Well we are now in the middle of the Carretas Austral (which means Southern Route) in Chile. Its absolutely gorgeous here altho pretty chilly (hahahaha!) temps hovering around 10C with a cutting cold wind but its sunny.
The ferry trip was incredible. Flat as a pancake all the way, our 4 bed bunk room was lovely, we had a private toilet, 1 other fella sharing with us, loads of room, comfy beds, towels, showers, fresh linen and best of all the rooms are all above deck so happy days (memories of a trip to Estonia from Stockholm are still fresh!). We were so lucky with the weather, no winds so we made it in 4 hours before schedule which allowed us to get to Coyhaique last night. We saw a pod of dolphins (dunno what kind but they were bigger then any dolphins we have seen before), 2 whales (dunno what kind), seals, penguins (wow they literally fly thru the water so fast!), amazing scenery on the way on the ferry so pretty happy with that. The dolphins were incredible and swam under the bow of the ship for awhile.
Got into Puerto Chacubaco at 7pm last night and managed to get the 2 required buses to Coyhaique. The drive (about 80kms) was unbeleivably pretty and scenic. High, snow capped rocky mountains, lush forest to the tree line, lovely grassy valley with tasty looking cows (all that good beef in Argentina has me beef obsessed too).
Arrived into Coyhaique and eventually found the hostel (Hostel Baquranda) we had booked (since we are so organised and its high season). There was no sign so we slightly worried about it being the right place. The guy showed us the room but said there was a problem cause the Chileans like to party over New Year so we thought ok maybe the place is a little thrashed. Turned out he had kept us a room next to a room that was being built but wasn´t completed yet as the builders were too hungover. That was fine - what wasn´t so fine was the ´bed´ situation. He wanted 17 euros for a single bed that looked like it was going to fall apart and single air mattress on the floor for one of us ... hardly bloody matrimonial. SO we told him nicely no way. He got a bit huffed about that - seriously - and said we´d never find another place now. At that stage I would have preferred the park bench then pay the cheeky bugger anything. Anyways its bright here til nearly 10.30pm so we walked around and found another great (Hostal Licrayen 20k pesos) place with the best brekkie and lovely woman running the show.
In the midst of car hiring now so better go and do that (or help Dunk do something more productive then me blogging!).
PS went for sunny afternoon beers in Puerto Varas with Andy and Mary before the ferry trip which was great fun
PPS the ferry is the Navimag one and its 48k pesos per person. They only serve lunch (3k pesos pp) and free brekkie so bring your own food!! Great trip thou.
PPPS some travellers baffle me ... one guy sat in the canteen watching movies and working on his laptop for the entire ferry trip. Be cheaper to stay at home and get the local bus around in circles.
No comments:
Post a Comment