Category: Chile

Saturday 18 January was the night I almost spent sleeping in a Chevy pick up truck. I had no idea CONAF would be so completely ridiculous!

I was looking forward to spending the day in Queulat National Park. Queulat National Park was created in 1983 and was largely inaccessible until the Carretera Austral opened in 1988. It is still visited by relatively low numbers. The name Queulat means “Sound of Waterfalls” in the language of the Chono people and the park’s most popular attraction is the Cascada de Ventisquero Colgante or Hanging Glacier Falls. I was going to hike to see this during my time in the park today.

I arrived at the National Park at 11am. The National Park hours were 8.30am to 5.00pm, so I decided I would head for the boat first, in case when I came back from the Hanging Glacier Hike, it was too late.

In this part of Queulat National Park, basically all the hikes are to see the Hanging Glacier. Including the hike to the boat where a boat takes you across the lake to see the Hanging Glacier from the water. But it is pretty amazing to look at and I certainly didn’t regret hiking to see it from every angle.

I had paid my entrance fee to go into the National Park. The ranger takes all your statistics, name, passport number, where you’re from, which is very important because if you’re a foreigner you get to pay twice as much as the locals, £8 instead of £4. He also wanted to know where I had stayed the night before and where I was staying tonight. Asking where I was staying tonight was a bit of a nonsense as I’ll explain later.

The hike to the boat is 600m. As I said, I decided to do this first. It was just before 12 when I got to the boat launch and there was a family with 2 children and then another couple turned up. They said they needed 6 adults to run the boat, but they obviously decided 5 adults and 2 children was near enough, because they set off with the 7 of us.

My Spanish is limited, so I couldn’t work out if we stayed on the boat for the whole time or if we got off at the other side of the lake and there was a hike over there too. It turned out it was just a boat trip. There was no hiking trail at the other side of the lake. Having said that, the boat trip was wonderful, well worth it. My first real views of the Hanging Glacier were from the boat and I loved that perspective.

Next was the big hike, the 3.3km hike to see the Hanging Glacier. Again, it wasn’t clear if that was one way or return, neither was it clear whether the time of two and a half hours was a one way or return time. I’m still not sure about the latter, maybe at a push you could do it in two and a half hours if you were a speed hiker and had no stops, but an ordinary person doing the return journey in two and a half hours is a bit of a push.

The thing I do know for certain is that 3.3km is one way. There is a fair bit of climbing to do, but it’s not too bad. It wasn’t as difficult as the hike I’d done in Laguna San Rafael National Park to see the Explorers Glacier. I did bring my hiking poles with me on this hike which certainly made things easier. In addition, I had picked up some good tips from hiking Volcan Villarrica and was using my poles more effectively as well.

I met a couple of English lasses who had already been in Torres Del Paine and hiked the O Trek which meant they’d done the W Trek that I was doing plus a bit more. They said the W Trek was no worse than this one today, which was a relief. It meant I could probably manage it. I book these things with an expectation I might not be able to do them, so I was happy to hear the W Trek did sound like it was within my limitations after all.

The trail to the Hanging Glacier was a bit muddy and a bit steep in places, but not too bad and certainly nothing like I’d encountered on the Explorer’s Glacier trails, particularly the first one I did. The view at the top was amazing, but it was quite crowded, there were a lot of people up there. I spent half an hour taking in the view and taking photographs and then headed slowly down, with my new found volcano/mountaineering pole skills helping in abundance.

The swing bridge is right at the start (or end) of the trail and I wanted lots of photos on that too. I did the short nature interpretive hike and then went back to the swing bridge where there was no one to disturb my photo taking. I didn’t realise why at the time. This I was to discover.

There was only one more trail left to do, the panorama of the glacier, where you see it again from another perspective. I’d done 8km today, what was another 400 metres?

I couldn’t decide whether this was an even better view of the Hanging Glacier than the others I’d seen. I’d need to look back on my photos to check. But it was certainly a fabulous view. I stayed up there a while. Two other couples turned up. They left. I had the place to myself. I started walking down the track and held onto the hand rail and felt what I thought was a nail that had dug into my hand. It wasn’t a nail, it was a caterpillar. I’d not even looked and put my hand on it. And it really stung. For about 5 hours. The deadly poisonous South American Lonomia caterpillar which has a poison that can kill humans thankfully isn’t found in Chile. But whatever species had stung me, it really hurt. I regretted being so careful and not stabbing one with my hiking pole or standing on one earlier if this was the thanks I got. And my day was only about to get worse.

I finally went down the wheelchair accessible route to take in the view from this 50 metre trail, took more photos and headed back to my pick up truck.

There were 3 vehicles left in the car park. I started up and drove down through towards the exit. Then I got to a closed gate. I got out of the pick up to open the gate. Then I saw it was padlocked. Padlocked? And not even with one lock, with two padlocks! What? When I’d driven in, I hadn’t even noticed a gate because it had been open. Why would they padlock a gate when they could see there were still cars in the car park? It had never even occurred to me that what “hours of operation” actually meant was that after 5pm they would padlock the gate so that no one could get in or out.

I could understand if they didn’t want anyone else getting in after 5pm, but surely they could have an electronic gate that could stop people getting in, but would at least let people out. It was well before 7pm at this stage. It wouldn’t even start getting dark for another 3 hours. 5pm seemed ridiculously early to go to the extreme of padlocking a gate with 2 padlocks.

I wasn’t the only one who was caught out. Another couple were also trying to leave. Some campers were arriving. This was ludicrous.

I started out with mad ideas. Something to pick the locks with, although I haven’t the first clue how to pick a lock even if I did have the right tools. Maybe I could just crash through the gate like they did in the Dukes of Hazzard! I was being ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as CONAF, the Chilean National Park Service double padlocking a gate at 5pm in the middle of summer.

I had some more sensible ideas then. Park up for the night and get a taxi to my accommodation. The nearest taxi was in Puerto Aisen, 4 hours away. Okay so maybe ring my accommodation and ask them to do me a favour and pick me up. No mobile reception. A night in the pick up truck was looking more and more likely.

I drove to try and find someone and picked up some Chileans who had turned up too late to camp. They spoke some English. I offered them a lift. Normally I don’t pick up hitchhikers, but they weren’t hitching, I needed help and they spoke Spanish, I had the equivalent of £20 cash in my purse and they were hardly going to steal my pick up truck were they, they couldn’t bloody go anywhere, the exit gate was double padlocked.

They spotted a couple of cars in a house that was probably inhabited by CONAF staff and a pick up truck was coming out of there. I speeded up to block the exit and the Chileans got out to speak to him. He said he would unlock the gate for me and sort out the Chileans camp site for them.

When he unlocked the gate I said thank you very much in Spanish, he just scowled and pointed at his watch. I was immediately in a bad mood again. He was in the pick up truck, he was going out anyway, he would have had to unlock the gate. A Chilean couple had been caught out. I imagined this happened all the time during the light nights of the summer. Miserable sod. Ridiculous regulations. Plus it had taken about an hour to find someone to unlock the gate. So I wasn’t that late, I’d just been trapped.

I had some cheap red wine at my bed and breakfast that was completely revolting. Revolting or not, I needed a drink after that ordeal!

I travelled to Queulat National Park during my time driving on the Carretera Austral in January 2020.

Queulat National Park is run by CONAF, the Chilean National Park Service. The entrance fee is approximately £8 for everyone apart from Chilean nationals who get in for half price. The opening hours are 8.30am to 5pm in summer. Be sure to check the opening hours so you don’t get trapped inside like I did!

Queulat National Park is approximately 30 minutes drive from Puyuhuapi. Puyuhuapi is 230km north of Coyhaique on the Carretera Austral and takes around three and a half hours to drive.

I stayed at 2 different places in Puyuhuapi.

Hostal y Cabanas Ventisquero costs approximately £22 per night for a small, but comfortable room with ensuite bathroom. I booked through booking.com.

Hosteria Alemana costs approximately £30 per night for a single room with ensuite bathroom and breakfast included. I booked directly with the guesthouse. Details of the accommodation can be found on Trip Advisor.

I booked my pick up truck with Keddy by Europcar through an intermediary in the UK. It cost me approximately £52 per day for a 4WD 4 door pick up truck.

To access the Carretera Austral, I flew to Balmaceda Airport from Puerto Montt with Latam which cost £54 return. Checked luggage and seat reservation are extra.

Further information about driving the Carretera Austral can be found in my post

Driving the Carretera Austral – My Tips

Read about my other adventures on the Carretera Austral

Driving South on the Carretera Austral

The Marble Caves of Patagonia

Laguna San Rafael

Read the three part series about my hike on the W Trek in Torres del Paine

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 1 & 2

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 3 & 4

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Day 5 & Glacier Grey

Read about my other adventures in Chile

Rafting and Canyoning in Futaleufu

Ascent of Volcan Villarrica

Last Hope Celebration

Laguna San Rafael is a lake formed by the San Rafael Glacier, one of the many wonderful glaciers of Patagonian ice field.  This was a place that I had read was fairly inaccessible and not seen by anywhere near as many people as somewhere like the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina.  This was precisely the reason I was determined I was going to see this glacier from the massive ice field that was part of San Rafael National Park in Northern Patagonia on the Chilean coast, right next to the Pacific Ocean.

It had not been easy to arrange in advance.  Nothing about Northern Patagonia was easy to arrange in advance.  Once you got here, everything was easily available to do, but finding information to make a reservation outside of Chile was incredibly difficult.

I actually would have been able to go to Laguna San Rafael from Puerto Tranquilo, had I been able to get up to date information from the internet.  You can access Laguna San Rafael National Park from Puerto Tranquilo.  But I wasn’t able to find this information in advance, so instead I booked through Hotel Loberias del Sur in Puerto Chacabuco which was on the internet, but it meant I had to send a reservation by post from Riga, as I was working in Latvia at the time.  If I’d turned up on the day at the hotel, I would have got on the trip.  So there had been no need to panic.  I had been told back in October that the trips often got fully booked, but I suspect you’d have to be unlucky to turn up on the day and find there was no space.  If you wanted to make extra sure, I think booking the day before would generally guarantee you a place.    

Puerto Chacabuco is near Puerto Aysen, much further north on the Carretera Austral than Puerto Tranquilo.  I was going to have to head back that way in any case, but it was a detour off the main road.  It would also mean spending a much longer time on a boat to get to the glacier than I would have from the Valley of the Explorers which was a very short hop in comparison.   

However, I did get to see a different part of Northern Patagonia, I stayed in a wonderful log cabin in the middle of nowhere and the boat trip turned out to be a brilliant day.

The boat was only about two thirds full, which meant there was plenty of space.  There were 6 seats to a table, I got a window seat and my table was shared by a couple from Israel and a bloke from Switzerland.  The couple had hired a car and were driving the Carretera Austral.  They had started in Puerto Montt and taken the two ferries to get here.  They were driving back through Argentina.  The Swiss bloke was touring around on his motorbike and had had his own motorbike shipped over from Switzerland for the journey. 

We set off for the Laguna San Rafael from Puerto Chacabuco at just after 8 o’clock in the morning.  It was 125 miles to reach there by boat and this was going to take at least 4 hours.  We were weaving through inlets to reach this massive ice field in Laguna San Rafael National Park and it was slow progress.  However, since this was quite an expensive thing to do, over £200 for the day, the food and drink was all included. 

We started off by having breakfast and enjoying the scenery as we sailed and I got to know the passengers who were sitting at the table with me.  Thankfully they all spoke English.  The Chilean people were generally sitting together.  There only seemed to be a few people on the boat trip today who weren’t from either Chile or Argentina, including a family from Colorado who I got chatting to later.

The excursion staff spoke both Spanish and English and gave us information about the Patagonian ice field and glaciers.  I chatted to my fellow travellers a little more and we talked about our experiences of driving along the Carretera Austral.  And it was actually quite nice to have a day off driving. 

As a pre-lunch aperitif, the staff came round with glasses of Pisco Sour for everyone.  Pisco Sour is something everyone drinks if they come on holiday to Chile.  It’s the law.  There’s a debate about whether pisco, a type of brandy, originated in Peru or Chile and where the cocktail comes from.  I’ve never been to Peru, but I’ve been to Chile twice, so I’m fiercely loyal to Chilean pisco and their version of the Pisco Sour.  We had lunch to soak up the alcohol as we got closer to the glaciers.

On many excursions to glaciers, including the other ones I did in Chile and Argentina on this trip, as well as those I’ve done in Alaska, you stay in the main boat to see the glacier and it gets as close as is safe to do so.  But this trip was more of an adventure.  Instead of staying on this relatively large boat to get as close as possible to the glacier, we were going in zodiacs! 

Our boat anchored and we were called to the boarding point to get into the zodiacs.  We got kitted out in our life jackets and then, in turn, we were called into the zodiacs.  I had zipped around in zodiacs quite a lot when I went to Antarctica, as these inflatable boats were the preferred modes of transport to do landings around the Antarctic peninsula, but I hadn’t been in one since.  And now I was going on an adventure around the icebergs and glaciers in an inflatable boat in Patagonia.  How exciting!

I got into the zodiac and sat next to my new Swiss friend and we headed out into the lake towards the glacier for a closer view.  Laguna San Rafael is a lagoon formed by the retreat of the San Rafael Glacier and the calving and melting of this glacier means that the lagoon is filled with icebergs, the pieces of ice that have broken off from the edge of the glacier.  You get a real sense of the size of these icebergs when your only protection from them is an inflatable dinghy.  They are enormous!  Being in a zodiac meant that we could weave in and out of the icebergs much more than a normal boat could do, so we could get relatively close to them.  It was amazing to be able to see the icebergs from the zodiac as we moved past them and closer to the San Rafael Glacier. 

It’s difficult to tell how close you are to the glacier from the perspective of the boat or if we were closer to the glacier in the zodiac than I had been when I’d been in normal boats, but you certainly get more of a feeling of the danger when you’re in an inflatable dinghy that could easily be overturned by a massive upsurge caused by a huge segment calving off the edge of the glacier. 

Even in the middle of January, the height of the Patagonian summer, this sheltered lagoon of glacial water was freezing cold.  The icebergs were not melting like a snowman in the midday winter sun.  The temperature meant that the icebergs were diminishing at an extremely lethargic pace.  So if an enormous chunk of ice fell off the toe of the glacier and into the lagoon, it would cause an immense wave that could flip our zodiac if we were too close to the glacier.  And if that happened, then we would all fall into the icy lagoon.  We had our life jackets, so we wouldn’t drown, but the water temperature would be a recipe for hypothermia rapidly setting in and death in a matter of minutes.  So it wasn’t a good idea to get too close to the glacier in a boat of any description, never mind a small, inflatable one.

The glacier looked gigantic in front of us and it didn’t look like it was very far away, but I never felt like we were close enough to it to be in any real danger.  Tourist trips by boat to Laguna San Rafael were done fairly frequently. The crew should know what they were doing.

After spending plenty of time weaving through the large icebergs and smaller chunks of ice that floated on the lagoon and getting as close as we dared to the edge of Glaciar San Rafael, with ample opportunity to take lots of photos, the zodiac steered back towards the big boat. 

The zodiacs didn’t take all of the passengers out to the glacier at the same time, so after our group was back on board the main boat, we could watch as our zodiac took another group out for a closer view of the glacier.  From this viewpoint you really could see how tiny the zodiac was in comparison to the glacier and surrounding icebergs.  I enjoyed watching the zodiacs heading out towards the glacier, momentarily disappearing behind large icebergs and then magically reappearing.  This was a truly enchanting place to be in the world.

Once everyone was back on board it was time to make the long journey back to Puerto Chacabuco.  I was expecting it to be quite dull, but actually it was a brilliant trip back. 

The crew announced that for our entertainment on the way back, we were the entertainment, it was karaoke time!  I groaned, what was this, a booze cruise in Ibiza?  The crew came round and served us a glass of whisky cooled with ice collected from one of the icebergs on the lagoon. The Swiss man and the couple from Israel, who appeared to be as impressed as I was at the prospect of a load of tourists singing out of tune for several hours, probably in a foreign language, disappeared onto the lower deck of the boat soon after that. I had another glass and settled back to relax and listen to the karaoke.  I would retreat to the lower deck as well if things got too ghastly. 

As I predicted, since most of the passengers on the boat were Chilean we had a lot of passengers volunteering for karaoke and singing songs in Spanish that were evidently beloved in Chile, but unknown everywhere else in the world.  It seemed to be the same few passengers who were doing the karaoke, which is fairly typical in my experience. It was an open, free bar, so I took advantage and sampled a couple of different types of Pisco and also some tequila, which were all very good quality. 

It might have been the fact that I was on a high after the zodiac to the glacier or I was emboldened by the strong booze, but I decided I was going to have a go at the karaoke and I went up to the staff who had a laptop with thousands of songs to choose from.  I didn’t know any Chilean songs, I wasn’t able to sing in Spanish and I also thought it was about time for Europe to be represented, so I requested Mamma Mia by Abba, probably the most European of all bands.  Thankfully as Abba was a world famous pop band in the 70s and 80s, followed by the success of Mamma Mia on the stage and big screen, my fellow travellers from South America knew the song.  I had fun singing it and having a bit of a dance on deck.  I do love to sing and dance.  I’m not bad at both singing and dancing, but I wouldn’t win any competitions in them either.

After my initial song, which had generally gone down well because I’d sung a recognisable song and managed to carry a tune, there were more Chilean classics sung by the locals and when there was another gap, I decided that it was time for England to be represented and which better band to represent the English than the most successful band of all time?  I chose my favourite Beatles song, All My Loving which had the added bonus of being short and without lots of key changes.  I even managed to do the high bit at the end!  The booze had definitely emboldened me to do that!

One of the women from the family from Colorado on the boat had obviously decided I had a good voice and asked me to sing with her. 

My two rules of karaoke are, make sure you know the song really well and could sing it without the lyrics if necessary and make sure it’s a song you can actually sing.  I once did a very drunken rendition of “Take Me Home Country Roads” in a pub in Torquay, a song I love and know backwards, but which wasn’t in my key and sounded appalling!  That was fine in the car when no one was listening to me, it was not fine in a pub full of people.

The woman from Colorado had requested the Gershwin classic “Summertime” originally recorded by Ella Fitzgerald.  If ever there was a definition of punching above your weight, me trying to sing an Ella Fitzgerald song was it.  This song broke both of my karaoke rules, it’s a song I don’t know particularly well and it was a complicated melody with some very low notes that anyone who isn’t a professional singer would struggle with.  I didn’t get beyond the first few lines before I’d given up.  In order to prove that I could sing, I just didn’t have the vocal capability to perform an operatic aria, I did one more song on my own.  “Top of the World” by the Carpenters is a particular favourite of mine to sing at karaoke, so I knew I could make a half decent job of that one!

After all this karaoke, time had flown by and we were getting closer to Puerto Chacabuco.  I sat down as tea was served and the other members of my table returned for our final approach into the town.  We got back to Puerto Chacabuco at around 7pm.  It had been a full day out.

The cruise from Puerto Chacabuco to the San Rafael Glacier had been very enjoyable and had exceeded my expectations.  The main feature that put it well above all of the other glacier excursions I did, was the fact that we went out to the glacier by zodiac.  That made it a unique and special experience.  In addition, the long journey sailing through the inlets to reach the glacier meant that I had had time to get to know some of my fellow passengers. It was a leisurely day that gave me a rest from driving and a chance to relax. And the karaoke wasn’t half bad either!

I travelled to Laguna San Rafael during my time driving on the Carretera Austral in January 2020.

I booked my all day trip to Laguna San Rafael with Hotel Loberias del Sur in Puerto Chacabuco. The 12 hour excursion including trip to the lagoon by boat, close up excursion to the glacier by zodiac, all meals and alcohol drinks, cost around £225. It is also possible to stay at overnight in the hotel.

Puerto Chacabuco is approximately 20 minutes drive from the major settlement of Puerto Aisen. To reach Puerto Aisen turn onto Road 240 from the Carretera Austral, just north of Coyhaique. It will take approximately an hour to drive the 64km to Puerto Aisen.

I stayed at Cabanas Ecoturismo la Pancha 7km outside of Puerto Aisen. A 3 bedroom cabin costs approximately £78 per night. The hotel is also on various hotel booking websites. I booked through booking.com.

I booked my pick up truck with Keddy by Europcar through an intermediary in the UK. It cost me approximately £52 per day for a 4WD 4 door pick up truck.

To access the Carretera Austral, I flew to Balmaceda Airport from Puerto Montt with Latam which cost £54 return. Checked luggage and seat reservation are extra.

Further information about driving the Carretera Austral can be found in my post

Driving the Carretera Austral – My Tips

Read about my other adventures on the Carretera Austral

Driving South on the Carretera Austral

The Marble Caves of Patagonia

Read the three part series about my hike on the W Trek in Torres del Paine

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 1 & 2

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 3 & 4

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Day 5 & Glacier Grey

Read about my other adventures in Chile

Rafting and Canyoning in Futaleufu

Ascent of Volcan Villarrica

Last Hope Celebration

I had wanted to drive along the Carretera Austral for as long as I’d been seriously planning a trip to Patagonia.  The points I wanted to see along the way were rather more fluid. But ever since I’d seen photos of the Marble Caves, I knew I had to see them for real. So driving as far south on the Carretera Austral as Puerto Tranquilo so that I could realise this dream became part of my route plan.

I had decided not to drive any further along the Carretera Austral than Puerto Tranquilo as I had no real desire to drive to the end of the earth. I’d been to the end of the earth several times in the past, I felt my time could be better spent exploring other parts of Patagonia than Villa O’Higgins, a long way from anywhere, not much there when you arrived and a long drive back. But driving as far as Puerto Tranquilo to see the Marble Caves was a necessity for me and I was praying the weather would be good so that I got to see them in all their glorious colours.

I had arrived in Puerto Tranquilo the night before, after driving the 200km from Balmaceda Airport. I had already checked out the location of Bahia Mansa who were 5km out of town and I’d read about in an excellent online review and was now driving back there first thing in the morning to do a tour of the caves. It was best to do a tour in the morning when the light was at its best and also while the weather was still fine. 

I had read that if the weather was bad it wasn’t possible to do the boat tour to the Marble Caves and I would have been devastated if I’d travelled all that way and didn’t get to see them.  However, I had given myself 2 nights in Puerto Tranquilo, so if the weather had been terrible on the first day, I had a second morning to attempt to see them. In addition, it was the Austral summer and I was a long way south, so I had plenty of daylight which meant it wasn’t necessary to set off anywhere at daybreak to ensure that I wasn’t driving in the dark, which I was trying to avoid on the Carretera Austral. The next day I was driving to Puerto Aisen which was around 300km away and would probably take about 6 hours. So even if I set off at midday from Puerto Tranquilo, it wasn’t going to be an issue.

This morning the weather was perfect. The further south you drove on the Carretera Austral, the worse the road conditions and the drive from the town of Puerto Tranquilo to Bahia Mansa where I was getting the boat from, was on rough gravel until you got to the turn off for the property. Then it was a kilometre of one of the worst roads I’d ever driven on, steep downhill, rutted, hairpin turns. I was praying I wouldn’t meet anything coming in the opposite direction and I was lucky.  I parked up and made my way to the little house where the family business operated from.

The Marble Caves are found on Lago General Carrera, a massive freshwater lake fed by glaciers in Northern Patagonia.  They are only accessible by boat. There were plenty of companies in Puerto Tranquilo that packed their boats full of tourists and gave limited time at the caves. The fact that I had driven to this small family run business that not many people knew about meant that I only had to share a boat with one couple so it made getting photographs a lot easier as I could move around the boat and we would have a bit more time.

The rock formations that rise out of the lake and have eroded and exposed their beautiful colours, dot all around this part of the lake. Rather than it just being one cave, there are several parts of the rock that form to make caves. Marble Caves is a catch all for the entire area, but there are also individual formations that are worthy of special attention, the Marble Chapel is one, and the most amazing and famous of them all, is the Marble Cathedral.

I walked down to the lake shore and got into a small boat. With just 3 passengers in the boat, we probably didn’t need 2 crew as well, but we got them. We started off by heading to the furthest caves.  Described as one of the most isolated natural treasures in the world, the partially submerged caves were formed by over 6000 years of erosion of the lake.

And the marble caves aren’t marble in name only. The rock really is marble. The colours are amazing. Grey, blue, turquoise, white and yellow.  When you get to the first lot of caves which are the biggest, the colours aren’t as varied. But this is where the caves are actually large enough for the boat to get into, so you can experience being inside the caves.  This is very dependent on the water level and the wind speed. If it’s a very windy day, access to the caves is difficult. On this day there wasn’t much wind whip up the water in the lake. The lack of big waves meant it was a lot easier to manoeuvre the boat into the tight spots inside the caves.

The boat was steered into a few different caves in the main section of the rock and then we headed off to the two isolated rock formations. The larger one was the Marble Cathedral and the smaller one was the Marble Chapel.

We approached the Marble Cathedral first and the colours of the marble here were unbelievable. I’d seen photos in the past and thought the colours must have been enhanced, but when I looked at my photos, the colours really were that vibrant. The marble was blue, not grey, the yellow was bright yellow, not white. This was what I’d driven all this way to see. I was not disappointed. Obviously I was lucky with the weather conditions which meant I saw the colours in all their glory, not only of the marble rock that formed the caves, but also of Lago General Carrera. 

I didn’t manage to get all of the photos I wanted despite having my mobile phone camera and my normal digital camera with me before we were moving on to the Marble Chapel. This is a much smaller rock and you can easily see it’s an isolated stack. The colours here aren’t as vibrant, but you can see around the whole rock formation, if the kayakers don’t get in the way!

I was so upset I hadn’t managed to get all my photos at the Marble Cathedral, I asked if we could quickly go back and take another look. This was another advantage of using this family run company and only having 3 passengers in the boat. The other boats that had come from Puerto Tranquilo were completely full and ran to a tight schedule. I wouldn’t have been able to ask them to go back for a second look. I did get a few more photos and, if I’m honest, I got more than enough, although I wasn’t totally satisfied at the time.  However, when I looked back at them, I had plenty and some of them had turned out really well.

The driver of the boat asked what I was going to do for the rest of the day and actually, I had no idea! It wasn’t even 11 o’clock yet, so I wasn’t sure what to do for the rest of the day. I’d been so determined I was going to see these marble caves, I’d given myself extra time in case of bad weather and now I’d seen them I had almost an entire day left to explore the area.

As I had my trusty pick up truck, it was suggested that I might like to take the road out of town into Laguna San Rafael National Park to the Valley of the Explorers, where about 50km down the road there were a couple of hiking trails that gave you a view of the valley floor and the surrounding glaciers. 

I tried to work out which road I needed to drive down to get to this National Park. I needed to get diesel anyway, so I got directions from the lad who filled my pick up who thankfully spoke good English.

It was a case of starting to drive out of town and then turning left before the bridge and that took you onto Route X78 that basically went to nowhere, but takes you through Valle Exploradores and gives you access to the San Rafael Glacier.

You know you’re on the right road, if after about 6km, you see a series of houses with crosses on the top of them. It’s actually a family cemetery and the houses with the crosses on top are over the graves. Another 6km on and you reach Lago Tranquilo which has a pull off so you can stop, take in the view and take a few photos if you want.

It was a rugged gravel road, but I was starting to enjoy the driving now, even though it was still hard going.  But the best part about this road was the scenery. I kept saying it, beautiful Patagonia. After the first pull off where I could stop to take photos and another vehicle stopped briefly, I had the road to myself. 

About halfway along the road were Nutria Falls that I had been told about.  I took a photo of them and acknowledged that I was now halfway to the hiking trailhead.  The scenery was getting ever more spectacular and I now reached the border of Laguna San Rafael National Park. Patagonia is full of remote National Parks. 

The glaciers I could see along this route are part of the Patagonian Ice Field, the biggest ice field in the Southern Hemisphere. And before you mention Antarctica is in the Southern Hemisphere, yes it is, I haven’t forgotten Antarctica. But the ice on Antarctica is classed as an ice sheet, far bigger than an ice field. So Patagonia does have the largest ice field in the Southern Hemisphere.

The further I drove, the more beautiful the scenery became.  As I was well off the beaten track with only occasional sight of another vehicle, I was able to pull over as often as I wanted, put my phone in its gorilla grip on the bonnet of the pick up truck and stand in the middle of the road to take photographs.  I deliberately wanted to stand in the middle of the road because I wanted a photograph of the view I was getting as I was driving along. Every time I rounded a bend the view was even better than before, I pulled the pick up truck over, so if another vehicle did happen to come along they could get past, and posed for a photo.

It’s pretty slow progress when you’re on a narrow, winding, rugged, gravel road, especially if you’re stopping every kilometre or so to take photos.  I didn’t want to thrash the pick up truck and risk getting a flat tyre, even though it was a new and sturdy vehicle.  I wasn’t in a rush so there was no point in taking unnecessary risks.  But this meant it felt like forever before I reached hiking trailhead in the National Park. I parked at the side of the road where there were a lot of other vehicles, but I was told that I had to drive a little further down the road where the office was and I would find the start of the hiking trails. Another kilometre or so and I reached a wooden building where there was a ranger taking fees for the hiking trails.

The Exploradores Glacier viewpoint is located in Exploradores Park. There were 2 trails, you could pay to do just one of them or both of them.  I opted to do both, as I always do.  The longer one is supposed to be the better one, but I preferred the shorter one. I thought the views were better on the shorter, 600m hike.  My recommendation would be, if you only have time to do one, do the shorter trail.

I did the longest hike first which was the Mirador Glaciar Exploradores, the viewpoint to see the Explorers Glacier. This was 1km long out and back and featured a steep climb and a real clamber across some loose rocks at the top to the get to the viewing platform.

The hikes in Chile were hard going.  My experience of hiking in the National Parks in the Chilean Lake District was that these hikes were fairly steep, big steps up, muddy and eroded trails. Getting to the viewpoint usually involved a continuous uphill slog. It appeared that Northern Patagonia was the same. 

Certainly even though this was a short hike in distance, it was no walk in the park. But the views of the glacier from the viewing platform were spectacular. And as this was so remote, even though I did pass one or two people when I was hiking, it was never going to be crowded and I had the viewing platform entirely to myself.  It was pretty windy up there, so I didn’t take any selfies with the gorilla grip.  If a big gust of wind knocked my phone off the fence, there was no way I would be able to retrieve it, so I contented myself with photos of the view.  There were plenty of photos of me standing in front of the mountains and the glacier in the middle of the road on my drive here.

After taking in the view, I then hiked back to the trailhead and started the second trail which was much shorter, just 300m one way, and took me to an alternative viewpoint.  This trail didn’t have much of an elevation gain and wasn’t anywhere near as steep or as high up, but actually I thought the view was better because from here you got a view of the whole valley and river flood plain.  And I had the whole thing to myself again. 

This had been well worth the drive, I was so pleased with the recommendation I’d received from the boat driver earlier in the day.  Now all I had to do was to drive back to Puerto Tranquilo.  When you drive back, you get a view from the opposite direction and although I had no plans to keep stopping to take more photos on the way back, I ended up stopping to take more photos on the way back.  I had hours and hours of daylight left and there was nothing to race back to Puerto Tranquilo for. I never say never, but the chances of me coming back to this specific area and driving down to Valle Exploradores again were extremely remote, at best.  So I might as well make the most of the day and the drive.

If you want to measure whether you’ve had a good day, then how many photos you’ve taken is a good indication.  Now we all have digital cameras or phones, everyone takes more photos than they used to when they were using an old fashioned film that needed developing.  But I wasn’t a particularly obsessive photographer, I was too impatient to keep stopping and taking photographs, particularly if I was hiking.  Sometimes I had to really concentrate on reminding myself to take some photographic reminders, so I wasn’t relying solely on my memory.  I was visiting places that a lot of people had never seen, so my own photographs were an important information source. 

But today, the scenery had been so fantastic, first with the Marble Caves and then with Valle Exploradores in Laguna San Rafael National Park, I had taken 264 photos!  That was an inordinate number of photos for me. That illustrated what a fabulous day this had been.  Sometimes if you dream of visiting somewhere for a long time, you can be disappointed when you get there.  But Northern Patagonia, a place I’d dreamed of visiting for almost 30 years, had not disappointed. It was constantly exceeding my expectations.  Every hour I was out in this amazing wilderness I was exclaiming, “Beautiful Patagonia”.

I travelled on the Carretera Austral in January 2020.

I went on a small motorboat to see the Marble Caves with Bahia Mansa, a small, family company about 5km south of Puerto Tranquilo. To find them, head south along the Carretera Austral out of Puerto Tranquilo until you see a left hand turn with the sign for Bahia Mansa boat tours. I paid approximately £17 for the hour long boat trip with 2 crew and 2 other passengers. This is more expensive than the tours out of Puerto Tranquilo which cost around £10.

I hiked 2 trails in Parque Exploradores to the viewpoints of the Explorers Glacier and Explorers Valley. There is an entrance fee of approximately £4 to access the 2 hiking trails.

Parque Exploradores is approximately 50km from Puerto Tranquilo down Route X78. You can find this route by turning left just before the bridge as you are heading north on the Carretera Austral out of Puerto Tranquilo.

The border of Laguna San Rafael National Park is approximately 32km along route X78 from Puerto Tranquilo. There are more details about the national park on the CONAF website in Spanish.

I stayed at Apart Hotel y Cabanas Valles Exploradores in Puerto Tranquilo. A 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom cabin cost approximately £88 per night. The hotel website is in Spanish but you can use Google translate to see it in English. The hotel is also on various hotel booking websites. I booked through booking.com.

I booked my pick up truck with Keddy by Europcar through an intermediary in the UK. It cost me approximately £52 per day for a 4WD 4 door pick up truck.

I flew to Balmaceda Airport from Puerto Montt with Latam which cost £54 return. Checked luggage and seat reservation are extra.

Read my tips about driving the Carretera Austral

Driving the Carretera Austral – My Tips

Read about my first day of driving on the Carretera Austral

Driving South on the Carretera Austral

Read the three part series about my hike on the W Trek in Torres del Paine

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 1 & 2

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 3 & 4

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Day 5 & Glacier Grey

Read about my other adventures in Chile

Rafting and Canyoning in Futaleufu

Ascent of Volcan Villarrica

Last Hope Celebration

Read about my experience driving the tourist routes on Prince Edward Island

North Cape Coastal Drive Part 1

North Cape Coastal Drive Part 2

Points East Coastal Drive

Cavendish and the Rotating House of North Rustico

I should have come to Patagonia at the end of 1994/beginning of 1995. The trip never came off. 25 years later and I’d finally made it here! And I was driving the infamous Carretera Austral.

I’d been dreaming about Patagonia for a long time. Ever since I learnt about it in geography, a cold desert in South America full of Welsh sheep farmers. I was a strange child!

The name Patagonia sounded so romantic. This barren landscape, akin to the Canadian Arctic which I loved so much. I was sure I’d fall in love with Patagonia too.

It was a long drive from Balmaceda Airport to Puerto Tranquilo, my first stop on the Carretera Austral. It was made even longer because I kept stopping to take photos.

So as I turned off the road from Balmaceda Airport on the Carretera Austral, this was it, now I really was in Patagonia.

Most people who visit Patagonia go to southern Patagonia, Torres del Paine in Chile, Perito Moreno in Argentina. That was to come for me later in the holiday, but ever since I read about the largely inaccessible northern Patagonia, reached by driving the remote gravel road, the Carretera Austral, I wanted to see that too. I wanted to drive the wild gravel of the Carretera Austral and see a region that sounded like it was practically at the edge of the earth.

The scenery was breathtaking. Beautiful Patagonia. The mountains, the glaciers, the rivers, the wild flowers. The one thing it didn’t have at the moment was this rugged, gravel road. I was driving on tarmac. And the one thing it did have, that everyone can do without, but I’ve discovered always comes with these cold places with a short growing season. In summer you have the giant insects! They hadn’t really been present anywhere else I’d been so far, so they were noticeable, but not too bad.

As I drove down the road, the purples and pinks of the wildflowers by the river was breathtaking. It was the first of many stops along the road for photos. The views of the mountains were amazing. Chile is just full of National Parks and I was driving through Cerro Castillo National Reserve with the amazing Castle Cordillera. I kept pulling over to take photos of the mountains and then sticking the gorilla grip on the pick up truck bonnet to get some photos with me in them. Some were better than others! It was an absolutely glorious day and the forecast was more of the same for the next day, so I had beautiful blue skies, the lush greenery and the mountains. Beautiful Patagonia. It was amazing.

Now I had hired a pick up truck. I’d been told I didn’t need a 4 wheel drive, so I just asked for a 2 wheel drive. As it turned out I got a 4 wheel drive anyway and almost new with only 2500km on the clock. As I continued to drive down this tarmac road, I wondered if I really needed this pick up truck that the guide books had advised, so that it would be sturdy on the rough gravel and would be easy to find parts if it broke down. Had the Carretera Austral been fully paved since my guide book had been printed? Was I not going to get any of this famous rough terrain the Carretera Austral was renowned for?

Be careful what you wish for. After 100km the sign said “Pavement End”. Then I was on gravel. For another 100km. All the way to Puerto Tranquilo. It wasn’t too bad at first. A lot of up and down and meandering. But the road was wide and well maintained. Then came 20km of roadworks. And actually even though it was a bit daunting driving on a gravel road through 20km of roadworks, because they were working on the road, again the condition wasn’t too bad, although the road was now significantly narrower. That’s always a worry for me. Most vehicles coming in the opposite direction do not slow down and they don’t pull over. I never think I have enough room. And I had 11 days of this. What was I thinking?

But after the roadworks, the road remained narrow and now was full of huge potholes. Seriously big potholes. I drove the Hummingbird Highway in Belize. That was full of potholes. This was almost as bad. The road crew needed to move further down the road.

It made me think, if I had come here in 1994, what would the Carretera Austral have been like then? Probably narrow and full of potholes for its entire length.

It seemed like I was never going to get to Puerto Tranquilo. The road went on forever. Any ideas I had about maybe going further south on the Carretera Austral had been extinguished. I was going to be driving on this gravel a lot over the next 11 days. I didn’t need to haul all the way down to Villa O’Higgins which is a long way from anywhere and, as far as I can tell, where there isn’t a lot to see, just to say I’d driven to the end of the Carretera Austral. I had nothing to prove. I hadn’t driven from the start in Puerto Montt anyway, I was just doing some bits in the middle, so it was completely unnecessary to drive all the way down there. Puerto Rio Tranquilo was far enough. I was going all the way up to Futaleufu which meant I’d have driven around 500km of the Carretera Austral. That was enough. I wasn’t on Top Gear. This wasn’t about driving. It was about seeing the best parts of Northern Patagonia.

Bad as the road had got and as much as I wanted to see Puerto Tranquilo, it is very special when you see Lago General Carrera. This freshwater, glacial lake has the glorious green colour of Southern Hemisphere glacial lakes, due to the presence of iridium, which isn’t seen in the Northern Hemisphere and actually comes from meteors. Similar to what I’d seen in New Zealand, but on a bigger scale. Lago General Carrera is huge!

I was anxious to get to my final destination now, so I didn’t stop for photos. I’d stop on my way out on Tuesday. The weather forecast wasn’t as good, but I didn’t care. I’d had enough of driving. There was just one final place I had to check out before I went to my accommodation. The place where I could get a boat to see the Marble Caves tomorrow.

According to my notes from my extensive research, the place was about 4km south of Puerto Tranquilo. I decided I’d go 7km and if I didn’t find it after that distance I’d abandon the idea. However, after 5km, lo and behold, on the left hand side was a road leading to Bahia Mansa for tours to the Marble Caves.

The track leading down to the boat dock where the tours left from was definitely the worst road I’d driven on today. I was in first gear all the way down, it was awful. I was wondering if I’d made a terrible mistake. But no, I got there, was told if I came back at 9am next day, they would do a tour for me. I could wait for other people or pay for a private tour. I decided if there were other people there in the morning I would join them, otherwise I would go on a private tour.

There were plenty of agencies in Puerto Rio Tranquilo that would take you out for the same price. But as this place was further out, a lot less people found it which meant the boats weren’t full, making it a lot less crowded. That was what I was after. A trip where I could actually see, rather than having to jostle for position to get decent photos.

I finally turned and drove back to Puerto Tranquilo which is a very small place and found my accommodation. I was staying in a two bedroom and two bathroom cabin. I couldn’t actually remember if I’d booked it because I wanted a cabin or booked it because that was what was available. But anyway, there was tons of space and it was comfortable. There was even space for me to park the pick up truck outside the cabin, although with the length of it, it took me 3 attempts to reverse it into the right spot! Time to settle in for the night in my huge cabin ready for my Marble Cave adventure the next day.

I travelled on the Carretera Austral in January 2020.

I stayed at Apart Hotel y Cabanas Valles Exploradores in Puerto Tranquilo. A 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom cabin cost approximately £88 per night. The hotel website is in Spanish but you can use Google translate to see it in English. The hotel is also on various hotel booking websites. I booked through booking.com.

I booked my pick up truck with Keddy by Europcar through an intermediary in the UK. It cost me approximately £52 per day for a 4WD 4 door pick up truck.

I flew to Balmaceda Airport from Puerto Montt with Latam which cost £54 return. Checked luggage and seat reservation are extra.

Read my tips about driving the Carretera Austral

Driving the Carretera Austral – My Tips

Read the three part series about my hike on the W Trek in Torres del Paine

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 1 & 2

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 3 & 4

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Day 5 & Glacier Grey

Read about my other adventures in Chile

Rafting and Canyoning in Futaleufu

Ascent of Volcan Villarrica

Last Hope Celebration

Read about my experience driving the tourist routes on Prince Edward Island

North Cape Coastal Drive Part 1

North Cape Coastal Drive Part 2

Points East Coastal Drive

Cavendish and the Rotating House of North Rustico

When I was researching driving the Carretera Austral a few years ago, there was virtually no information on this little visited region of Chilean Northern Patagonia. The road had a reputation of being one of the wild roads of South America, a badly maintained gravel beast that only a madman would think of driving alone.

There is more information available now, but even so, there are some quite useful things to know about driving the Carretera Austral, things it would have been useful for me to know before I got there.

So if you’re flying into Balmaceda to drive along the Carretera Austral here’s what you might find helpful.

When you say you’re “driving the Carretera Austral”, this has many definitions. There are several ways you can do it.

You can start in Puerto Montt, get two long car ferries over the watery bits (one is about 5 hours, so this is a not insignificant amount of time), and drive all the way down to the end of the road at Villa O’Higgins which is a really long way from anywhere. The total distance is 1240km.

You can drive through Argentina to avoid the ferry crossings.

Or you can do what I did, fly to Balmaceda and drive a portion of the Carretera Austral.

I’d decided that if I wasn’t doing the whole things, ferries, bells and whistles, I didn’t need to drive all the way down to Villa O’Higgins. My itinerary took me as far south as Puerto Tranquilo to see the Marble Caves and as far north as Futaleufu to go whitewater rafting, with a side trip to Puerto Aisen to see the San Rafael Glacier. And that was going to take 11 days.

So first thing it’s useful to know. All of the car hire companies have a stand at Balmaceda Airport and all the stands are manned when the flights land, even on Sundays.

I’d had nightmares trying to get my hire car, or pick up truck in my case, booked. I’d tried sending messages that bounced back, the unreliable online information said the car hire companies were based in Coyhaique, which is no use when you’re flying into Balmaceda.

Europcar seemed to be the only company at Balmaceda Airport, but their website said you couldn’t drive on gravel roads or the Carretera Austral in their vehicles. Since Balmaceda is on the Carretera Austral, it seemed unlikely that this restriction would apply, otherwise no one would hire cars from them, but only after a lengthy discussion by email in bad Spanish with Sebastian in Santiago (my Spanish was bad, not his!) was I able to establish this and exactly what type of vehicle would be sufficient for my requirements.

All the car hire companies have stands at Balmaceda Airport and they are all manned when the flight from Puerto Montt lands, including on a Sunday, which I was worried about, as this did prove a problem for me when I was travelling in Australia. But in Chile all the car hire stands were open.

So you probably don’t need to book in advance. I like the certainty of advance booking. I’ve been travelling a long way, I have things I want to do, I don’t want to chance flying into Balmaceda and find there are no vehicles available, especially for an odd duration, like my 11 days. But I suspect you could get away with it, especially if you’re travelling for a shorter amount of time.

It’s always worth checking before you sign on the dotted line, but the hire car companies expect you to be driving on the Carretera Austral if you fly into Balmaceda. Where else are you going to go? So you don’t need to worry about that. If you’re told you can’t drive on the Carretera Austral, just go to another company. There are several to choose from.

You also don’t need a 4 wheel drive even though the Carretera Austral isn’t all paved. More about that later. But a 4 wheel drive isn’t strictly necessary. Having said that I did find it useful to put my vehicle into 4 wheel drive on the gravel sections of the Carretera Austral, but I was just being extra careful. Plenty of people were in 2 wheel drives and they should be fine for anywhere you want to drive along the length of the road. However, as I mentioned, I didn’t drive all the way to Villa O’Higgins and the further south you go, the worse the road conditions get.

I had a 4 wheel drive pick up truck. I’d actually rented a 2WD, but was given a 4WD. I had chosen this, because with the limited information I had been able to gather, a lot of locals drive them and you are supposed to be able to get parts easily if they break down. I was sincerely hoping my pick up would not break down. It was brand new. It had only done 2500km when I took the keys. They’re also supposed to be nice and sturdy. With the reputation of the Carretera Austral being poorly maintained and full of potholes, nice and sturdy seemed the most sensible option.

I hired a manual pick up, so I had to change gear as well as everything else. I should mention that I’m used to driving a manual vehicle. I should also mention that as a Yorkshire lass, I have a right hand drive car, which is standard in England and am used to changing gear with my left hand. So not only did I have to change gear, I had to change gear with the wrong hand. But I’ve driven manual left hand drive vehicles in Europe before and you soon get used to changing gear with a different hand.

I seemed to be the only tourist who was driving a pick up. Everyone else had rented SUV type vehicles. And I could have had one of those and managed absolutely fine on the Carretera Austral with it. But I actually got quite attached to my pick up truck, it had a bit of character. And it blended in with the locals. But you certainly don’t need a pick up truck if you want to drive something smaller.

When I left Balmaceda Airport and drove 15km down the road from the airport to join the Carretera Austral, the road was all paved. Then I turned onto the Carretera Austral to drive southbound and this was also paved. The further I drove along the paved road, I wondered had I hired a 4 wheel drive pick up truck to drive along a fully paved Carretera Austral? Where was the gravel? Be careful what you wish for! The pavement does end and 90km or so north of Puerto Rio Tranquilo you hit the gravel.

There were roadworks at several points along the Carretera Austral. They are upgrading the road now, tarmacking more and more of it. Some of the roadworks last for about 10km and they were quite a trial, especially on the first couple of days of driving on the gravel until I got used to the road and my pick up.

And yes, there were appalling potholes in some spots too, sometimes for kilometres at a time. But generally even the gravel parts of the Carretera Austral are easily manageable. As mentioned above, I would put the pick up truck into 4WD on the gravel sections, just for extra grip on the road. After I’d got used to driving on the gravel and was picking up speed, sometimes up to 80km per hour on the straighter sections that had been newly graded, I wondered what all the fuss was about. But of course, the road conditions have vastly improved in recent years.

You will also see a lot of hitchhikers on the Carretera Austral. I never pick up hitchhikers. I always feel incredibly mean when I see them there on the side of the road, especially as I’m in an enormous vehicle on my own. But just like hitchhiking alone isn’t completely safe, particularly if you’re a woman, neither is a lone woman picking up hitchhikers. I’m sure most hitchhikers are nice people, in fact I did see a young couple of hitchhikers holding a sign proclaiming “We are Nice”, but there are enough crackpots out there who might pull a knife on you or something, to make it more of a risk than I’m prepared to take.

You will also find you can rock up to most towns and find somewhere to stay without making an advance reservation. I choose not to do this. I have done it in the past and find it a nuisance driving round trying to find somewhere to stay for the night. It feels like I’m wasting half of my holiday trying to find somewhere to stay. I prefer to know exactly where I’m going and then I have all my time for doing other things.

But actually the towns along the Carretera Austral are so small, you wouldn’t have to spend much time driving around them to find somewhere to stay, so this isn’t really an issue here. So if you like to go where the wind blows, you shouldn’t have too many problems finding a cabaña wherever you end up on this route. I saw vacancy signs in all the towns where I overnighted and this was the height of the tourist season in January.

And finally you don’t need to book your excursions in advance. I got on a boat to the marble caves without having to make a reservation and I could have also got on a trip to the San Rafael Glacier from Puerto Tranquilo without having to go through the complicated process I went through to make my reservation. If I’d known it would be so easy to roll up and go to the San Rafael Glacier the day I arrived, I probably wouldn’t have bothered posting all the necessary information to Chile from Latvia while I was working in Riga 3 months earlier!

I believe that they are slowly paving the whole of the Carretera Austral. So in a few years that wild element of the gravel and the potholes may well have gone, which I think would be a shame. Part of its appeal is the remoteness and element of danger. I’m pleased that I got to drive a good section of the gravel part of the Carretera Austral before it was completely tamed.

So there you have it. Everything you need to know about driving the section of the Carretera Austral between Puerto Rio Tranquilo and Futaleufu that it would have been useful if I’d known before coming to Chile. If you or any friends are planning on coming out here, direct them to this post. I’m sure they’ll find it useful.

Read about my adventures on the Carretera Austral in the next post.

I travelled on the Carretera Austral in January 2020.

I booked my pick up truck with Keddy by Europcar through an intermediary in the UK. It cost me approximately £52 per day for a 4WD 4 door pick up truck.

I flew to Balmaceda Airport from Puerto Montt with Latam which cost £54 return. Checked luggage and seat reservation are extra.

Read about my first day of driving on the Carretera Austral

Driving South on the Carretera Austral

Read the three part series about my hike on the W Trek in Torres del Paine

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 1 & 2

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 3 & 4

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Day 5 & Glacier Grey

Read about my other adventures in Chile

Rafting and Canyoning in Futaleufu

Ascent of Volcan Villarrica

Last Hope Celebration

Read about my experience driving the tourist routes on Prince Edward Island

North Cape Coastal Drive Part 1

North Cape Coastal Drive Part 2

Points East Coastal Drive

Cavendish and the Rotating House of North Rustico

It seems ironic that during this global pandemic which has seen me at home for the longest continuous period of time since 2001, this post is about a place called the Last Hope. This was one place that was most certainly on my list of things to do in Puerto Natales before I left.

That evening I planned to go to the Last Hope Bar and Distillery. This was a bar that did free tours of their gin distillery in English at 5.30pm, five days a week. This distillery in Chilean Patagonia is the most southerly gin distillery in the world.

I love gin, I’ve tried gin from all over the world, particular favourites being Ungava gin, a Canadian gin that is bright yellow because it is flavoured with Arctic herbs such as Labrador tea, Australian Ink Gin which is naturally bright blue thanks to the addition of petals from the butterfly pea flower and the Slovenian gin which probably has the best name in the world, Broken Bones!

A Chilean gin, and more specifically, a Patagonian gin, was something I had never tried. I’m not a foodie, but I do enjoy trying local drinks. In Futaleufu I had tried Trakal, which is a Patagonian spirit. I loved it and I had tried in vain to find a bottle to bring home with me. So if I wanted to bring a bottle of a local Patagonian spirit home with me the Last Hope was literally going to be my last hope!

The Last Hope bar and distillery is in a small house along Calle Esmerelda in Puerto Natales. It opened at 5pm and so to be sure to get there in time for the distillery tour at 5.30pm, I was there at about ten past five. This bar had a bit of exclusivity to it. Even though it was technically open, you couldn’t just walk in. The front door was locked. You had to ring the bell to gain entry. Unsurprisingly this small bar had very few people in it when I arrived. I chose a comfortable chair with a small table in front of it close to a window so I could enjoy looking outside. I wanted to try both gins and didn’t know whether there would be a free taste or not. I got my answer straight away. Matt, one of the owners, immediately came over to me with a bottle of Last Hope original gin and a bottle of Last Hope Calafate gin and two shot glasses so that I could sample their product.

I can confirm that both of these gins are really good. I have subsequently done a taste test with other gins in my kitchen cupboard at home, which I’ve had plenty of time for during this enforced stay at home period due to Covid 19, and the original and Calafate gins ranked very highly. The original gin was my favourite amongst the others I had in my cupboard.

If you’re confused about Calafate gin, let me explain. Patagonia is a cold place. Puerto Natales is almost 52 degrees south. That doesn’t sound that far south when you compare it to 52 degrees north. Where I live in Yorkshire, I’m 53 degrees north. But the furthest south you can get on New Zealand’s mainland is 47 degrees. So once you’re at 50 degrees south you’re in cold territory. In common with other cold places, most plants don’t thrive. But plants with berries tend to do quite well in cold climes and Patagonia is no exception. Anyway, that was a very long winded way of telling you that Calafate gin is made from the native purple coloured Calafate berry, only found in Patagonia. Calafate gin is uniquely Patagonian. And it’s purple.

Enough of this rambling. The bar and distillery is owned by a couple of Aussies, Matt and Keira, who went trekking in Patagonia and ended up settling in Puerto Natales when they found a gap in the market. The tax breaks for businesses in Chile made it a very viable proposition.

Matt explained that when they travelled in Chile there were no gin distilleries in the country and so he and Keira had decided to start a business distilling gin and also whisky. Whisky takes longer to produce than gin, so they didn’t have any of their own whisky to taste in the bar as yet, but they did have the gin. They were also a gin and whisky bar, so they had a vast array of gin and whisky to choose from all over the world, as well as a menu of cocktails. The cocktails were very reasonably priced. Matt said if they were in Santiago they could charge more for them, but around £5 was the maximum they could charge here if they wanted to attract locals in as well as tourists. When you could get a bottle of Pisco from the supermarket for £4, no one was going to pay £10 for a cocktail.

I love cocktails, and the cocktail menu was extensive, including several cocktails that are changed every month, so you could only try these cocktails for a limited time. That was largely irrelevant for me as I had much more limited time in Puerto Natales than a whole month. I ordered my first cocktail of the night, it was called a Petrichor, a combination of gin, dry vermouth, black garlic, celery shrub and dill. The addition of black garlic intrigued me, this was the one I absolutely had to try. It might sound odd, but it was my favourite of the night, I really enjoyed the taste.

A tour group came into the bar just after I had got my drink, filling the place up. Once they got their drinks, Matt said the distillery tour in English was about to start and invited us to bring our drinks with us.

Usually when I’ve been on a distillery tour or a wine tour, you do the tour and then have the tasting, this was the first time I’d taken my drink on the tour with me. I also invite you to dismiss any preconceptions you might have about what commercial distilleries are like, the gin here was made in the back shed! It was very much like a home brewing operation. But that was all they needed. They weren’t a multinational corporation, they were a small business in Patagonia. The back shed was all that was necessary to produce great gin.

Matt was very open about the distilling process and the ingredients they used to make their gin unique. We got to smell them all, he explained that they had to experiment with the proportion of ingredients to make the best flavoured gin and that had got them the product they had today. He said they took into consideration what it tasted like with a mixer in it, because most people drank gin with a mixer. He asked if anyone on the tour today drank gin without a mixer. Out of approximately 20 people on the tour, I was the only one who raised my hand. Oh dear! I would argue that makes me the connoisseur of the group…

The whisky was in the barrels at the moment, they hadn’t decided how long they were going to distil it for. It was a gamble because until it came out of the barrels they didn’t know how it would taste.

After the tour I went back into the bar and ordered another cocktail, a Legendary 75, similar to a French 75 and made with Calafate gin. Certainly the prettiest coloured cocktail I had that evening.

I decided I was going to eat here too. They only did bar food, but that was fine for me. A cheese plate was one of my favourite meals. They did a very good cheese plate, with a variety of breads, fruits and vegetables as accompaniment. You only got one type of cheese. Keira, the other owner of the distillery, explained to me that this is what sold. Again, their base was local customers and they didn’t like different cheeses on a cheese board. I do like a variety of cheeses on a cheese board, but I happily accepted this single cheese plate, I was enjoying the atmosphere and the cocktails.

My third cocktail of the night was the aptly named Globetrotter, which I had to try, particularly since it was made with gin and celery, my favourite vegetable. This tasted heavily of celery and the alcohol in this one was very subtle.

I ordered the sticky toffee pudding dessert to go with my cocktail and Keira came and sat and chatted with me for a while. I was very impressed that both of the owners made an effort to talk to their customers. I especially appreciated the gesture as I was on my own. Even though I enjoy travelling on my own, it is nice to chat to people every once in a while so you don’t feel too lonely and I enjoyed talking to Keira. She told me that the men at the next table, one of whom had a jacket with the words “Sacrificial Blood” emblazoned on the back, were a local band. I had been watching them, they were there enjoying a drink, just like everyone else in the bar.

Keira said there was room at the bar if I wanted to sit there, but I was comfortable where I was, so I ordered a final cocktail to round off my night. She’ll be Apples was a mixture of gin, sherry and Benedictine and was much drier than I expected. Benedictine is a favourite liqueur and I know it’s very sweet, so I was anticipating the addition of this to the cocktail would have made it sweeter. Instead the skilful mix of ingredients meant it was very dry.

I enjoyed all of the cocktails, although as I mentioned, the first one with the black garlic in it was my favourite of the night. But the main thing for me was to try something different. I wanted to drink cocktails that I hadn’t come across before and while some of the cocktails were a twist on more traditional drinks, such as the Legendary 75, others were unique. I had thoroughly enjoyed my evening and Matt and Keira had made me feel very welcome. This was also my reward for completing the W Trek, something I hadn’t been sure I would achieve. All in all it was a brilliant night. It was easily the best night out I had on this holiday.

I couldn’t leave the Last Hope empty handed. The temptation to buy Patagonian gin to take home with me was too great to resist. How many kitchen cupboards in Yorkshire would have bottles of Last Hope gin in them? Probably just mine. Last Hope gin isn’t mass produced so every bottle had a batch number and a bottle number on it. It’s a bit special.

And did I buy the Last Hope original gin or the Last Hope Calafate gin? I bought a bottle of each! Of course I did! I loved their original gin, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to buy a bottle of uniquely Patagonian Calafate gin. I certainly wouldn’t find that anywhere else in the world.

And I end this post by saying, that as I continue to sit at home waiting for the opportunity to travel again in the future, I never give up my last hope. We will all travel again and see amazing sights throughout the world soon. And I hope, one day, I make it back to the Last Hope Distillery to try the whisky sitting patiently in that barrel. That would be something to celebrate.

I travelled to Puerto Natales in February 2020

Puerto Natales is located in southern Chile and is the gateway to Torres del Paine National Park.

Last Hope Distillery and Bar is located in the centre of Puerto Natales. It is open 5 days a week during high season. Distillery tours are free. Separate tours are conducted in English and Spanish.

I stayed at Pire Mapu Cottage in Puerto Natales. Breakfast is included in the room rate. They also offer baggage storage for hikers for a nominal fee. This accommodation is within easy walking distance to the bus station. It is a 10 minute walk from the centre of the town.

I travelled to Puerto Natales by bus with Bus Sur who offer transportation by bus throughout southern Chile and Argentina. I travelled to Puerto Natales from El Calafate in Argentina. My onward journey from Puerto Natales was to Punta Arenas.

Read the three part series about my hike on the W Trek in Torres del Paine

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 1 & 2

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 3 & 4

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Day 5 & Glacier Grey

Read my experiences driving the wild, rugged and remote Carretera Austral.

My Tips for Driving the Carretera Austral

Driving South on the Carretera Austral

Read about my other adventures in Chile

Rafting and Canyoning in Futaleufu

Ascent of Volcan Villarrica

Read about my morning wine tasting experience in Liechtenstein

Wine Tasting in the Prince’s Cellar

I was now on the last day of the W Trek. Day 5.

After spending a rather horrible night in the final hostel, an idea had come into my head. I hated the hostels and really didn’t want to spend another night in one and then I realised, maybe I didn’t have to. If I walked fast enough I might be able to make in to my next hostel in time for the afternoon boat back to Hotel Grey and then get back to Puerto Natales a day early. And if I did that I’d be able to make it to the Last Hope.

I didn’t lounge around for too long. I hadn’t paid for any food so I packed up my stuff and headed off on the last part of the W Trek to Lago Grey.

This was a fairly quiet section of the W Trek. As mentioned in my last post, some people do miss this part out, they simply start at Paine Grande and head east. There were a few hikers and one guided group, but this was a path less travelled. Anyone who was doing the O Circuit was walking in the opposite direction, so the first part of my hike was very quiet.

I think I had recovered my energy somewhat, I seemed to be walking faster, I was feeling refreshed. If I’d felt like this on Day 4 I might have managed the Mirador Britanico hike, but there was nothing I could do about that now.

As usual the path wasn’t flat, but I was coping with the hills better, my body had finally got used to this demanding terrain. As I got to the top of the first section of today’s 11km I was greeted with a view over Lago Grey complete with a multitude of icebergs floating in it from the terminal moraine of Glacier Grey. I stopped to take a few photos, but I didn’t want to mess about for too long or I might not make it to the boat in time to head out of the park today.

As I progressed, further along the trail there was a view point where you could see the lake and glacier in the distance. The guided group made a stop there. You could see it almost as well from the trail and I didn’t have time for detours. The 11km hike was supposed to take three and a half hours and it was going to take me a bit longer than that, so I couldn’t afford to waste 10 minutes, especially as I had no way of knowing what the path was going to be like further along the trek.

As it turned out, there was one section that was very difficult for me, a steep section where I had to climb down a stream. I was struggling with that. I always managed, but it was very slow going. However, I never tried to rush the difficult sections. If I didn’t make the boat this afternoon and had to spend another night in a hostel, which I had a reservation for anyway, that would be a disappointment, but not a disaster. If I slipped and broke my leg or my neck, that would be a disaster. I wasn’t going to take any unnecessary risks. If I had to spend another night in a hostel, so be it.

After that difficult section, it did get easier and I was able to pick up a bit of speed again. The scenery was as spectacular as ever, most of the time I had a view of Lago Grey as I was hiking this last stroke of the W Trek.

And as I continued along the trail I saw the sign for Refugio Grey. I was going to make it in time for the boat to take me out of the National Park today. I had a confirmed reservation on the boat for the following day. There was still no guarantee there would be space for me on this afternoon’s boat. However, there were some short hikes I could do from there and there was a beach by the lake, so my fast pace to get here wouldn’t have been completely pointless.

I went into the reception of the hostel and was greeted by a very friendly lad on reception. I explained I was booked into the refugio for tonight and had a boat out the next day, but wondered if it would be possible to change my reservation onto the boat for this afternoon. He helpfully made a phone call and it was confirmed that there was space for me on the boat this afternoon. He said he couldn’t give me a refund for my night in the hostel, but I wasn’t worried about that. I hadn’t been expecting that. He gave me a voucher to get a free Pisco Sour, so I went into the bar and downed a cocktail in the space of about 5 minutes. The boat didn’t go from right outside the hostel, it was a 10 minute walk to the beach, so I needed to make sure I could make it to the boat in time.

The signposting on the W Trek was exceptionally good throughout and the only time I took a wrong turn was on the 10 minute walk to the beach to get to the boat, after I’d completed the rest of the hike! I got to a signpost and turned in the wrong direction. I realised I was going to the wrong way after a couple of minutes. If I’d missed the boat because I’d taken the wrong path from the hostel to the beach, now that would have been bad. Thankfully I made it to the beach in time.

I had been on a lot of boat trips to see glaciers on this trip, starting in Northern Patagonia, continuing into southern Patagonia, firstly Los Glaciares in Argentina and just before I embarked on the W Trek I had been on the Serrano River. This was going to be my final boat trip to view a glacier and marked my success of hiking the W Trek. If I hadn’t completed the hike, I would have missed the boat trip.

This was another reason I wasn’t too concerned about not staying at the hostel even though I’d paid for it in advance. I hadn’t been sure I’d successfully complete the hike and make it to Refugio Grey anyway.

The boat trip to view Glacier Grey was run by Hotel Lago Grey and it was possible to travel from the end of the W Trek to view the glacier and then on to the hotel or vice versa. For anyone not wanting to hike, it was also possible to just do a round trip from the hotel and it was possible to leave from the hotel on an early boat, spend some time near the glacier and then get a later boat back to the hotel. So there were a lot of variations. This meant that the boat was quite busy, probably the most people I’d seen since I left Puerto Natales. The hike to the Torres was a fairly heavily trodden path as this could also be done as a day trip without the need to overnight in the park, so I did see a fair number on Day 2 of the W Trek, but less than this.

Despite there being a lot of people on the boat, it was large enough for everyone to get a view of the glacier. If you had been hiking and had a large rucksack, you had to hand this over on embarkation where it remained in a luggage pile until the end of the cruise. This meant that the indoor seating area wasn’t full of enormous backpacks, which was useful as there were a lot of families on day trips who had a lot of stuff with them. I didn’t need any money, because I got a free Pisco Sour and that was enough, especially as I’d already had one in the hostel earlier.

After I’d drunk my pisco, I went onto the outside deck to view the glacier and take some photos.

I have to give top marks to the staff for making sure everyone got a turn at the front of the boat to get their photo taken in front of Glacier Grey. One of the crew was patiently taking photos of everyone and she asked them to step aside after they’d got their photo so that other people could get a photo in front of the glacier. This included me. And she took a very good photo as well.

The boat got quite close to the glacier and as the boat moved you could see it from different angles, from the extend of the glacier going up and disappearing into the mountains to close up views of the jagged pieces of ice that comprised it.

After spending time viewing the glacier and everyone who wanted to see it had been able to get a close up view and take plenty of photos, we headed down to the lake to Hotel Lago Grey where the cruise would end.

I mentioned that I’d done 4 glacier boat trips on this holiday and this one was better than the one at Los Glaciares in Argentina and in a tie with the one I’d done on the Serrano River, but the cruise to see the San Rafael Glacier in Northern Patagonia was easily the best. In that one, they took us all out in zodiacs to get a close up view of the glacier and we were singing karaoke on the way back. We also got food and as much free alcohol as we wanted! That was a really fun filled day!

However, if you don’t make it to Northern Patagonia – and most tourists don’t because it is much less visited – then this is a good glacier trip to do. The main reason I would recommend Rio Serrano from Puerto Natales over this one has nothing to do with the quality of the trip or the number of people on board, but the difficulty getting to Hotel Lago Grey if you don’t have a car. An all inclusive package at the hotel includes transport from Puerto Natales, but if you’re an independent traveller without your own transport, you have to pay for a private transfer from the hotel to the bus stop and then get the local bus out of Torres del Paine. If you’re hiking the W Trek and finishing at Glacier Grey, it’s worthwhile, if you’re not hiking and don’t have a hire car, take the boat trip along the Serrano River from Puerto Natales instead.

We got off the boat on the shores of Lago Grey and then we had to walk across a pebble beach to get to the hotel. The walk across the beach took about half an hour, so it’s not a 5 minute stroll. On the other hand this wasn’t a difficult walk. After hiking the W Trek for the last 5 days over terrain that was, in a lot of sections, quite challenging for me, half an hour across a flat pebble beach wasn’t going to pose a huge problem.

The building I got to after hiking on the beach was a shop and a café. So I still wasn’t at the hotel. I had to walk a bit further and I finally reached the hotel.

Now as I wasn’t meant to be here today, I had to make sure that everything was in place to get me out of the park. I had already asked the staff at the hostel to check that my transfer reservation to take me to the bus could be changed to today. It had been paid for in advance and I was told it wouldn’t be  problem, but I went to the front desk when I arrived at Hotel Lago Grey and double checked. They assured me it was fine, so I went into the restaurant, took a seat by the window and ordered some food to pass the time. While I waited for my food to arrive I had to rearrange my bus ticket and find somewhere to stay tonight.

I couldn’t alter my bus ticket online. I had booked it and paid for it in advance before I left England more than a month ago. However, I wasn’t really concerned about that because even though I had been advised to book in advance if possible, the buses were never full and it was easy to turn up and buy a ticket an hour or less before departure, which is what most people did. So I would only have problems in the highly unlikely event that the bus today was full.  Otherwise I’d already paid the bus fare, I was simply travelling on a different day.

Accommodation was more of a concern. I had no reservation and the place I was staying in Puerto Natales the following evening was fully booked.  I went on Expedia and booked a bed and breakfast in Puerto Natales and sent a message to the property through Expedia explaining that I would be arriving on the last bus into Puerto Natales and wouldn’t arrive until after 11pm. I got no response, but assumed that everything would be okay.

And now I could relax and enjoy my food and the view of the mountains from the restaurant window while I waited for my transfer to the bus stop.

The transfer itself was comfortable and in a comfortable vehicle, but it got me to the bus stop far too early, so yet more waiting around for the bus.

The driver wasn’t too concerned about the date on my ticket being the next day as the bus was nowhere near full as I had suspected. I did quite enjoy the shorter and more comfortable bus rides and certainly Bus Sur had comfortable, clean buses and were a reliable bus company, unlike the bus company I’d used in Argentina, Taqsa Marga buses who were absolutely appalling and I would only recommend if you had no other choice.

I am a big fan of the self drive holiday and I drive as much as I possibly can when I travel because I like to visit remote destinations and it’s the easiest way to get around. I do also really enjoy driving whilst on a trip and I love the freedom it gives me, stopping to take photos as often as I want, exploring a side road, all things you can’t do on public transport.

However, it was completely impractical to use a car for the W Trek as firstly I would have a car that I wouldn’t be using for several days which was a waste of money and, more importantly, since it was a one way hike, the car would be in the wrong place at the end of the trek. So I would still have needed public transport to get to my parked car. Anyway it was quite nice to sit back in the bus and relax two and a half hour bus ride to Puerto Natales.

It was late when I arrived back in Puerto Natales and I had to try and find this bed and breakfast I’d booked into. It was further from the bus station than my other accommodation had been, but I only had my rucksack to carry and not my enormous suitcase to drag through the streets.

A lot of things had gone wrong for me on this trip and my luck wasn’t about to change. First of all the map on my phone wasn’t doing its job and I was having problems finding the property. When I did find the property it was in darkness. I banged and banged on the door to no avail. I was both furious and desperate. I had sent a message when I booked my room at Hostal Lago Condor that I would be arriving on the last bus at approximately 11pm. They had accepted my booking, but evidently didn’t care about being at the property to let me in even though I had advised them immediately of my arrival time. But it was after 11 o’clock at night, even this far south in Patagonia in summer, it was now dark. Where was I going to find a bed for the night?

There was a property next door where the lights were still on. I thought it was perhaps a bar or a café. Maybe they could help me. Actually this place was a hostel. The mother and son who owned it couldn’t help me with the accommodation next door, but they did have a bed available here. It seemed that I might be sharing a dorm room for one more night after all. She offered to show me what was available and said it was very small. As my Spanish is pretty rubbish and her English wasn’t too clever either, I had interpreted her words to mean she had one bed in shared room, but actually it was a single room. The room was a box room with enough room for a single bed in it and nothing else. The bathroom was downstairs. It was £20 for the night.

My choices were simple. I could pay £20 sleep in the box room or I could go back out onto the dark streets of Puerto Natales and try and find somewhere else to stay. I was getting desperate and this was a perfect solution. The room looked clean, I would have it to myself, which was more than I’d had for the past 4 nights. The bathroom looked decent and even though it was downstairs, again it was better than the refugios in the National Park. £20 was not a lot of money, I was tired, I was fed up, I said thank you very much, handed her the equivalent of £20 in Chilean pesos and went to my room.

I was very grateful. Hostal Galvarino had saved my life tonight. I’d be spending tomorrow night in the Last Hope.

I travelled to Torres del Paine National Park and hiked the W Trek during the first week of February 2020.

To hike the W Trek in Torres del Paine National Park you must book all your accommodation in advance. There are hostels and campsites you can stay at along the route. There are a few free campsites run by the National Park Service. All hostels and the other campsites are run by Fantastico Sur in the east of the park and Vertice Patagonia in the west of the park. I was able to book the refugios with both companies through their websites from the UK using Paypal to secure the reservation.

You can get information about hiking in Torres del Paine National Park including the W Trek, the O Trek and the Q Trek, on the Conaf website.

I hiked the W Trek independently. I hiked from East to West starting from Torre Central to El Chileno to hike the eastern stroke of the W first. There are various tours available, but the hike is easy to do on your own without a guide and allows you to go at your own pace. The hike took me 5 days with 4 overnight stays at Refugios in the National Park.

My boat trip to view Glacier Grey is run by Hotel Lago Grey. You can book the Glacier Grey Cruise on the hotel website.

You can email Hotel Lago Grey to arrange a transfer from the hotel to the bus stop if you do not have a package booked with the hotel. The transfer to Terminal Administracion costs approximately £20.

I travelled in and out of Torres del Paine National Park with Bus Sur. At the end of my trek I took the 2000h bus from Terminal Administracion which arrives into Puerto Natales Bus Station at 2230h.

There are several buses each day departing from Puerto Natales Bus Station into the National Park. I took the 1200h bus from Puerto Natales to Terminal Laguna Amarga which took 2 hours.

Everyone must disembark the bus here if they are hiking from East to West in order to register with CONAF Park Services and pay the National Park fee which was approximately £25 for 5 days.

My emergency accommodation in Puerto Natales was Hostal Galvarino.

Read about the rest of my hike along the W Trek

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 1 & 2

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 3 & 4

Read my experiences driving the wild, rugged and remote Carretera Austral.

My Tips for Driving the Carretera Austral

Driving South on the Carretera Austral

Read about my other adventures in Chile

Rafting and Canyoning in Futaleufu

Ascent of Volcan Villarrica

Last Hope Celebration

Read about my day hikes in Argentine Patagonia

Down Argentine Way – Los Glaciares

At the end of my last post, I said I was considering whether to attempt to try and complete the W Trek.

Day 3 was the day to make this decision. If I did Day 3 I would literally be in the middle of nowhere and I would have no choice but to walk on Day 4.

I didn’t have to walk the middle stroke of the W, but I would have to walk to my next hostel which was another 11 km.

And if I managed that I’d only have one day left so I might as well finish the job and do the final 11 km. Then I had my boat trip the next day.

I’d been sure to arrange things so I didn’t have to catch any transport at the end of a walk, which meant I had no time pressures. My boat was a morning boat, but I was spending the night before in the hostel the boat went from, so as long as I actually made it there the night before, I would be okay.

Again, as mentioned at the end of my previous post, I knew I wasn’t going to give up. The weather was still perfect and I’d never get another chance to come here. So with blue skies and bright sunshine I set off for Refugio Los Cuernos.

Initially I enjoyed the hike, the views were wonderful, I could see the mountains and the lake, I stopped off a few times to take photos. It was very up and down, not the most difficult hiking, but I had to admit, this was becoming an endurance test now. I was finding this very tough. The day before had been difficult, I really could have done with more rest time in between.

The rough terrain meant I was hiking over large stones some of the time which was hard on my feet, my hiking boots weren’t the most comfortable either. Maybe I should have gone with my old trainers and that would have made it easier. I still didn’t think I’d have been hiking that much faster though. I was careful where to place my feet so as not to slide on loose stones, careful with deep steps so I didn’t lose my balance, careful when there was any water so I didn’t slip. Me being fitter than I was wouldn’t have made any difference to those aspects of my hike. I would still have been taking it very steady when negotiating those sections. But my body was also very tired and carrying a heavy rucksack all day was very difficult.

The other thing I had noticed about this trail was that you had to share it with horses. At first I thought that it was for people who wanted to go trail riding. You could go trail riding in Torres del Paine, but not on the W Trek. The second day I saw the horses on the trail. They were pack horses. One horse in front with a rider on it, leading two or three other horses carrying supplies. I supposed the remote hostels with no road access would have to be supplied by horse, although I did find it difficult to believe that the horses brought everything in. Maybe there was some water access or some off road vehicle access as well. Whatever, there were a lot of horse droppings on the path and I had to be careful to try and avoid any horses on the trail due to my severe horse allergy.

The scenery along the trail on Day 3 was amazing. At the top of the first hill was a fabulous view of a lake and the mountains. There was a wooden swing bridge that crossed a mountain stream and looking back, more spectacular views of the mountains. The trail was never flat, I was relentlessly trekking up and down, it was hard work, but I had better weather than I could have possibly hoped for, blue skies, warm sunshine, unobstructed views of the turquoise lakes and snow capped distant mountains. I was lucky to be here, so I enjoyed the walk as best I could, but Day 3 was the most difficult day for me and I got to a point in the afternoon where I just wanted to get to the hostel. The physical hardships of this hike on my body were now diminishing my enjoyment of being in this magical setting.

It was the third night of me staying in a hostel and I’d had enough of that too. The first night had been okay, it was a novelty, it was bearable. The second night where I had sheets and a pillow was quite comfortable, sharing with a French Canadian couple and two German ladies, all a bit older and none of them noisy types. I didn’t like the fact that they didn’t sex segregate the rooms in the hostels though. It wasn’t too bad in there because there was only one man, the husband of the French Canadian couple.

At Refugio Los Cuernos I was back to the silk duvet and satin sheets, by that I mean sleeping bag and pillow and they tried to put me in a top bunk again. I asked for a bottom bunk, which I got, and was quite annoyed to find that a husband and wife had bagged the two bottom bunks instead of having the same set of bunk beds. The staff had swapped me over with the wife. These rooms had 8 beds to them, three bottom bunks, 3 middle ones and two that practically reached the ceiling. The room was dark and depressing.

One of the blokes I had to share a room with in this refugio, who was from Argentina, said it was common to have mixed bedrooms in mountain refuges. He said this wasn’t a hostel. Wrong. A mountain refuge hut in the Alps where you shelter from snow storms and avalanches was not the same as this place, specifically built for tourists that had a kitchen, a restaurant, bathrooms (bad as they were) and dormitories. This place had cost me £90 to stay in, the least I could expect was a female only dormitory.

The refugio staff have lists of advance bookings, everyone has to have an advance reservation. It’s not difficult to look at your list and say, we’ve got 16 women and 24 men booked for the dormitories tonight, so we’ll put the women in these rooms and the men in these rooms. If you have an odd number, put the couples travelling together in a mixed dormitory. I work in the travel industry and I know this is not a complicated process. It comes down to staff laziness, nothing more. For £90 a night, the guests deserve better service. And if not that, a proper dressing area in the bathroom that wasn’t opposite a door that opened out onto the corridor shouldn’t be too much to ask.

Yes. In this scabby hostel, the only place to get dressed was in the bathroom because I was in a room with 6 blokes, and the only place to get dressed in the bathroom, unless you went into a toilet cubicle which was very confined and unhygienic, was to sit on the one bench in the bathroom that faced the door. Which meant when anyone opened the door, anyone walking past could you in whatever state of undress you were in. At one point I was half dressed when a lass walked out of the bathroom for something she’d forgotten and left the door open! Presumably she didn’t think it mattered I only had my knickers on and anyone could have seen me in the two minutes she was gone, if I hadn’t got up and shut the door myself.

I mentioned hygiene in the toilet cubicles. Which brings me to something else. You can’t flush toilet paper. You have to throw it in a bin next to the toilet so you don’t block the drains, which is pretty disgusting. So definitely not somewhere you want to be getting dressed. I came across it all over Chile, not just in the National Park.

My next holiday is going to be super luxury for me. No more hostels where you can’t flush toilet paper!

On my next holiday I can also choose where to eat. Again, as mentioned in the previous post, I’d had both breakfast and packed lunches at the hostels so far and they’d been practically inedible. I didn’t realise you could actually buy food at the hostels, such as order a pizza, I thought it was their meals or nothing so I thought I should have something, at least breakfast and a packed lunch. Had I known how bad the food was going to be, I would have made do with my emergency supply of biscuits for the day hike and had something at the hostel in the evening because the breakfasts and pack ups were an expensive waste of money.

I just didn’t feel like being sociable any more, I had no desire to go and mix with strangers. To be honest at this point, I wanted this to be over and wished I’d said, forget the money I’ve wasted, this is just not worth it, I’m going back to Puerto Natales.

I was so glad that I hadn’t said that, because this was definitely the low point of the hike and things improved substantially the next day.

Earlier in the afternoon I’d been chatting to a lady from Guatemala who was hiking with her niece. She had been carrying the most enormous backpack with a frame that held all their camping gear. If I had had to carry all that stuff I could not have hiked the W Trek. I doubted I would have been able to stand upright with that on my back. Despite feeling antisocial, I saw this lady from Guatemala at a table set outside the hostel and I went to say hello to her and chatted to her and her companions for a while until she left to put up her tent.

I then retreated back to the bedroom with Strauss for company. Listening to classical music was the only thing keeping me going in these hostels.  It somehow brought me closer to civilisation. Sophisticated 19th century Vienna, a cultural mecca. I could try to imagine I was overnighting in Schönbrunn Palace, instead of sharing a room with 6 sweaty blokes.

I had to fill in a review about the hostel and it wasn’t good. I’ve used the adjective “scabby” in this post, which is a word I use when I’m generally not very happy with accommodation. I didn’t use this adjective in my review, but I only gave it 1 or 2 out of 5 for everything and only 2 out of 10 as a recommendation, because it was marginally better than a tent and explained that I thought the mixed bedrooms were awful, the bathrooms were inadequate and there was no place to dress in privacy after a shower. If I’d been sharing with all women, I would have got dressed in the room. With 6 blokes in the room? I don’t think so!

When I got back to Puerto Natales I’d have my own room, when I got to Punta Arenas I’d have my own apartment and when I got home I’d have my own house! I was surprised the Little Angels hadn’t made an appearance on my iPod yet, this Scarborough band always feature when I’m homesick.

I’d had a hard afternoon getting to the hostel, the hostel was easily the worst I’d stayed at along the trek and I was faced with a walk the next day whether I wanted one or not because I was in the middle of nowhere. That night and the following morning were definitely the low point on the trail for me.

On day 4, I very much doubted I’d be doing the middle stroke of the W. If there had been somewhere to stay at the top of the middle stroke of the W, I would have stayed there and broken up the journey to make it manageable. As it was, it would mean hiking twice as far as I had done today and I had been told that the hike to the top of the middle stroke of the W was quite tough. I’d see how I got on, but I didn’t expect to be seeing Mirador Britanico.

As I set off in the morning I was faced with a big hill to climb, quite literally. A 2 kilometre uphill slog. It was tough at first because it was walking on big stones which is much harder on your leg muscles and also on my poor, sore feet. I came out onto the beach by the lake shore and decided to take a few photos of myself on this lovely beach. I did enjoy my short time on the beach, it was a nice, relaxing and scenic place to be.

Then the uphill slog began and on big stones too. I remember walking along Brighton beach almost 30 years ago and remember walking along the shingle being hard on my leg muscles. I was in my early 20s then and very fit as I used to go to the gym most days, and as my university was at the top of a steep hill I would walk up and down that regularly. During my first year when I was living in Halls I used to carry 8 pints of milk all the way up that steep hill from the supermarket! Now I’m complaining about a rucksack! Anyway I’m nowhere near that fit now, so a heavy rucksack and the large stones was a killer. I didn’t even mind the climb as much as the stones. At least this was the beginning of the day.

After that initial climb it did get easier, the path was still up and down, but it did level out somewhat and the view of the mountains, lakes and glacier was wonderful. I started to enjoy myself a bit more.

I got to Camp Italiano which is the point where you turn off to go to Mirador Britanico, the viewpoint that everyone raved about and was second only to the Torres. I looked and I hesitated, but it was 4 km one way and took 3 hours. It might well have taken me longer. It was a difficult path, apparently similar to the Torres where you were climbing on and over boulders and much as I would have liked to have seen this view, I knew I’d never make it and then do another 7.5 km to the next hostel. I was disappointed I wasn’t able to do it, but I didn’t regret not doing it. And that’s the wonderful thing about the internet, you only have to Google “Mirador Britanico” and click on images and you’ll see about a million photos of it. To misquote Jim Bowen on Bullseye, “let’s have a look at what I would have seen”.

If I hadn’t had to do so many long hikes over consecutive days and if I could have changed my trainers, because I usually alternate my footwear, it could have been different. But I couldn’t possibly have carried a second pair of trainers and hiking every day was taking too much of a toll on my body. I was now feeling confident I would get to the end of the W Trek and make it up to Refugio Grey the following day, which was 11 km and didn’t seem to be a particularly difficult section of the trail, but I wasn’t going to manage the full middle stroke of the W.

That’s when I came up with my alternative name. I was doing the lazy writer’s W Trek. A lazy writer will form a “W” where your pen hints in a small upward motion, so you can just about see it is a W. So that’s how I referred to my long distance wilderness hike from then on – the Lazy Writer’s W Trek.

After Camp Italiano, the track up to Refugio Paine Grande was pretty quiet. I think most people had left early from the opposite direction to do the hike to Mirador Britanico or were doing the hike if they’d left from the east. I found a nice quiet spot to eat my pretty horrible sandwich that had been in my packed lunch. I was sitting there for 15 or 20 minutes and not one person passed me from either direction.

One of my favourite places on this day, and indeed on the whole hike, was what I called the enchanted forest. The enchanted forest came after lunch and consisted of lots of dead trees, the type you would find in volcanic areas. It appealed to the romance and mystery in me. Okay, it wasn’t exactly where no man had been before, but I was still in a remote spot that a lot of people would never get to in their lifetime. I was pretty well off the beaten track.

There was a bit more of an uphill climb and I was wondering when this uphill battle was going to end and then I got to see the view of Pehoe Lake, which was the most amazing turquoise colour. That must mean that Paine Grande Lodge wasn’t far away. Another beautiful spot on this fabulous hike.

I crossed one bridge and I could see the building, not too far in the distance. Not far now.

On first view arriving at Paine Grande Lodge it looks very impressive. They were busy cleaning the windows of the restaurant so you had a nice view out to the lake. It was just a pity they hadn’t thought to clean the rest of the place. It was filthy! I was shown to my room and it was empty so I could have whatever bed I wanted. All of the bedding on all of the beds looked a bit grubby. I had a feeling I would be sleeping on my towel tonight. The staircases needed washing too.

But by far the worst was the shower room. It was filthy. They really needed to invest in new shower facilities. The only good thing you could say about these shower rooms was you could get dressed out of view of the door. And that was the only good thing. I couldn’t even work out how to turn the shower on, I had to ask somebody. Now I haven’t been to the swimming baths for years, so I don’t know if they’re still like this now, but when I used to go, probably around 30 years ago, you had to press a button on the shower and you got water for about 30 seconds and then if you wanted more water you had to press it again. That’s what these were like. Except you didn’t even get water for 30 seconds. You only got water for 10 seconds. I timed it. I know they want to encourage people not to have long showers and save water, but 10 seconds is ridiculous. I was not impressed. The whole shower area was dirty.

It’s all very well having all these nice new sofas in the public areas. If the rooms are grotty and the bathrooms are filthy, it doesn’t give a very good impression.

For all the bad things I said about the other hostels, their bathrooms were reasonably clean and they had showers you could turn on and off properly and it was only in the first one that the water wasn’t really hot, the other two had really hot water.

I certainly wouldn’t be sorry to see the back of these hostels, the first two nights were bearable, now it was becoming really awful.

Some people like the social side of staying in hostels, I’m led to believe. I’m not one of them. I like travelling on my own most of the time. I’m happy to chat to people. And sometimes that leads to lasting friendships, like with Cristina who I’d climbed the volcano with at the start of my trip. I kept seeing the same people on this trail and would say hello and chat to them briefly. I didn’t want to share a room with them.

This latest hostel with the swimming baths showers also didn’t sex segregate the rooms. From what I could see all the rooms were mixed. I could only conclude that it must be down to laziness on the part of the staff. Was I the only one who found these mixed dorm rooms wholly inconvenient? Possibly. Speaking briefly to some young French Canadians in my room, they seemed to think that the swimming baths showers where the water only lasted 10 seconds was a good thing! 10 seconds of water doesn’t even get you completely wet.

I obviously have very different standards. My mother’s high standards. And I’m not ashamed to admit that. Nor am I ashamed to share my honest opinions of these extremely expensive hostels. I understand that these are remote locations and their running costs will be high. But wouldn’t take much organisation and effort to make them a lot better. So when they’re charging £90 a night just for a bunk bed in a dormitory, they should be prepared for criticism. Because as I’ve said before, I don’t get any free stays on my holidays. Who pays for Yorkshire Hayley? Yorkshire Hayley does!

Despite my criticism of the refugios, if I had to do it again, I wouldn’t let staying in them put me off hiking in Torres del Paine. They’re not bad enough to abandon the idea of the hike altogether. It all comes down to what minimum standard you will accept. For me, I was willing to put up with staying in hostels to hike the W Trek and my personal experience hasn’t changed my mind. I wouldn’t have been willing to sleep in a tent for 4 nights to do this particular trail.

I still had to walk 11 km to my final hostel and my boat out of Torres del Paine National Park the next day. But it was now indisputable. I had succeeded in hiking the W Trek.

I had completed the Lazy Writer’s W Trek. The normal writer’s W Trek is 60 km. As a lazy writer I’d completed 52 km. So was I a success because of the 52 km I had completed or a failure because of the 8 km I hadn’t managed?

Did completing the Lazy Writer’s W Trek count as success? For me it did. Completing it had been challenging and very tough. I’d got to the Torres which was the main thing I wanted to see. Trying to get to Mirador Britanico would have been stupid. If I’d done the trek from west to east I probably wouldn’t have managed the Torres either.

It’s also important to note that there are quite a few variations for hiking the W Trek. Those who hike west to east often start at Paine Grande Lodge where I was tonight, thereby missing the left hand stroke of the W.

It really is down to personal choice how you do the W Trek factoring in time, availability of lodging, your fitness and what you want to see. I was disappointed that I wasn’t up to hiking to Mirador Britanico. But I had seen the Torres in perfect weather and practically had them to myself, which was the most important thing to me. I’d done this long distance hike and thoroughly enjoyed being in the Patagonian wilderness, even though it had been difficult at times.

So I concluded that the W Trek, albeit the Lazy Writer’s one, had been a success.

I now have even more of a reason to count it as a success and be pleased I persevered and didn’t give up and saw all this amazing scenery in beautiful Patagonia.

I have always believed in pushing yourself and making the most out of life. I had had a hard 12 months of travel, back to back tours, a holiday in Australia with less than 24 hours to between flying to Adelaide and getting back from tours in the Baltic, a trip with my niece and nephew to Northumberland, more quick turnarounds in November and December to tours in 6 different European countries with a day off in between if I was lucky, and then off to South America on New Year’s Day for 7 weeks. It was exhausting and I said I wanted to take more time between my travels after a hectic year visiting 15 countries on 4 continents with 58 flights.

I am now writing this at home, having been grounded since mid March due to the catastrophic Coronavirus pandemic. Be careful what you wish for. I would swap the exhausting year of travel I had last year over sitting at home wondering if I’m ever going to see anywhere else in the world again.

I am so pleased that I got to hike the W Trek in February, because who knows when anyone will be able to do that again. And I would have been devastated if I’d said I was too tired with all the travelling and I wouldn’t go in February 2020 because look where I am now. Always grab the chances when you get them, you never know what might happen in the future.

My next post will detail the final day on the W Trek hiking to Lago Grey, my boat trip to Glacier Grey and my night at the Last Hope.

I travelled to Torres del Paine National Park and hiked the W Trek during the first week of February 2020.

To hike the W Trek in Torres del Paine National Park you must book all your accommodation in advance. There are hostels and campsites you can stay at along the route. There are a few free campsites run by the National Park Service. All hostels and the other campsites are run by Fantastico Sur in the east of the park and Vertice Patagonia in the west of the park.

You can get information about hiking in Torres del Paine National Park including the W Trek, the O Trek and the Q Trek, on the Conaf website.

I hiked the W Trek independently. I hiked from East to West starting from Torre Central to El Chileno to hike the eastern stroke of the W first. There are various tours available, but the hike is easy to do on your own without a guide and allows you to go at your own pace. The hike took me 5 days with 4 overnight stays at Refugios in the National Park.

I stayed at Refugio Los Cuernos for the third night on this section of my hike. This refugio is managed by Fantastico Sur. I booked online via the company’s website. A made up bed in a bunk room sleeping up to 8 people in each hostel cost $116 USD per night in 2020. Rates for 2020/2021 can be found here. I was able to book online from the UK using Paypal to secure the reservation.

I stayed at Refugio Paine Grande for the fourth night on this section of my hike. This refugio is managed by Vertice Patagonia. The rates for their hostels were cheaper at $87 USD per night in 2020. I was able to book online from the UK using Paypal to secure the reservation.

It is possible to start or end your hike at Refugio Paine Grande. You can take the bus from Puerto Natales to Pudeto and then take the catamaran across Lago Pehoe to Refugio Paine Grande. The Torres del Paine website details the transport options and timetables.

I travelled to Torres del Paine National Park from Puerto Natales with Bus Sur. There are several buses each day departing from Puerto Natales Bus Station. I took the 1200h bus from Puerto Natales to Terminal Laguna Amarga which took 2 hours. I booked my ticket online in advance, but it is possible to book on the day.

Everyone must disembark the bus here if they are hiking from East to West in order to register with CONAF Park Services and pay the National Park fee which was approximately £25 for 5 days.

Read about the beginning and end of the W Trek

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 1 & 2

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Day 5 & Glacier Grey

Read my experiences driving the wild, rugged and remote Carretera Austral.

My Tips for Driving the Carretera Austral

Driving South on the Carretera Austral

Read about my other adventures in Chile

Rafting and Canyoning in Futaleufu

Ascent of Volcan Villarrica

Last Hope Celebration

Read about my day hikes in Argentine Patagonia

Down Argentine Way – Los Glaciares

The W Trek is one of the iconic walks in Patagonia. It’s in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile and one of the main features is the view of the Torres, or the Three Towers. I’d seen lots of photos of them, now was my chance to see them for real.

Buoyed with my success on the hikes in El Chalten, Argentina, where I’d managed around 44 miles in 2 days, I was a bit more confident about the W Trek now, even though I still didn’t really know how difficult it was going to be.

I had read that the hiking times were conservative (we’ll get to that) and that you could end up hanging around a long time in hostels, so I had booked an afternoon bus into Torres del Paine from Puerto Natales which got me in at 2pm. I only had to hike 5.5km to my hostel for the night, no point arriving in the park at the crack of dawn and getting to the hostel at a ridiculously early hour. The bus dropped me off at the park administration where everyone had to get off and register and pay their fee.

It was a bit of a convoluted system where you had to fill out a form saying what trail you were hiking and what amount of time you’d be in the park, then pay your fee and then pass your form to a ranger, instead of it all being done by one person, since all the ranger seemed to do was put the form in a folder!

The Welcome Centre and hostel closest to the park administration buildings were 7km away and I’d tried to get some information about the shuttle that Hotel Torres ran. As usual in Latin America, it’s a completely useless system, where they gave you a WhatsApp number to message for information, I asked about the shuttle times, they told me to email, I emailed and got no reply. Actually that cost them some business, because the National Park Service ran a shuttle that met all the buses and that was less than half the price. I didn’t care about the price. What I did care about was having to hike an extra 7km. It was already after 2pm.

So I got on the Park Service minibus and then had to register at the Welcome Centre. I was a bit concerned because it said the cut off point for the hike to the Torres was 12pm and the cut off time from El Chileno was 3pm. I wasn’t planning on hiking to the Torres today, but would they let me on the trail to get to El Chileno where I was supposed to be sleeping tonight. Thankfully they would. It doesn’t seem to be policed very well for the hike to the Torres either. More about that later.

According to the signs, it was going to take me 2 hours to walk to El Chileno. So I should be there around 4.30pm. It was actually ten past five when I got there and I was the last one to arrive. I was hiking slower than the average hiking times every day. Even though I considered myself to be reasonably fit, it wouldn’t have hurt me to be fitter and done more training and hiking in Europe before I came to South America. Don’t underestimate this trek. You do need to be fit to do it. It’s not an easy stroll.

I’d seen various descriptions of the conditions of the W Trek from pretty easy to difficult. For me personally, it wasn’t difficult in the sense it was steep or treacherous for the most part, but it was seldom flat and it had some challenging sections.

I’d panicked after seeing countless stories about the terrible Patagonian weather. In fact, on the O circuit that a lot of people I’d spoken to had done, you have to go over the John Gardner pass and it seems this pass has a permanent storm cloud over it because everyone who had done the O Trek told me when they went over the pass they had hail, snow or rain. I was not tempted to do the O Trek myself which goes around the back of the park because it was far too long and doing the W Trek was going to be a push for me. Also along the back of the park there are no hostels, you have to camp. No thank you!

Anyway since I’d been warned about how bad the weather can be in Patagonia, strong biting winds, snow, hail storms, rain, plunging temperatures, I had brought far too many layers. Four for my top half, three for my bottom half. I even had an extra for my top half just in case I needed it. I could have just brought my down jacket and forgotten about my waterproof as well. Waterproof trousers over my leggings would have been sufficient without the extra pair of trousers. And I won’t even mention the woolly hat and two pairs of gloves I brought with me…

This is because I was incredibly lucky with the weather during my time hiking the W Trek. I had no bad weather. Some days were more cloudy than others, but no rain storms or snow storms, no hail or howling wind. I couldn’t have had better conditions for hiking the W Trek which meant I got to fully appreciate the scenery. I would never be tempted to do the W Trek again because I doubt I would have the perfect weather conditions a second time. Besides I’ve done it now and there are other places in the world I want to see.

On the first day hiking to El Chileno, the trail was a continuous uphill walk that was a very long slog. I was far too hot climbing the endless hill. The waterproof came off, the down jacket came off, I unzipped my jersey top. I was stuck when it came to the trousers. I could hardly start taking them off on the middle of the trail.

So while this trail wasn’t technically difficult, it was still a slog. It was uphill most of the way to Windy Pass, then it flattened out a bit. It wasn’t windy on Windy Pass either. Like I said, I was incredibly lucky with the weather. After a few more ups and downs, finally El Chileno Hostel, my bed for the night, was in sight.

I booked El Chileno in June 2019, almost as soon as the beds came on sale for the 2020 W Trek. According to my research, it was always fully booked in the high season.

The rooms had 6 beds in them and I was the only one in a top bunk in my room, the other two top bunks were empty. So much for you have to book immediately they come on sale or you won’t get a bed in El Chileno. But never mind. You are supposed to have your accommodation booked in advance, so you do have to plan. If you can do it immediately the beds are released, that’s one less thing to worry about.

The hostel didn’t have any sort of recreational area so people were forced to sit in the dining room, as the bedrooms were also not conducive to relaxation. If I’d been able to book a private room I would have done. But such things didn’t exist in the hostels along the W Trek. There was one place where I could have had my own cabin. Unfortunately the dates didn’t line up and it would have meant me camping one night. I have since discovered that you can book a tent that’s already been put up for you, but even so, that would still be hugely unappealing to me, so I booked hostels for all 5 nights. 5 nights in a hostel I hear you ask? Yes, 5 nights.

I’d paid for a made up bed in the hostels as I had no intention of, first of all, purchasing a sleeping bag, and secondly, having to lug it around with me on the W Trek when my bag was going to be far too heavy anyway and also having to fit it into my other luggage for the entirety of my trip.

So what did I have in my rucksack? I packed as light as possible. I had my 4 layers for my top half which were a lightweight sleeveless top, a jersey zip up jacket, a down jacket for warmth and a waterproof. And a change of knickers for every day. I had a pair of lightweight leggings, a pair of trousers and a pair of waterproof trousers. After the first day, I abandoned the trousers and just put the waterproofs on top of my leggings. I always had the waterproof trousers on. They protected me from water in streams I had to walk through at times and also from the vegetation. The waterproof trousers were my essential piece of clothing.

I had essential toiletries, toothbrush, toothpaste, insect repellent, face cream, suncream, painkillers and disposable contact lenses. I also had a large towel which was essential in the hostels and would have also been very useful if it had rained on the trek. I had sunspecs, camera, mobile phone and I took my iPad. I couldn’t decide if the iPad was an indulgence too far, but it wasn’t. I was so pleased I had taken it with me. It was more than worth the little extra weight. Finally, I had hiking poles, which I couldn’t have managed to do the trek without. All in all, I was very pleased with my packing.

As I mentioned I didn’t take my own sleeping bag. My made up bed in El Chileno consisted of a sleeping bag and a pillow. So no silk duvet and satin sheets then… However, the bedroom was pretty cold, there wasn’t any sort of heat in it, so a sleeping bag was probably sensible.

I went out into the dining room and plugged my phone in to charge up and started typing on my iPad.

Talking of dining, the catering was the one area where I had made a mistake. From all the posts I’d read on the internet it seemed you had 2 choices. You could either take all your food with you which meant carrying it for 5 days or you could order meals at the hostels. So I ordered breakfast and a packed lunch every day. I didn’t order an evening meal because I’m far too picky to eat anything that’s given to me, so I thought it would be a waste of money.

However, this is not your only option. As well as being able to book meals, they have a bar/restaurant where you can order things like pizza and they also sell alcohol, such as Pisco sours. The breakfast and packed lunches were generally of a pretty low standard. I would have been far better off taking a couple of bottles of water, which you could easily refill at every hostel, and a few things to snack on and then eat a pizza or something substantial in the evening. If I could do things over again, that’s what I would definitely do.

A young English couple were chatting in the dining room, so I struck up a conversation with them. They were on the last leg of the O Trek and had camped for the whole hike, including here in El Chileno tonight. They had also had lousy weather on the John Gardner Pass! They had already hiked to see the Torres, but were going back to see them at sunrise. They said they had done the hike in an hour and ten minutes one way because they set off at 3pm, just at the cut off time from El Chileno. I later concluded they must have done this hike on hover boards or have winged feet, because I couldn’t see how anyone could possibly do that hike in just over an hour!

At the same table there was a Canadian lass with a YouTube Channel. She said her channel paid for about a third of her travels and her followers bought her lots of beer. She said she had been travelling for two and a half years and was usually on a long distance trail, in a tent, for about 2 months at a time. 2 months! In a tent! For two and a half years! That is my definition of insanity. She said she did everything at a slow pace. That was exactly the opposite to me who had been the equivalent of two and a half times around the world last year and racked up 51 flights. She said she couldn’t do that, it would be far too exhausting. But travelling like she did would be my idea of hell.

Most people had the idea to get up early and set off some time around 4am or 4.30am to hike to see the Torres at sunrise. That would mean hiking the trail in the dark. I got up with everyone else with the full intention to do the same. I got about 50 metres and turned back. My head light was not sufficiently bright for me to pick out the trail. Also I wouldn’t have made it there for sunrise setting off at that time anyway because it took me 3 hours to do the hike.

I’d still see the Torres (I hoped), early before the crowds got there. But if I tried to hike this trail in the dark I could twist my knee or break my neck or fall in the river and drown or fall in the river and die of hypothermia. I was not prepared to take the risk of any of these things happening to me in order to see the Torres at sunrise. They would still be there two hours later. And the weather forecast was good. The weather was generally better in the morning and more cloudy in the afternoon, so I should be able to see them.

It was interesting though that the rangers had closed off the trail to hike to the Torres and yet so many people were ignoring the sign and hiking in the dark anyway.

I knew the Torres was a difficult hike. So I wasn’t entirely sure I’d make it. I thought it could be impossible for me to complete this hike. But I would try again at first light.

I went back to the now empty bedroom and had a lie down for another hour and then after taking everything I possibly could out of my backpack to leave at the hostel and pick on my return, I started on the hike to view the Torres at just after 6am when I had daylight. The trail was still closed off, but this seemed to be a bit of a nonsense since most of the hostel and the campsite had left about 2 hours earlier, so I ignored it the same as everyone else.

As I progressed on the trail, I realised that turning back and not doing this in the dark had been a very wise move. And when I got to the last kilometre, I concluded doing this in the dark would have been suicide for me. It was difficult enough to pick out the orange markers in the daylight, I just wouldn’t have been able to follow the trail in the dark. You’re going up a stream, you’re hiking on the edge of a mountain over boulders. I would have fallen to my death.

It was a difficult hike. It took me about an hour and a half to do the first 2 kilometres as it was very up and down and tiring. The last kilometre was supposed to take 45 minutes. I mentioned people say that hiking times aren’t accurate. That’s right. But I didn’t find them conservative. This 45 minute kilometre took me an hour and a half!

It is all uphill. You’re basically climbing on boulders to get up. You are sometimes climbing up boulders in a stream. It’s not a deep stream, not even ankle deep or anything, but it’s wet. And that makes the rocks slippery. That was the worst part for me. I met a few people from the hostel on the trail and they said the trail got steeper and got worse. Actually it didn’t. When I was walking on the mountain side over the dry rocks and boulders I found that easier. That was exposed. So if it had been windy it would have been awful. But it was a very pleasant day, so it wasn’t a problem. The stream was the worst bit for me.

After clambering over boulders on the exposed mountain side, I finally rounded a corner. And there they were, what I’d come to Torres del Paine National Park to see, what I’d seen in photos so many times, there were the Torres in all their glory. The 3 Towers!

I’d dreamed of hiking the W Trek and seeing the Torres so many times. I’d doubted I’d ever manage the hike. Even this morning I’d had my doubts. But here I was, finally I was seeing the Torres in real life.

And after a few more metres and I was at the glacial lake. The glacial lake wasn’t a particularly nice colour. It was grey rather than the green that I’ve seen in photos. But that didn’t matter. The Torres were amazing. The 3 towers. The illusion was the central tower was the highest, but in fact, the southern tower was highest. It’s just further away. I was simply enjoying this magnificent sight. The North, South and Central Towers. I was in the Valley of Silence by a glacial lake. The weather was perfect. I stayed for about 45 minutes enjoying the view. Did I have any regrets about not hiking in the dark to see them at sunrise? None whatsoever. It couldn’t have been any more magical for me.

I had actually got to the Torres when most of the people who had come to see them at sunrise had left and the day trippers hadn’t arrived yet. So it was a nice time to be here. Fairly quiet and peaceful. And bright blue sky. A perfect view of the Torres. The earlier you get here though, the better. Not only to avoid the crowds. The later in the day you arrive, the more likely it is to be cloudy. By the time I left just after 10am, the cloud was already coming in and obscuring the view of the Torres. It would be such a shame to do that difficult hike and not be able to see the towers at all. And on some days the weather is so bad, they’re completely hidden. I was very lucky to see them in such ideal conditions. I’d chosen the right day when I made my reservation 9 months ago!

A lot of people say you should hike west to east so you get to see the Torres last as they will be the highlight. The W Trek is a difficult hike. Those who say it’s easy are really fit, seasoned hikers, very young or all three. I anticipated it would be a difficult hike and didn’t know whether the entire W Trek would be beyond my capabilities. So I wanted to do the highlight first, because that would mean I would be more likely to manage it.

If I had to abandon the trek after 2 or 3 days, if I started in the west I would miss the Torres, the thing I most wanted to see. But if I started in the east and had to abandon the trek after 2 or 3 days, I would have seen the Torres. It seemed the logical thing to do to me. I wasn’t setting out to fail, but I was also far from convinced I’d succeed either, so just in case I was going to give myself the best chance of seeing what I most wanted to see on this trip to Patagonia.

After the Torres came the walk back. That was horrible. It was downhill which is generally worse than uphill for me and the stream again was by far the worst part and even worse because I was going down. I passed one idiot as I was going down. He was going up in flip flops! The only thing more stupid than going up in flip flops would have been going up in flip flops in the dark. What a moron! Although I didn’t see any helicopters flying over, so I assume he got down in one piece.

It took me even longer to get down to El Chileno than it had taken me to get up. I stopped off at El Chileno to pick up the rest of my things which I stuffed in my rucksack. I was very grateful that I hadn’t had to carry that on the trail to the Torres. I had my packed lunch and then set off down to Torre Central where I was staying for the night.

I was very pleased I’d made the decision to stay here overnight and give myself an easier day than trying to push on to Los Cuernos. That would have been too much for me. As it was, I was completely exhausted by the time I reached Torre Central at 5pm, after hiking for 11 hours with breaks that probably amounted to a couple of hours in total. I could barely put one foot in front of the other, I had absolutely no energy left.

Torre Central was probably the nicest of the hostels I stayed at. It was large, the room I was in was comfortable with a big window, the dining room was huge. The bathrooms were reasonable. Even the food wasn’t too bad. It was nice to be somewhere halfway comfortable after a long and arduous day of hiking. Definitely the pick of the hostels and a good idea to stay there after the long hike to the Torres.

I was very happy with my decision to stay in El Chileno overnight, hike to the Torres at first light and then go to Torre Central the second night to prepare for the rest of the trek. It worked out ideally for me and allowed me to take things easily enough to give me the best chance at success in completing the W Trek.

Having said that, once at Torre Central I was seriously considering whether I could carry on doing the W Trek or whether to give up. This was the point of no return. If I started the hike tomorrow I would be committing to complete the whole hike.

I had 11km to do tomorrow with no difficult sections like the kilometre up to the Torres. But it wasn’t going to be flat. It was still going to be up and down and tiring. I had until tomorrow to decide whether to carry on. But I knew well before I fell asleep I wasn’t going to be giving up. Tomorrow I would be hiking that 11km as I pressed on to complete the W Trek.

I travelled to Torres del Paine National Park and hiked the W Trek during the first week of February 2020.

To hike the W Trek in Torres del Paine National Park you must book all your accommodation in advance. There are hostels and campsites you can stay at along the route. There are a few free campsites run by the National Park Service. All hostels and the other campsites are run by Fantastico Sur in the east of the park and Vertice Patagonia in the west of the park.

You can get information about hiking in Torres del Paine National Park including the W Trek, the O Trek and the Q Trek, on the Conaf website.

I hiked the W Trek independently. I hiked from East to West starting from Torre Central to El Chileno to hike the eastern stroke of the W first. There are various tours available, but the hike is easy to do on your own without a guide and allows you to go at your own pace. The hike took me 5 days with 4 overnight stays at Refugios in the National Park.

I stayed at Refugio El Chileno for the first night and Refugio Torre Central for the second night on this section of my hike. Both of these refugios are managed by Fantastico Sur. I booked both online via the company’s website. A made up bed in a bunk room sleeping up to 6 people in each hostel cost $116 USD per night in 2020. Rates for 2020/2021 can be found here. I was able to book online from the UK using Paypal to secure the reservation.

For accommodation in the western part of the National Park you can book through Vertice Patagonia. The rates for their hostels were cheaper at $87 USD per night in 2020.

I travelled to Torres del Paine National Park from Puerto Natales with Bus Sur. There are several buses each day departing from Puerto Natales Bus Station. I took the 1200h bus from Puerto Natales to Terminal Laguna Amarga which took 2 hours. I booked my ticket online in advance, but it is possible to book on the day.

Everyone must disembark the bus here if they are hiking from East to West in order to register with CONAF Park Services and pay the National Park fee which was approximately £25 for 5 days.

Minibus shuttles meet the buses at Laguna Amarga and you can take one of these for the 7km to Torre Central where you begin your hike. The minibus costs the equivalent of a couple of pounds.

Read about my continuing hike on the W Trek

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 3 & 4

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Day 5 & Glacier Grey

Read my experiences driving the wild, rugged and remote Carretera Austral.

My Tips for Driving the Carretera Austral

Driving South on the Carretera Austral

Read about my other adventures in Chile

Rafting and Canyoning in Futaleufu

Ascent of Volcan Villarrica

Last Hope Celebration

Read about my day hikes in Argentine Patagonia

Down Argentine Way – Los Glaciares

The reason I had come to Futaleufu was to go whitewater rafting.

Whitewater rafting wasn’t a new experience for me. It was, however, an experience I had vowed never to repeat after a terrifying ordeal on the Kaituna River near Rotorua in New Zealand 18 years ago in 2002. The Kaituna is an extreme rafting experience on a short section of the Kaituna River taking in a series of rapids in quick succession and culminating in going over a 20 foot waterfall. It’s the only commercial run in the world where you go over a waterfall. It was extreme and it was terrifying. As we went over the waterfall the Canadian guide in the front stayed in the boat, but Steve who was from England, the guide in the back of the boat, he fell out and even though he was wearing a helmet he bashed his head and this was severe enough to break his cheekbone and there was blood gushing out of his forehead. I fell out of the raft, but I’d hung onto the rope, so it was just a case of me being hauled back in and then paddling to rescue the others that had fallen out of the boat while coughing and spluttering and not being able to see with all the water in my face.

When we got back to the office to get changed, I heard the boss say, “that’s three guides we’re down now”. What happened to the other two?!

Suffice to say, I thought this was highly dangerous and I was far too much at risk from injury to ever contemplate whitewater rafting again. There are occasional deaths, but there are also quite a lot of injuries because unlike something like bungy jumping where you have people making safety checks and although it looks extreme, you would have to be very unlucky in a freak accident for something to happen to you, with whitewater rafting, you can’t control the river. You can see what it’s doing, but you can’t control it. My friend in Canada came up with a great quote once, “no matter what you do, the river always wins”.

As you can see, even after 18 years, I had vivid recollections of what happened on the Kaituna in New Zealand, so I had to think really carefully about whether I was prepared to risk whitewater rafting again.

But I wanted to push myself a bit on this trip to Patagonia, volcanic ascent, long distance hike and so I decided to do the whitewater rafting.

Futaleufu was a pleasant surprise. It was a very smart and tidy town. Most of the other places I’d been on my journey along the Carretera Austral seemed to be run down, scruffy places. Futaleufu wasn’t like that. The buildings all looked well maintained, the town square was smart. I found an Italian restaurant that served really good food. The supermarkets sold nice stuff. I found blue cheese and green tea! I wasn’t that bothered about the blue cheese, but the green tea was a godsend. I hadn’t been able to find any along the Carretera Austral so far. And don’t even think about Earl Grey! I’d barely seen that in Chile, there were 2 teabags in the hotel in Frutillar and I used them both at the two breakfasts I had there.  I gratefully purchased a box of green teabags in Futaleufu, just in case I didn’t see any again.

I went along to Patagonia Elements who I had booked my whitewater rafting with months earlier. I like to plan everything even though it’s usually totally unnecessary and things often don’t go according to plan either.

In this case my booking months in advance had been totally unnecessary. They didn’t even have the minimum numbers for the Bridge to Bridge tour the following day yet, although they expected to get them, and the day trip I had planned was unlikely to go ahead because the river was too high. It made it too dangerous because if the raft flipped, they might not be able to rescue everyone in time. I had no desire to take a risk like that, so I was fine with any cancellation for that reason.

However, the reason for the height of the water in the river was because there was a dam in Argentina that the Argentinians would open and close at will and they never told anyone in Futaleufu what they were doing with the dam. The border with Argentina is just 8km away. I said so it was Argentina’s fault. Mauricio, one of the guides, said it was always Argentina’s fault!

I chatted in the office to Mauricio at length that evening, explained that I was nervous and hadn’t rafted for 18 years. He’d never been to New Zealand, but when I said about the waterfall, he said I must be talking about the Kaituna. He was aware of the Kaituna River because it’s so notorious and also the only commercial whitewater rafting run that goes over a waterfall. He said the Futaleufu was completely different and everyone assured me that I would enjoy it.

It wasn’t only my bad experience in New Zealand that was making me nervous. Those of you that have read some of my other posts will be aware that I have not been blessed with a natural athletic ability. I have no athletic ability whatsoever. When it comes to sport I am useless! I’m quite a good dancer, other than that, anything that hints being in any way sporty, I’m hopeless. My total lack of any natural athletic ability makes it probably twice as hard for me to do these adventure sports as anyone else. I’m always the one right behind the guide or who the guide is watching, always the one everyone else is cheering on because they can see it’s a struggle for me.

So why do I keep doing these things? I still want to have the experience even if I’m not as athletically adept as other people. Even with my limited capabilities, I am still capable of completing these things. I might need a bit more time, help and guidance, but I can still do them. I love the adrenaline rush and also have a feeling of accomplishment when I’ve completed these things that certainly are challenging for me. So that’s why I do them.

The rafting trip I was going to do, that was always safe, even if the dam was open, was the Bridge to Bridge section of the Futaleufu River where you ran 12 sets of rapids which ranged from Class 3 to Class 5. This is the easiest of all the whitewater rafting trips and is suitable for beginners and people with no previous rafting experience, although I was told that all the sections were suitable for beginners as the guides all gave full training on the day.

The rafting was going to take place the following afternoon. I was really nervous. There were 17 of us in total and 3 guides. The boats took 6 people and since I was on my own I ended up in the boat with 5. There were also two guides on safety rafts ready to help if we fell in the water.

I never really got over my fear of falling out of the raft into the raging river. Even though I found the experience very enjoyable and my tension gradually eased, that fear was a constant.

The one thing I did remember from my experience in New Zealand was the command “hold on” where you had to grab the rope and get down low inside the raft. “Get down” was the equivalent here, grabbing onto outside the rope and jumping down into the raft. I was pretty fast at doing that! Otherwise it was mostly just “forward” to paddle down the river and “stop” to stop paddling. There was some jumping to the left and right that we might have to do, but actually we didn’t need to do that at all. Just as well.

I had Mauricio as my guide, which made me feel better after speaking to him at length the night before. He knew what my fears were. The other paddlers in my boat were a couple of Italian blokes, Matteo and Stefano, from Lake Como who were travelling from Santiago to Montevideo and a couple from San Francisco, Scott and Sophie.

We were told that we should always hold our paddles over the water when resting. Scott was sitting behind me but on the opposite side and he had this annoying habit of not holding his paddle over the water but leaving it forward and inside the raft, which he actually wouldn’t have been able to do it there had been someone sitting in front of him, instead of the space being free as we were an odd number. This meant if we were told to jump to the left, I would have to jump straight into his oar and probably hurt myself. I refused to practice while his paddle was still there, I wasn’t going to injure myself for no reason. But every time we were resting, his paddle would be inside the raft. This really didn’t seem to sink in with him. I was grateful when he was moved to the front; he couldn’t do that kind of damage when he was sitting in front of me.

So, we had been briefed on commands and now we were ready to go. Calm water to start with and then to our first rapids, Class 4, the Pillow.

It was a very different experience to my previous whitewater rafting. This was a big, wide river. Mauricio was at the back with two oars, steering the boat, unlike in New Zealand where the guides just had one paddle each like the rest of us. Mauricio steering the raft made a huge difference. We started paddling through the whitewater and then even though we were still in the rapids, we’d get to a spot where we could just ride the waves and it was only when we started to turn again we had to paddle. I was paddling hard, trying to keep in sync with Matteo in front of me and also trying to stay in the boat.

I noticed from the photos I seemed to be leaning forward more than anyone else. That seemed to help me with my balance. My right foot, the foot closest to the side of the raft was wedged as hard as possible under the inflatable part in front of me, my left was behind. I didn’t seem to be sitting as far over the side of the raft as the others either, that just seemed to be the position I adopted.

Anyway we got through the first set of rapids safely. The next rapids were actually class 3 rapids, but there were more waves so we would get tossed about more. I seem to think it was this second set of rapids with all the waves where my foot became dislodged and I was sliding and fearing falling, but if I’d fallen, I would have fallen into the raft, not out of it. I wedged my foot again and carried on.

The next set of rapids we had to paddle to the right side of the river, so we missed the really big rapids. We steered round them where there was a narrow stretch on the other side of a large rock where there was less water. I think that was the third one. We had 12 sets of rapids to negotiate, I can’t remember the whole sequence.

We then had two more sets of rapids and I was starting to feel a bit more confident now. All I had to do really was paddle, paddle harder and stop. And get down twice. That was it. Mauricio was doing the hard work steering the raft. I was looking down into the water when I was paddling, really concentrating, so I didn’t see the waves coming, apart from when I occasionally glanced up. But when we were simply riding the waves, then I could enjoy the scenery and enjoy the river. And the Futaleufu is a beautiful river. The scenery is spectacular. Whitewater rafting allows you to see your surroundings from a completely different perspective. This was a great experience.

Mundaca was the only Class 5 rapid on our 9km journey. This was one instance where we could be hit by a wave and the raft could flip. Mauricio talked us through it again, said not to panic if the raft did flip and that the boats would go through one at a time so that both safety rafts were on hand if anything happened. The first two boats went through without a problem.

Now it was our turn. We paddled, paddled hard, Mauricio steered, we had to get down at one point and then up again and start paddling, but we made it through without the raft flipping. That was a relief. And I’d made it through a Class 5 rapid!

That was us halfway through the rapids. Three Class 3 and three Class 4 left. I don’t remember the details, but I was starting to enjoy it now, I was feeling confident. Presumably my adrenaline was pretty high now, so I was having a great time. I was getting used to paddling, I’d got a comfortable position where I felt stable. I was enjoying the river and the scenery. This was a fantastic experience. We got through the final half dozen rapids without incident and I enjoyed paddling and being on the river. While it was hard work, it wasn’t as physically demanding as a lot of adventure activities I’ve tried and should be within the capability of most people.

Finally we pulled up to this rock and were asked if we wanted to climb onto it and then jump off it into the river. I decided to go for it. This was not my wisest decision ever. I needed to take a run so I didn’t land too close to the rock, in doing so I launched myself forward and landed face first in the water! Thankfully it wasn’t from very high up, so I got a lot of water up my nose, but I didn’t break it. All in all though, it had been amazing. I loved it.

I was glad I’d given whitewater rafting another go. It had been a wonderful experience. I was really hoping that the water level would be low enough the following day for us to raft a different section of the river.

Sadly that wasn’t to be, the Argentinians still had the dam open and so the river was too high. But I’ll always remember my Bridge to Bridge rafting on the Futaleufu River for the experience that gave me enjoyment from whitewater rafting.

I thought when I’d jumped off a rock into the river as an optional extra at the end of the whitewater rafting and landed face first, that was the stupidest thing I’d do on this holiday. I far surpassed that the next day.

I had a free day because the river was too high to raft another section of the Futaleufu River. I went back to Patagonia Elements and was given the option of rafting the same section of the river again, ziplining or canyoning. I saw no point in doing the same section of the river again, especially after the success of the day before. Why risk a worse experience when it had taken me 18 years to enjoy whitewater rafting again? I was definitely going to quit while I was ahead on that.

I’ve done a lot of ziplines and I’m addicted to them. I know I enjoy them and have great fun when I do them. Did I go for that option? No! I’d never tried canyoning before and decided that since I’d never tried it, I should give it a go. What a bad decision!

I’ve done a lot of adventure activities in my time, including abseiling which I really enjoyed. I abseiled into two caves, one was in California where the first part I was going down rocks and the second part was open. The New Zealand abseil was a long open abseil. They were relatively easy and very enjoyable.

I knew canyoning entailed a variety of things such as wading through rivers, climbing over rocks, jumping into rivers and abseiling down waterfalls. I’d always thought this would be a bad idea and not something I would enjoy. I was told that this canyoning was just abseiling down three waterfalls, no wading or jumping or climbing involved. I was assured I would enjoy it.

I should have gone with my instinct all those years ago that told me that canyoning was a bad idea and not something I would find remotely enjoyable. It was an ordeal from stat to finish. It was horrible, I got absolutely no enjoyment out of it whatsoever.

I did Via Ferrata in Canada 18 months ago which was difficult, scary and I couldn’t sit down for 4 days afterwards because my muscles were so sore. But I did feel a sense of achievement after doing it and I did quite enjoy it.

Canyoning was just thoroughly unpleasant. What the hell was I thinking? Why did I think abseiling down waterfalls would be in any way remotely enjoyable? I got nothing out of it except for a very impressive collection of bruises. My left hand looked like I’d had a drip in it. My arms and legs were black and blue. I looked like I’d been beaten with a baseball bat! I didn’t even feel a sense of accomplishment at the end. I just felt like I’d been released from a prisoner of war camp after being bashed about.

I always have to go too far. I could have stopped at the volcanic ascent and the whitewater rafting, and done a lovely zipline course, but no, I have to try abseiling down waterfalls. When am I going to learn I am not Bear Grylls?

I already had my bikini on and put a surfer’s wetsuit on top of it. It was an old and tatty wetsuit with some holes in it. Definitely not enough padding at the knee.

We were going to abseil down 3 waterfalls, 6 metres, 8 metres and 10 metres. That doesn’t sound very high. When you’re up there, it looks very high. We hiked to the top of the first waterfall and were given instructions on how to abseil down the waterfall.

I actually already knew the theory. You have to go down with your body in a sort of L shape and take small steps. Now that’s easy enough if you’re going down a dam or something with a straight wall. But the rocks here were uneven and they were wet and slippery.

I couldn’t really get the hang of it. I’m not sure how I managed to get down the first waterfall. My first attempt was so bad, I abandoned it and let everyone else go ahead of me. I wasn’t really in control and the figure of 8 carabiner was constantly lodged into my left hand, cutting deeply into it, so I looked like I’d had a drip in it by the time I was finished. I just edged down, tried to stay out of the middle of the waterfall and then I was at the bottom. The guide asked me if I wanted to try it again. I declined. I wanted this over as soon as possible, definitely no repeat performances.

The second waterfall, we actually went down the dry part. The first part on the path was fine, then the rock, which was sort of okay. Then I got to this hole in the rock where there was nowhere for my feet so I had to let myself down and just bend my knees.

But I was finding handling the rope really difficult, I must have used a different system in New Zealand and the States because I know for a fact it wasn’t as hard going on either of those descents as on this tour. Then I got to the wall again. This was easier than the last descent, but by no means easy and I still got quite bashed about.

The third descent was also supposed to be easy. It wasn’t. None of this was easy. This was abseiling down a waterfall where you have the full force of the water going over you and the water was so powerful and the rocks were so slippery, it was impossible to get a foothold, so you had to walk down using your knees instead of your feet! The instructor said this one was the easiest. That’s what she’d said about the others!

This was difficult to even start because I couldn’t get into the right position at the top of the waterfall with my knees against the rock. When I finally did get over the edge of the waterfall with my knees against the side of the rock I could hardly move. I started to edge down. It was really hurting my knees that weren’t strong enough and really hadn’t been built for this kind of abuse. I kept going down using my knees but the waterfall was really powerful and at one point it was just coming down on my head and I didn’t know which way to go. I eventually edged away from the waterfall, but I still couldn’t move down. With the help of the only man in the group, I finally got into the water at the bottom.

That had been horrendous. I hadn’t enjoyed one minute of that, an ordeal from start to finish. I think the instructor knew how much I had hated it. That was definitely the most stupid thing I’d done on this trip so far.

When I stumbled back to my accommodation I took a look at my bruises. All over the bottom half of both legs and my knees, both elbows and forearms and my left hand looked like it had had a drip in it.

It was my first and last time canyoning. I have to add that I have no complaints about the instructor. She was qualified and competent in canyoning. But there was a good reason I’d always passed on it before now. I should have trusted my instincts and stuck to that and then I wouldn’t look such a mess now. On the other hand, if I hadn’t done it I would have always wondered if I hadn’t done it. At least I’d satisfied my curiosity.

Although I was in pain for a couple of days afterwards and the bruises took a week or so to disappear, it wasn’t physically as hardgoing on my body as the Via Ferrata had been. The pain came from the bruises, not aching muscles. The bruises did go eventually. And the canyoning had given me a new experience to recount in another story.

As for whether I would recommend these activities, the whitewater rafting on the Futaleufu River, yes. I would unequivocally recommend this wonderingful experience rafting this turquoise river in this amazingly scenic part of Patagonia. The canyoning I wouldn’t recommend to anyone. It just was not for me. It was one adventure too far.

If you ever go to Futaleufu and I would say, do go there if you can, raft along as much of the river as the water level allows, but if you have any spare time and are offered another activity, choose the ziplining!

I travelled in Northern Patagonia in mid January 2020.

I booked my whitewater rafting with Patagonia Elements in Futaleufu. You can book in person at their office in the centre of Futaleufu or you can book online. I thoroughly recommend them for their professional, knowledgeable, encouraging and reassuring guides. The lovely office staff were friendly and helpful and very prompt at answering my emails. The staff are all fluent in English for anyone whose Spanish isn’t great.

I did the Bridge to Bridge Tour which runs 12 rapids from Class 3 to Class 5 along the Futaleufu River. This is the easiest, most popular and most frequent of the 3 whitewater rafting and always runs subject to minimum numbers.

I also booked the canyoning trip through Patagonia Elements who can arrange both canyoning and ziplining through their office. While the canyoning was not for me, the canyoning instructor was competent and qualified and this would be a good activity for anyone who enjoys these kinds of adventure activities.

I stayed at the excellent value Cabanas Aguas Blancas in the centre of Futaleufu in a large self contained ensuite unit with breakfast included and car parking available. I booked direct by WhatsApp in Spanish.

I drove to Futaleufu along the Carretera Austral. It is an approximately 4 hour drive over 190km of both paved and gravel road from Puyuhuapi to the south.

I flew to Balmaceda Airport from Puerto Montt with LATAM Chile. The flight takes about an hour.

I rented a pick up truck from Europcar Chile from Balmaceda Airport to drive the Carretera Austral. You can book with Europcar in advance. Other local car rental agencies are open at the airport if you do not have an advance reservation.

You can only drive to Futaleufu from Puerto Montt in January and February using 2 seasonal ferries.

It is also possible to drive to Futaleufu from Argentina via Esquel. The border is not open 24 hours, so you need to check the border times in advance of travel if you are driving independently.

Read the three part series about my hike on the W Trek in Torres del Paine

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 1 & 2

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 3 & 4

The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Day 5 & Glacier Grey

Read my experiences driving the wild, rugged and remote Carretera Austral.

My Tips for Driving the Carretera Austral

Driving South on the Carretera Austral

Check out my other adventures in Chile.

Ascent of Volcan Villarrica

Last Hope Celebration

This is the post about my Via Ferrata experience in Canada

Waterfalls, Via Ferrata and a Religious Theme Park