Chaiten and Parque Pumalin

Bus service in the off-season is extremely limited in rural Patagonia so we ended up staying in Coyhaique for three nights. This wasn´t too bad since it was the first place in a month or so which had tons of fresh fruit and vegetables so we ate tons of greens. We also decided not to stop in any small towns along the way to Chaiten out of fear of getting stuck. This turned out to be a good decision, since when we stopped in Puyuhuapi (a small town settled by 4 German pioneers in 1920) there were 3 guys hoping to get onto our full bus. Lucky for them a Swiss couple got off the bus here and one other person. Talking to the two British guys they told me they would´ve been happy spending 15 minutes in town, but got stuck for 4 days, had no luck hitchhiking out and very nearly ran out of money.

Chaiten is a town set in Wonderland. Cloud-covered, fiord-like moutains rise up out of the land amid waterfalls, rivers, bamboo, ferns, moss, trees, everything green, rain, more green, wet, mist and more rain. We had originally hoped to camp in Parque Pumalin (a 3,000 sq km reserve owned by Northface CEO Douglas Thompkins) for three days but being the offseason transportation was an issue. Luckily we were able to arrange day transportation through an eccentric Chilean, Nicolas, who had lived in the townships near Montreal for some years. Between different short hikes Nicolas would play this tiny guitar/ukelele type instrument for us from traditional folk songs, to personal creations and even Nirvanna... who is this guy?!

The main reason for coming to Pumalin is to see the giant alerce tree which are often compared to the California redwood. Most of these trees were logged until recently, and only the most remote stands still remain. Several of the trees that we saw on a short walk were over 1500 years old with a couple 2500 and 3000 years old (and 3-4m wide!).

The following day we went to a hot springs outside of town to relax in the rain and warm water before catching the night ferry to Puerto Montt. This ferry was supposed to depart at 12AM but didn´t arrive until 2AM, then left at 3AM. Due to rough seas the 10-hr crossing was extended to 15...