08 Continuing north to Villa Cerro Castillo and Coyhaique

Feb 10th - 13th, 2012

View from Villa Cerro Castillo

From Puerto Guadal, hitched back to Rio Tranquillo. On the north side of Lago General Carrera it was again raining, so still it would not have been possible to see the glaciers along the Explorades valley. However, I had  arrived in time to get the twice-weekly bus coming from another direction, so was able to get to  Villa Cerro Castillo:  a small village in a magnificent setting, with good trekking possibilities.


Note tent shelters for severe weather.

Its four ´supermarkets', however, were each about half the size of my village shop, so buying ingredients for a simple meal of potatoes, onions, sausage, yogurt and fruit, involved going to all four of them, since one had run out of potatoes, another out of onions, etc.



The campsite was the best of the trip (so far), for as well as its setting, it had a magnificent wooden building that  had been built by its owners, and was available for use by campers, as well as the family. Inside was a big inglenook fireplace which the owners used to cook on - as well as a wood-fuelled stove/cooker, for the use of campers - a great place for socialising, as well as cooking. Outside, there even some large dome-shaped ´maxi tents´, each of which had bunks inside, for those who didn´t want to camp. There was an endless supply of hot water, and a guitar available for anyone who played.


 

Here I met two Israelis, both of whom played classical guitar quite well. Also two Belgian cyclists, who were using recumbent cycles.

Sunday turned out fine and clear, and I took myself off to walk along the ´Sendero Chile' to the  national monument Paredon de las Manos - rock art (hand prints), apparently about three thousand years old. More impressive still were the volcanic rocks that the handprints had been made on, and the stunning views of the mountain range that the village takes its name from.

Handprints: Paredonn las Manos   

Rock formations: Paredonn las Manos

I had been advised that the trek to the glacier across the ridge could be very dangerous in windy weather, since people are regularly quite literally blown off their feet, and left ´flying´. A German girl had apparently fallen mid flight just two weeks before, and been knocked unconscious. On Monday, I dithered: it was such a beautiful day, but the wind, as on Sunday, had positively howled through the night, and showed no sign of letting up in the morning - so decided to content myself with the previous day´s views. It would have been easy to have stayed at Villa Cerra Casiello relaxing for a couple more days - but in the event, it´s as well I didn´t, since had I done so, I could have got caught up in the Coyhaique unrest, and found myself unable to get out.

Dithering meant that I missed the one daily bus out, but in the afternoon, I decided to join the bunch of hitch-hikers in the village, to try and move on to Coyhaique. After an hour of no traffic, a Chilean couple managed to negotiate a taxi ride for the three of us, for about 7 pounds each, for the 75km.

A scarey ride followed: one problem with 'ripio' (stone and gravel) roads. is that when a driver is used to these, and then gets onto a paved road, his speed somehow quadruples. Apart from the fact that this one was checking his texts on his mobile phone, the first part of the journey was uphill, and relatively OK. After that, it was positively hair-raising, as we hurled down the road, with the speedometer reaching 140km per hour, slowing just slightly at the bends. Happily, there wasn't much traffic coming in the opposite direction, and somehow we reached Coyhaique in one piece, in just over an hour: a fraction of the time taken by the bus.

Photo: Istvan

Checked in at the lovely German-run Hostel Patagonia for a couple of nights, where I caught up with Jens, whom I´d met at Puerto Guadal. Lovely surroundings, with hammock and wood burner, and a cherry tree in the garden. Fresh cherries, hot water, biscuits, tea and coffee were available most of the day, and breakfast consisted of fresh orange segments, cherries, various breads, jams, cheese, salami, and hot drinks. Great!

Patagonian Hostel, Coihaique (above and below)

Went with Jens to Coihaique´s National Park for a couple of hours, next day - but compared with what we had seen so far, neither of us were terribly impressed. (Heard later that we might have been, if we had done the full 4-hour trek, instead of abandoning it after just two hours!)

Near Coyhaique (Photo: Istvan)

Got a bus ticket out on Wednesday - as it turned out, it was the last one for several days, due to the protests that had started with the Puerto Aysen fishermen protesting against the price of fuel, and spread throughout the region, where other issues identified included the price of food, the state of the roads, the lack of a university, health, the plans for hydro-electricity, and the fact that people felt that the needs of Chilean Patagonians were ignored. (See post on protests.)

The plan was to catch a bus to the Quelat National Park, camp overnight, and then walk up to the hanging glacier the following day. Happily, I was able to do this. Had I waited another day, there would have been no buses.