Valle Chacabuco To Chile Chico To Puerto Ibanez

Waking to a pearler morning we did the usual camp pack down, muesli and coffee, dropping into reception to say thank you and goodbye.

They (Parque Patagonia) are rebuilding the road and putting calcium chloride on it to bind it (similar to Prudhoe Bay) so we had some road works to sneak through and around, the road works team being very respectful for our slower pace in their work space and giving us big cheers as we went past.

Over to the 7 road which is the main drag we turned right up Rio Baker which was half the reason we came back this way, given our stunning day we were rewarded with brilliant blues and views to go so totally worth coming back for ….this of course lined us up directly for the Chile Chico road which we had missed due to heading down to Villa O’Higgins.

IMG_7553 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

IMG_7557 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Many say the road is stunning and many are right, again making the most of the day we gorked out the window loving the tasty views our eyes were feasting on, again so well worth taking the effort to go this way.

IMG_7561 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

IMG_7565 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

IMG_7585 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

IMG_7597 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Rather than do another border crossing we opted to take the boat across General Carrera Lake to Puerto Ibanez, getting to Chile Chico at 1.30 and the sailing at 4.00 pm we had plenty of time up our sleeve.

IMG_7615 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

The sailing across was good but 3/4 the way across we hit big winds and the lake chopped up very rough causing the boat/ferry to thump really hard onto the oncoming waves sending sheets of water flying over the top the boat, if you stood on the top deck you got wet in seconds.

IMG_7627 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

The tied Maya down tight, they knew something we didn't

IMG_7622 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Disembarking we were late due to the big winds slowing the big tub down, this also put us into “look for a hostel” mode as it was spitting to rain and hairy winds, a hot shower was on the list too.

Finding a hostel that would let us cook was impossible so we picked the cheapest place then bought a meal between us which was tonnes of food anyway, turns out they had great wifi so we uploaded all the photos we could to make the most of it and their beds and sheeting were excellent, one of the most comfortable down this end of the island.

The great thing with wild and woolie weather is it provides with amazing sunsets, the angry skies dragged everyone out of the hostel to check it out and photograph it as the whole area took on the orange reflection, pretty cool finish to a great day

IMG_7637 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr