Summer Trip South: Pumalín Douglas Tompkins National Park and Chaiten

After we got off the ferry, we drove a ways down Highway 7, the Carretera Austral until we got to a small campground called Lago Rio Negro. It had a nice 30 min walk through the woods down to a lovely lake, which we did before our dinner of Choripan and BLTs. It was still a rainy evening, but luckily we had a little covered pavilion at this campsite. 

The next morning, we drove on to reach our activity for the day, hiking up to see the Chaiten Volcano. On the way, we passed lots of pretty river crossings. 

While the morning was overcast, in the afternoon it cleared up, and the hike turned out to be a major success. We had a great view back across the valley we just drove down. 

The boys made it all the way to the top, which included 2,000 ft of elevation gain in about 2 miles, mostly through through these giant steps that the boys had to scramble up. They did so well; I was really proud of them. Behind us, you can see the side of the volcano cone. The crater itself is on the other side of that cone. 

This is an arial view of the volcano and the town itself alongside the inlet. This volcano erupted in 2008, after being dormant for more than 9,000 years. This lead to the town of Chaiten being completely destroyed. 

It actually wasn't destroyed because of lava, but from ash blocking the following rainfall from seeping into the ground, and instead immediately overwhelming the Chaiten River which then flooded the town. Before the eruption, the river flowed along the backside of town and then flowed into the inlet on the southern edge. But after, the river even changed its course and flowed right through the middle of town, cutting it in half. This is a picture of the town of Chaiten after the eruption, flooded, with the water a grey color from all of the ash. We actually camped a night in Chaiten alongside a park next to the inlet, and it was really nice. The entire town has been rebuilt at this point, so you'd never know what happened. We met some fellow travelers camping there as well, a lovely British couple with a sweet Land Rover named Gwenda. Hopefully we'll run into them again on our journeys!

Summer Trip South: Hornopiren and Ferry

After the Termas del Sol, we drove another two hours to the town of Hornopirén. To get to the rest of Highway 7, which is the famous Carretera Austral, you have to take a ferry from here; there is no way to get to Patagonia beyond due to the mountains and the inlets. So we made our way here and then stayed the 23rd-26th, to give us a nice treat for Christmas: a real kitchen to cook in, separate bedrooms, and a hot shower. Merry Christmas to us!

The drive in to Hornopirén was beautiful, if not a little dark and moody due to some rain. We drove alongside the Estero Reloncavi, which is a long, skinny inlet filled with brackish water that apparently makes it good for mussel farming. All of the buoys in the water below is a mussel farm. We were inspired by all the mussel farming and decided we wanted some sort of seafood for Christmas dinner.  

Actually in the little town of Hornopiren, they were holding a Fair for Christmas, basically selling last minute Christmas presents. I found a sweet pair of slippers for $6 and a cute Carretera Austral painted mug for $5. Merry Christmas to me! 

In the city square, they had little activities for the kids to do, including a painting station and jumpy houses. I think Santa was going to make an appearance later on, but we left, as he had already visited us in Santiago before we left.

Hornopiren seems like a blue collar town, where most people work for the seafood industry. Wasn't as cute as Frutillar, but we had a nice Christmas there. 

Christmas dinner was mussels that we found frozen, $1.50 for a bag of 22. So we got 5 bags, totaling 110 mussels and proceeded to house them all. We wanted fresh ones but struck out multiple times trying to find them. I'm sure you can buy fresh mussels somewhere, but we didn't have the connections. The frozen ones tasted just the same, and you can't beat a white wine broth! Roasted squash, potatoes, and purple cauliflower completed our feast. So yummy.  

Another plus to our little Airbnb was the neighborhood animals. Our puppy, who we named Rosie of course, hung out on our porch pretty much the entire time. Granted we were feeding her scraps, but she was so kind and gentle. If we didn't have border crossings and National Parks ahead of us (they don't allow pets to enter), I would have scooped her up and taken her home in a second. We also had a dozen different cats loitering about, but none were super friendly. 

On the 26th, we got on the ferry at Hornopirén, bound for Caleta Gonzalo. This ferry trip is interesting because you actually have to disembark after 3.5 hours, drive across this peninsula on a road that only exists for this exact purpose, and then get on another smaller ferry on the other side for a final 20 min ride. The red lines on the map below show you exactly where we went. Why do this weird on again off again route? Because the waves in the Gulf of Ancud can be very rough. We experienced a few in one tiny little section in the strait just north of Poyo, and you could immediately feel a difference. So much rougher. Emerson started to feel sea sick there, so we went to the front of the boat to orientate ourselves, and I swear we saw the dorsal fin of an orca dive right below the boat, and then we heard a thunk on the ship's bottom as it bumped into us. Both boys were with me, so I have witnesses. 

Getting on the first ferry! 

Saying the boys were excited about this leg of our journey is an understatement. 

Summer Trip South: Cochamo and Termas del Sol

When we got to Cochamo, we stayed at a private campground next to the Cochamo River. Drew and I were leaving the next day for a two-night backpacking stint in La Junta up the Cochamo Valley, which is the Yosemite of Chile. The Grandparents graciously agreed to watch the boys in our absence, as its an 8-mile hike into La Junta, and we wanted to do an even harder hike from there. Looks like the boys and Grandma and Grandpa had alot of fun while we were gone.

The campsite was right by a river, so the boys got to play around.

Nothing like a campfire in the great outdoors.

And s'mores, of course!

On day 2 it rained ALL DAY, but the boys seemed to make the most of it. Luckily it wasn't a cold rain.

Waterfall hike with their new adventure backpacks. Adventure's out there!!!

Drew and I left around 8am on Friday, Dec. 19th. Our goal on Day 1 was to complete the 8.5 mile hike from the trailhead up to the meadow of La Junta, or "The Junction," where the Cochamo River and the La Junta River join together. The hike we were doing was originally a cattle crossing over the Andes into Argentina. La Junta is a spot about a third of the way to the pass that has these towering granite peaks all around, giving it the name the "Yosemite of Chile." It is very well known for climbers to go there, and hikers too. 

The hike up to La Junta was super interesting. It did not have a ton of elevation gain. But you could see the paths where countless cattle have been herded down the mountain side, wearing down the clay into these serpentine paths through very dense forests. It felt like you were hiking through the trenches of WW2. It was all well and good when the bottom of the trench was dry, but many times there was tons of muck churned up by the horses that now go up and down from La Junta packing in goods and packing out trash. So to avoid the muck, you'd have to hike up on the sides of the trenches, which at times was easy and at times was not. It was not a hike you could just turn on autopilot and cruise onwards. You were constantly evaluating your footing and deciding if you needed to do a little hop, skip, and jump on rocks to reach the next firm surface, or if you needed to abandon ship altogether and jump out. Fun really. 

The granite peaks surrounding the meadow were stunning. Well worth the effort.

The house in this picture looks to be the original homestead here, still in use. But the family that lives in this meadow built a modern house just up the hill from the original one, and it looks amazing, like something you'd find on Nantucket! No idea how they got the building supplies up there, maybe by helicopter? 

This wooden structure was specifically for all the campers. One half was a dining room (basically just picnic tables with a roof) and some sinks, and the other half was the "fogón" or a room with a fire in the middle of it and benches all around. We became quite familiar with this room as on Day 2 it rained all day. Our original plan was to hike up to the lake at the base of Mt. Trinidad, but that simply wasn't possible. So, we spent the day relaxing, which was nice in itself with no kids. 2 hours reading, two hours in the fogón warming up and shooting the shit with other campers. 2 hours reading, lunch time. etc. The hike out was even more fun as there was twice the amount of muck. Drew and I ate it a combined total of 3 times. But no one got hurt, it wasn't cold, and we had fun. Definitely want to go back.

The next day, as a treat to ourselves for Christmas, we spent the day at some hot springs called Termas del Sol. I'm so glad we went, because they were the nicest hot springs we've ever been to. There were 10 pools, ranging from 36 degrees C up to 45 degrees C, and all the pools were surrounded by nature in this really lovely way. It was super relaxing, and I'd go back in a heartbeat. And in a few weeks they are opening up a Spa! Girls' trip, anyone ?!?!?