Chaiten
Trip Start
Jun 13, 2006
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Trip End
Jun 12, 2007
Alex: We left Coyhaique early for another mammoth trip over dirt road to cover the ridiculously short distance to Chaiten. The scenery was spectacular; lake filled valleys, tree covered hills, glaciers, snow capped mountains. The road was occasionally tarmacked but was generally bumpy gravel and to make things worse the minibus seats did not come into the category of comfy! After a few stops and 12 hours we arrived in Chaiten. Once again our first thoughts were how to get out, not because Chaiten is not a nice place, it is quite the opposite, but because we are meeting my parents in Puerto Montt in 3 days and transport in this area is infrequent at best. A sign in the closed ferry terminal window sent us into a panic - "No boats to Puerto Montt until Monday", we read. We looked around for other alternatives but the very nice guy who we solicited for help was more concerned to get us to go on his tour the next day, so we just ended up getting more stressed. Eventually we went back to the office and re-read the sign, we had made a mistake, it actually said "No boats to Puerto Montt on Monday". I celebrated with a delicious seafood soup for my tea. Despite all that there wasn't any room on Sundays ferry, but a new day had put a whole new perspective on things and the alternative wasn't as difficult as we had thought. It was a trip to Isla Chiloč for us, in 2 hours - cancel the trip to the national park!
