high cost of everything have created issues that may change how people travel this route in the future.  Regardless we are happy that we drove this road now!

February 24^th – Finding Tranquility

Before leaving Santiago de Chile a couple from the Netherlands had gifted us a book highlighting the best things to see and do on the Carretera Austral.  According to the book the drive from Patagonia National Park to Rio Puerto Tranquillo, our next stop for the night, was supposed to be beautiful.  As we had no big plans for the roughly 200 kilometer drive we made sure to stop at every view point the book highlighted.  Unfortunately, every single one seemed to leave us more homesick. 

The area reminded us of the Sunshine Coast

The drive had described as a drive through snowcapped mountains, glacier’s s and pristine wilderness.  It definitely was that, but all it made us think about was drives we had done through, Alaska, the Yukon and British Columbia/ Alberta.  We couldn’t stop comparing it to Highway 99 (BC), to Highway 1 (BC/AB) to Highway 93 (AB) or the northern Rockies of Highway 97 (BC) or highway from Anchorage to Valdez within Alaska.  It was an odd drive that seemed to make us proud of the things within our backyard and miss the roads we couldn’t be further away from.  Unfortunately, as we write this from a future, this will become a common theme.

Our camping spot for the night was located in the small community of Rio Puerto Tranquillo which we assumed would be a community that would fill us with tranquility.  Sadly, this is not what we encountered.  The campsite we chose to stay at seemed very unwelcoming, especially when they learned we had a dog.  We would have been concerned that we picked the wrong place to stay for the night if not for the countless reviews of various campground in the community that all seemed be tired of backpackers and overlanders.  Regardless the campground did offer two things we absolutely needed, a shower and laundry service.

BEACH DAY!!

We decided to spend our late afternoon at a well rated brewery right near an inlet to the ocean where we got to awkwardly watch two men fight each other at the nearby tour company.  There was yelling, blood and police.  It instilled anything but tranquility.  However, it was a beautiful warm day and we didn’t want the actions of others to ruin our day so we headed to the beach with a bottle of wine and sat until the sun was low in the sky watching the waves crash against the land.  All things considered; we found our tranquility near the point with the river of tranquility fed the ocean.

Our mood kept positive through the evening as we ordered some sushi while Kendra got caught up with a friend and Paul got caught up on the blog until most of the other campers had gone to bed.

 

February 25^th – While we wait for the laundry to dry

One of the biggest benefits of the campground we had selected was reasonably priced laundry.  Paul was diligent to ask when the laundry would be done and with their answer being tomorrow morning (now today) we had planned our day around the assumption our laundry would be ready by around 10am.  Frustratingly at 9am the campground owners placed our wet clothing on a clothes line meaning we wouldn’t be able to leave the area of Puerto Rio Tranquillo until they were dry.

There was a hike that we had thought about doing about 30 minutes or so west of the community to the Exploradores Glacier that we thought would be a good way to kill some time.  According to various sources it was only a 5 kilometre hike return and that the elevation change from the start to the end was only 100 metres, so we were surprised to also read that it was also a 4 hour hike.  Well, once we started the hike was through a humid jungle we so learned why it takes people so long;  it was anything but a flat walk.  The path loosely followed a river traveling up for 25 minutes then down for 25 minutes.  It followed this pattern over roots and big rocks for 2 kilometres until a junction to an upper platform and a lower platform. We ended up doing both; however, the lower platform was far superior as it was closer and had benches for us to cool off on from the hike and sit to marvel at the glacier in front of us.  It even gave us an opportunity to talk to some Brazilians who complemented Paul on his ability to speak Portuguese.  Paul found this a little concerning as he was speaking Spanish the entire time and suddenly became self conscious that his Spanish was so bad that people could be convinced he was speaking Portuguese poorly.

After stopping to see a waterfall between the end of the trail and where we hoped to pick up our laundry we arrived at the campground.  We can’t quite articulate how frustrated we were to see our clothes still on the clothes line.  We kept on thinking how we were told they would be ready in the morning and yet it was almost 5pm.  We had read they be put in a dryer but our clothes, including our underwear was hung where everyone could see. Begrudgingly we decided to just grab our clothes from the clothes line, fold them and head out of the area. 

Puerto Rio Tranquillo is known for its blue marble cave systems that can be navigated by kayaks or boats.  As they are the most famous things to do in the area, if not the entire Carretera Austral we had heard doing a tour from this location can be quasi frustrating.  If you’ve seen an reels or Tik Toks about Instagram vs Reality this area would be the epitome of the point these videos are trying to make.  In general, you wait in a line until your turn for your boat (kayak or otherwise) to enter the marble caves area so you can take your picture in such a way that implies there isn’t a line of people both ahead of you and behind you looking to take the same photo or video you just took.  Thankfully we had heard that if you had your own vehicle you could drive to the small hamlet of Puerto Sanchez where you could take a tour to some similar caves for less money and have the place to yourself.  Obviously we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to experience these marble caves without droves of other tourists so we made our way to this small community.

Now we don’t want to get political but there is a trend we have noticed lately.  There has been a lot of Israelis traveling around south America vocalizing how annoyed they are that people are annoyed at them for traveling at this time.   We only bring this up because when we got Puerto Sanchez we happened to camp beside a young couple who had just finished serving in the military.  They had just purchased a vehicle in Santiago and plan to explore the continent for the next year.  Although they did not directly speak of the conflict in their homeland they did seem to make light of it.  The reason why this has been on our mind so much is from stories we heard from other travelers of the issues Russians on the road faced when Russia invaded Ukraine.  They abandoned their trip as they saw their savings disappear as the rubles value diminished and their ability to withdraw funds became next to impossible.  This was all compounded with locals becoming less favourable to their situation.  Obviously no individual person is a representative of the decisions of their government, it is just interesting to see how travelers from these two respective countries deal with the consequences of the decisions of their respective countries.  Israelis just seems to have a lack of empathy or understanding of why there seems to be animosity towards them.  This was something that Russians, at least those we encountered near Uyuni Bolivia, somewhat, begrudgingly, understood.

This boat used to be the only
way to get to Puerto Sanchez

 

February 26^th – A Tour within Marble caves

Regardless of what was said the previous day, we had befriended the Israeli couple we mentioned above who had decided to join our tour to the marble caves of Puerto Sanchez.  Originally we had felt a little ashamed we had been so adamant that we wanted an English speaking guide for our tour but as more overlanders who were less confident in Spanish arrived at the meeting point for the tour we knew we had made the right decision.

A view from inside the cave

In front of the
famous Cathedral

The tour was amazing and we, as promised by others, seemed to have these blue marble caves to ourselves.  We learned how they had been created over the last few thousands of years by pressure and dissolving limestone and that they had become further exposed due to decreasing lake levels.  We even got to explore one of the caves on foot.  For anyone who has heard about these marbles’ caves, fear not, the tour did include a trip to the famous Chapel and Cathedral.  These formations near Puerto Rio Tranquillo were named by Spanish explorers who used them as shelter during a large storm.  They saw these formations as a god send and wrote if not for them they would have surely perished in the storm.

Definitely a worthwhile tour! 

After the tour ended we said goodbye to our new friends and continued heading north looking for a free campsite for the night and after not falling in love with a spot overlooking Cerro Castillo due to the extreme wind, we settled for a spot overlooking a lake in the middle of nowhere.

 

February 27^th – The best meal we have purchased in a long time

We forgot to take a picture of
 the delicious food 

We made a potentially controversial decision this morning.  We would skip Cerro Castillo.  Although many online say the hike to base of the Castle Mountain is something you can’t not do if you are in the area, most we had talked to in person disagreed.  There are three main reasons we decided to skip it.  Number 1: It is the most expensive hike you can do on the Carretera Austral, costing around $25 CAD per person due to government fees and fees to property owners.  Number 2: Everyone we had talked to had enjoyed the 3 long hike we had done previously more (Torres del Paine, Fitz Roy and Lagos Altos in Patagonia National Park).  Number 3: The weather was less then ideal and the weather forecast was predicting more rain and cloud cover in the near future.

After a couple hours drive we arrived in the “big” city of Coyhaique, the only city, by any sort of definition, in the area.  We took advantage of the big city amenities by shopping at an actual grocery store (rather than the minimarkets we had become accustomed to) and going to a café for some coffee and cinnamon buns.  As an aside, these cinnamon buns were some of the best we had had since Canada!

Our camping spot for the night

After our good food at the café we decided to test our luck and go out for dinner as the community had numerous well rated restaurants including a brewery which supposedly had tartare that was to die for.  Well, we can confirm that the reviews were correct and we sat gorging ourselves on some delicious beer flavoured by the local berries of Patagonia and the best tartare outside of Quebec.

 

February 28^th – Searching for waterfalls and comparable cafes

After a less that optimal sleep thanks to some locals blasting some reggaeton near the van around 1am we explored Coyhaique for some good coffee.  We originally thought we would try another café but were surprised to see that most were not open or had poor reviews so we didn’t want to chance our previous good fortune.  After some window shopping we decided to make our way to the café we had traveled to yesterday but when we learned that the cinnamon buns we had had yesterday were sold out we decided to save our money and head to a café  a couple hours away in the community of Puerto Aysen. 

No ghosts left the waterfall

The drive from Coyhaique to Puerto Aysen was beautiful, as we followed a river between two lush green mountains full of waterfalls. Two of these waterfalls we ended up stopping at, including one that was known for a ghost boy that would periodically emerge from the falls and hitch a ride with you in your backseat.  We will admit we did do a double check to make sure we didn’t have any unwanted hitchhikers after leaving these falls.

The cafe at Puerto Aysen was perfect but it felt a little to early in the day to continue our original plan to camp in the area so after we finished our coffee we continued heading north until we were halfway between anywhere and stopped at a well reviewed camping spot where we continued having typical café conversations; however, we had switched to wine.

 

February 29^th – Queulat’s famous hanging glacier

We continued heading north with our sights set on Queulat National Park where we planned to hike to a viewpoint of the Queulat hanging glacier. 

We have noticed that throughout southern Patagonia many trails close to the public and surprisingly early times.  For instance, the trail to Torres del Paine closed at 10am, Fitz Roy closed at 1pm and the hike to Queulat closed at 3pm.  Although we didn’t plan to do this hike today we were pleasantly surprised that by the time we made it to that national park it was only 1pm and we had already seen everything we had planned to see that day.  These other things being a small waterfall a few minutes walk off the main road and a cove known for dolphins where we had some lunch.

Even though it felt like we had lots of time until the trail closed Rupert presence meant we couldn’t park within the National Park meaning that the 5 kilometer one way hike to the viewpoint would be a 7 kilometer hike for us since the trailhead was a couple kilometers within that national park.

The view we worked so
hard to see

The quick 750 meter
view point

We had some concerns we wouldn’t be able to complete the 7 kilometers in 2 hours as we had quite a bit of elevation to gain but we pushed ourselves hard and got to the viewpoint with 30 minutes to spare meaning we could sit back and catch our breath as well as enjoy the view.  For some reasons we didn’t think 14 kilometres is enough hiking for the day so we decided to tack on another 1.5 kilometres to a lower viewpoint that we actually think may have been better than the actual famous view point of the Queulat hanging glacier.

Was the hike worth it?  Well, this has been a matter of debate between us.  Chile has recently increased all its prices for foreigners meaning that each hike we decided to do in a national park cost us $15 CAD each.  Many hikes we have done have felt worth it, but this one was the first one we disagreed with Paul feeling like this hike was too much and Kendra feeling happy with the experience we got for the cost we paid.

We returned to the cove known for dolphins to camp for the night where we got to feel like quasi celebrities.  Over the course of the early evening more and more people arrived to the spot to camp including another couple from Canada who we ended up talking to for a few hours.  What was neat about the encounter is that within the first few minutes of talking they asked us “Are you the Go Go Gauthiers?”.  They then explained that they had been following us on Instagram and seeing our stickers throughout their journey.  Suddenly we felt like influencers.

 

Believe it or not there are dolphins, they just refused to be photographed

   

March 1^st – The most expensive shower of the trip

Relaxation!!

We know when it has been too long between showers and we knew that this point had elapsed.  During our hike down from the Queulat glacier viewpoint we had discussed campground in the area that had shower but had settled on a plan to forgo paying for a campground and use the money we would have spent to go to a luxurious hot spring located an hour drive away from the National Park.

The hot springs were expensive at around $40 CAD per person but had “free” shower.  Unfortunately, they were only open from 10am to 1pm, so to ensure we got our money’s worth we made sure to arrive right when they opened.   Although we did have some concerns that this expensive shower which included access to hot springs was a bad idea, those concerns melted away once we found a pool the was the perfect temperature for us.  3 hours flew by and suddenly we were the only ones left in the pool and the employees were motioning us to the change rooms.

For us, the cost was worth it!

Pure Bliss

We were out of food so we had to stop at the small community of Puyuhuapi where we learned that the grocery store (minimarket) would be closed for the next couple hours.  Thankfully the community had a café that was open with free Wi-Fi, unfortunately, the coffee was terrible.

This downtime gave us the opportunity to do some route planning where we decided to book a ferry to leave the Carretera Austral from the community of Chaiten to Quellon on March 7^th and book a white water rafting tour in Futateufu on March 3^rd.  Suddenly we had a rough plan for the rest of the week.

We had previously talked about driving to a small community called Raul Martin Balmaceda but with ferries and tours booked we decided against it, however that didn’t stop us from camping at a spot down the road towards the community.  The spot was on private property which, according to iOverlander, people could camp on as long as you close the cattle gate behind you when you enter the area.  It would have been a great spot of not for the rain and the clouds that covered all the mountains that were supposedly viewable from our camping spot.  Not wanting to just hide away in the van all night we decided to start a fire and have a little BBQ with some of the sausages we had purchased.  We can assure you the taste of the meat more than made up for the wet weather.

Dinner of champions!!

Figuring out our plans

 

March 2^nd – Rural Dirt Roads

We knew we had a bit of a drive today an were in no rush to start it as we knew most of it would be on dirt roads.  However, we did eventually leave our campspot and drove what felt like hours down rural dirt road that somehow claimed to be the main entrance or exit from the Carretera Austral to Argentina.  Within a few hours we finally arrived at Futateufu and paid for our white water rafting trip we would be doing the next day.

We did explore the community and even stopped for a coffee and empanadas but in general there was nothing of note or recommendation in the community so we made our way to a camping spot near the Futateufu River where we had hoped to sit beside and enjoy some good weather.  Sadly, the wind had other plans and we ended up spending most of the day hiding in the van.

 

March 3^rd – Class 5 rapids

Friends of ours who had already driven the Carretera Austral had highly recommended white water rafting in Futateufu and it had been years since we had last gone.  Amazingly this trip had a connection to the last time we had gone white water rafting.  One of the guides/shuttle driver worked for Big Canyon Rafting in Quesnel when we last went white water rafting.  It is possible, if not probable, that our shuttle driver was our guide when we last went white water rafting in Quesnel.  How crazy is that!?!

The white water rafting was so much fun and definitely worth the money.  The tour was split into three sections, a warm up class 3 rapids which didn’t require a lot of technical knowledge to overcome which then led to class 4 rapids where we suddenly were given far more direction of when to paddle and when to get down.  The final section, an up charge only available if the water level was the right level was a section of class 5 rapids.  This section was highly technical and required lots of direction and planning. To say it was thrilling is probably an understatement.  When we finally reached land we were still buzzing.

LETS GO!!

We couldn’t relax much after the tour as we had to get to Argentina.  Paul had noticed a week or so ago we were running out of propane and it is against the law, for some reason, for Chile to fill foreign propane tanks meaning to fill our propane tank we would have to go to Argentina.  This task became a far larger priority this morning as we had run out of propane.

The border to Argentina was only 10 kilometres away from Futateufu and the large city of Esquel was just another 70 kilometres.  As we have traveled between Chile and Argentina many times now it took us no time to get through the immigration and customs processes.  Before we knew it we were in the Esquel area purchasing gas (which is over 50% cheaper than Chile), having a pint of beer at the local brewery and selecting a restaurant to eat at (since all the propane places were closed until tomorrow morning).

An epic meal to end an epic day

It had been recommended many time to go out for Asado in Argentina.  Asado is just a charcoal grill but when used at a restaurant it usually means lamb or cow grilled all day over charcoal at low temperature.  We decided to go to the best reviewed Asado restaurant in Esquel and were not disappointed.  We had an amazing meal which was the perfect way to end a perfect day.

 

March 4^th – Our one day in Argentina

Today was all about errands.  After a cold breakfast we drove straight to a propane refilling company who took our bottle and asked us to return in a few hours.

We spent our few hours picking up cheap non perishable groceries and enjoying coffee at a cute café near the downtown core.  Time seemed to slip by as we started to message our container buddy (the people we would be sharing a shipping container with) as we had just learned that our requested shipping date of April 14^th was no longer possible.  We had to decide on whether we would move our shipping date to April 7^th or April 21^st.   Both dates had pros and cons but in the end we decided that April 21^st would work best for both of us. 

We have propane again!

The perfect place to spend the day

This date opens some new possibilities for us, namely it could allow us to see northern Argentina or Paraguay, two places we were unsure we could fit into our trip.  However, to fit these locations into our trip we would not be able to have many days off from the road.  Often our fear of missing out is our biggest asset and curse on this trip.

Before we knew it we had a full bottle of propane and a full pantry of food meaning we could cook our own meal while sitting by a nearby lake, which is exactly how we chose to spend the rest of our day.

 

March 5^th – Glaciers and Poop

As we have a ferry to catch in a couple days from Chaiten it was time to re-enter Chile.  We spent most of the day driving from Esquel to the Chaiten area only stopping to get through the border, grab some coffee and a snack and do a hike to another glacier.

The Yelcho Glacier was a 7 kilometer return hike to a viewpoint of two hanging glaciers and it was surprisingly free and arguably just as good as every other hike to a glacier we had done in Chile.  We almost think it would have been frustrating if we were traveling south on the Carretera Austral and had done this glacier first, then paid to do the other comparable ones.  The best part of this hike was that it was also dog friendly so Rupert got to finally come on an adventure with us.  He honestly seemed so happy to be exploring Chilean Patagonia with us.

So happy to be joining
us on an adventure 

Just as we got off the trail the rain started, so we head for a well rated camping spot near the trailhead.  We did not stay long.  Just as we parked and opened our door we saw the unmistakable view of human feces, everywhere.  Unfortunately, many people on the Carretera Austral have gotten into the habit of doing their business where ever and not burying it or disposing of their toilet paper making many areas a serious biohazard.  It’s a real shame with everyone blaming everyone else and not much changing.  We would not be surprised if in the next 5 years camping in this area of Chile will be highly regulated. 

We did eventually find another camping spot which was a huge improvement from our last spot, but not unlike every spot we had camped on the Carretera Austral, not without spots where bad actors have left evidence of their presence. 

 

March 6^th – Consequences of out of season travel

As today would be our last day on the Carretera Austral it was top priority to see and do everything left on our list of things to do.

Are we there yet?

Our first stop was in the community of Chaiten for some meat and vegetables where we were surprised to see just how small the community was.  As the ferry hub for the area we envisioned a quasi big community, not a small town.  This worked out in our favour as it meant there was no need to spend a lot of time in the community.

The final hike we wanted to do was to the Chaiten Volcano viewpoint, an active volcano which has been described as “some smoking titties”.  We will let you be the judge of that nickname.

...halfway there...

Such voluptuous volcanos

The hike was brutal being 4 kilometres straight up, 90% of the trail was on stairs.  It felt like every pore in our body was sweating with drops of sweat hitting the ground every time we put our head down.  We did eventually make it to the top but didn’t stay as long as we would have wanted as our sweat soaked clothes made the wind feel very cold against our skin.

Near the hike was a little warm spring grotto that had recently been discovered. Although the temperature of the water was barely over 30 degrees it was a nice spot to soak after such a strenuous hike.

Relaxing in the grotto

We had hoped to get to a campsite and just settle in for the night but as we returned to cell service Kendra received a text about our ferry the next day.  Our ferry to Quellon had been canceled and there were no more sailings for the season. They had also canceled all sailings to the island of Chiloe (where we wanted to go) for the next few days meaning our only option was a 10 hour ferry to Puerto Montt.  To give a bit of a BC example, this is like booking a ferry directly from Tsawwassen to Salt Spring Island, then being told that you have to go to Victoria and find a way to Crofton to take that ferry to Salt Spring Island.  It adds more cost, time and logistical questions to your ferry trip and your driving.

We tried not to let it ruin the day and “go with the flow” so we sat back and finished the day watching sunset against the backdrop of a black sand beach with volcanos in the background.