Río Gamboa

For those who haven´t thought about it, it´s summer in Chile. Until now, it doesn´t translate automatically in extremely high temperatures. Although they are extremely high the moment the sun shines. In the shade/ as soon as the sun goes down, it is quite chilly for this Spaniard! Moreover, it´s quite strange for us to hear “the summer hit of 2018” in the radio. For me, that is not until June/July! Not here…it is summer, and schools are closed until February.

Why this story about summer? After asking at least 3 people, and running out of battery using google maps in both of our phones (we have a Chilean SIM card to avoid the exorbitant roaming costs), we found our camping site in Castro. It is a primary school which during the summer time, is converted into a camping place! All the campers could use the facilities, hot showers, bathroom and teachers’ kitchen, and high-speed internet (“fibra-optica” as they so proudly explained)! Some of the classrooms where even transformed into bedrooms, as part of a sort of “hostel”. The school director runs the place with her son Fran, and her daughter in law. Absolutely amazing people!

We decided to take over the dining room, in order to plan our way further south. All of our plans until then consisted on having to be on the 27th of February in Puerto Natales to hop on the 4-day ferry through the fjords back to Puerto Montt. We had to figure out how to get there:
- Carretera Austral (Route 7)? Which parts are closed due to the earthquake/mud-slides in Santa Lucia? Is it better to drive through Argentina then? Which hikes do we want to do – Villa Castillo, El Chaltén, Chaitén? What was there to do in Tortel again? In Torres del Paine, O-trek or W-trek? When would we be there (all camping places have to be booked in advance).

So many questions…!

The dining room became our operations room in the morning – 3 road maps, plus the guides and extra information from in internet. As Ms. Director said – “oh boy, you look like you´re planning a war! Where´s the next battle, and who´s the enemy?”Read more