Chile: Puerto Montt and Puerto Chacabuco

 Friday, February 10, 2023 Puerto Montt, Chile

It was foggy all night, with the fog horn going off pretty much constantly from what I heard from people (i slept through it). The fog slowed the ship down, and we were late getting into port this morning. We had to tender in and I finally realized they use the life boats from the ship as tender boats. For some reason i thought the ports supplied these. Everyone wanted off the ship at once, so this was a slow process.

Our tender boat

Our tender driver

This area of Chile was colonized by Germans in the 1850s.

We found a driver to take us up to the tallest volcano in the area, the Osorno volcano. It’s over an hour drive from Puerto Montt, past the amazingly large Lago Llanquihue. Probably not as big as our Great Lakes, but a very big lake.  We stopped in at a market in Puerto Varas to pick up some fruit, avocados, and tortillas for lunch. Puerto Vargas is an upscale vacation town, but the market we stopped at was pretty basic.

Our goal

The road up the mountain was winding, steep, and ended at a ski area. It’s summer in Chile but the chair lifts were running for summer tourists so we bought tickets and went up as far as we could. The 2nd chair lift was not running due to high winds. I was glad to have my down coat and gloves and we hiked around on the volcanic soil. 

Lago Llanquihue

Coming back down

The views were spectacular, and it felt good to be hiking on a mountain. Chileans liken this volcano to Japan’s Mt. Fuji because of it’s shape. I imagine covered in winter snow, it probably does look like Mt. Fuji. On our drive down the mountain we spotted a small fox. There were places where the railings had obviously.  failed some drivers. We were glad we had a good one.

On our way back to the port, traffic slowed to a crawl and the GPS kept mentioning an “animal muerte” but we did not see a dead animal. We did see a pickup truck that somehow got itself up on top of a guard rail. We weren’t exactly late back to the port, but we were cutting it close and the tour mover and shaker who promised to help us exchange money was no where to be found. Fortunately someone else was able to locate an ATM for us to get some Chilean pesos to pay our driver. At this point we found out one can only get a maximum of $200 per day from an ATM,  at least in Puerto Montt. That was enough and we caught the last tender back.

Saturday, February 11, 2023 Puerto Chacabuco, Chile

 Before arriving at Puerto Chacabuco, we started seeing signs of fish farming operations along these shores of southern Chile. No towns, just fish farms in the middle of nowhere. We arrived in Puerto Chacabuco before noon, which was earlier than expected. We anchored in the harbor, and a tugboat pulled up to our tendering platform just as the Insignia lifeboat was being lowered for use as a tender boat. A man hopped off the tugboat, and after about 15 minutes we were cleared to tender ashore. We headed to the lounge one floor below our stateroom to get tendering tickets. We managed to get the first tender ashore.

In was not exactly raining as we tendered in, but it was very misty and wet. Once ashore, we started looking for someone to take us into the Patagonia interior. After some negotiating, we took the shuttle out of the dock area and ended up in a weathered van with two others from the cruise ship, a Chilean driver and his English-speaking adult son. Our first stop was a large lagoon with one single family home visible on the other side. The owners' only access to the home is by boat. There were many small birds briefly interested in us. 

The only house in miles & accessible by boat only

We drove on paved and unpaved roads until we came to an old, rickety-looking suspension bridge over the Manueles River. Only one vehicle at a time could pass, and once we were on the other side, we walked onto the bridge for photos. It was an idyllic scene with horses in the nearby field. Occasionally another car would pass over the bridge, a couple of them hauling trailers with inflated river rafts. I found out later this area is world-famous for river rafting.

River rafters crossing the bridge

Subsequent stops included a waterfall, a pedestrian suspension bridge, miles of incredible landscapes that were reminiscent of rural areas of western Washington State, and finally to the small community of Iysen. It was here in the park square we found a woman selling baked goods that were perfect for us. 

Lunch!

We learned a few things about this part of Patagonia. For one thing, no roads connect this area to any other part of Chile. (There is a road that connects to Argentina.) Most things have to be brought in; nothing is manufactured here. The government has given land and farm animals to people to attract them to this remote area (and maybe to make up for fish farming cutting into livelihood?). Not many young people stay. 

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