Departamento de Futaleufú

We spent the next three days traveling further up the Carretera towards Futaleufu. Our first stop was in Coyhaique, the only larger city on the Carretera. Arriving there, we couldn't miss the opportunity of snapping some pictures at an interesting roundabout: In the middle was the "Monumento al Mate" , a large hand holding a mate cup, complete with straw🧉 What could be more South-American?

Coyhaique was mainly a fill-up stop for us: Filling up our food storage in the supermarket, filling up our tank with fuel, filling up our tires with air and filling up our stomachs with burgers. We had been craving a proper burger for a while, and the ones at 455 hamburguesería did not disappoint 🍔 The menu also contained a surprisingly cheap drinks item, which raised our interest: A Mexican Michelada, which consists of beer mixed with tomato juice, lime, tabasco, soy and worcester sauce. Verdict: Avoid even for free ☠️

From Coyhaique, we took a detour from routa 7 onto routa 240 towards Puerto Chacabuco, which lies at the head of the Aisén Fjord. We looked for an overnight spot at Lago Riesco, but had to turn around at the entrance of a private park. Another Chilean example of commercializing nature 😔 In the end, we spent the night in front of the entrance next to a small river. The next day, we drove into Puerto Chacabuco, hoping to find a quaint port town, but unfortunately it was mostly industrial. We quickly turned around and headed further north.

Quite suddenly, the tarmac once again transformed into horrible gravel with lots of potholes and sharp bends. We were happy to stop driving for the day when we reached a dolphin spotting point overlooking Rio Quelat. It's being said that the weather in Patagonia can be all seasons in one day. And thus, in the afternoon, a storm came rolling in. With rain pouring outside, we stayed inside watching a movie and fell asleep with our camper being shaken by the howling wind.

When we woke up, the weather was still grey and miserable. To warm ourselves up, we were hoping to hop into the hot springs nearby. On the way there, we passed the Ventisquero Colgante, a glacier "hanging" on the side of a mountain - quite spectacular! Unfortunately, the hot springs turned out to be fully booked, which left Tim‘s mood hanging as well. Trying to cheer him up, Laura decided to book a river rafting tour in Futaleufu for the next day - and convinced Tim that this would be a lot of fun and not suicidal at all!

Later in the day, the sun came out again. We turned off the Carretera onto another terrible gravel road towards Futaleufu, where we found a beautiful lakeside campsite, took out our camping chairs, enjoyed the view with a glass of wine and went to bed excited (Laura) and anxious (Tim) for the day to come 🛶

🐬 Dolphins spotted: 2
🍿 Movies watched: 1
♨️ Thermal baths visited: 0
🍹 Mexican Michelada: 1/10 -> would not recommend 🤢
⚠️ Road quality index: 3/10 -> a hell of a bumpy rideEn savoir plus