Blogs from Aisén, Chile, South America

Week 2 -Whale search When I last wrote we were in Quellon and it had proved difficult to find decent accommodation close enough to the ferry. I had eventually found a hospedaje run by a lady called Sonia, only downside was a shared bathroom but she assured me it was very clean. So I had booked it and it was 50 metres from the bus station. We went to leave our bags and the incoming ferry had arrived at 2am and there were people still asleep in our room. We opted for a different one and went in search of somewhere to repair my bag. My brand new 260€ Osprey travel bag had lost a zip between Santiago and Ancud, not the quality you expect and I had 3 more flights. The place was closed but ... read more

Patagonie Qui dit voyage extraordinaire dit forcément article pour garder une trace. 2023 s'annonçant pleine d'événements et de voyages, ce voyage n'était pas forcement une évidence. Il a été évoqué puis remis à plus tard pour des raisons raisonnables. Mais Patagonie. Un nom qui fait rêver rien qu'en l'évoquant. L'immensité sud-américaine s'étalant sur des milliers de kilomètres jusqu'aux prémices du Pole Sud. Des sommets enneigés se perdant dans les nuages. Des plaines sans fin. Des lacs étincelants reflétant le ciel sillonné par les condors. Des caballeros à cheval, des ciels étoilés, des feux de bois pour griller la viande élevée dans cet environnement unique. Patagonie. Ce nom mythique aura eu raison de mes derniers doutes. Surtout quand ça me permet de retrouver mes deux potos absents depuis longtemps. Alexis en vadrouille pendant son année sabbatique. Nathan ... read more

Poet, novelist and travel writer William Graham holds a BA and MA in English and a MS in Communication from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He lives in Stowe, Vermont. His most recent travel book is Border Crossings: Travel Essays and Poems. “Patagonia.” The word conjures up images of jagged Andean peaks, fierce winds, gauchos and vast emptiness. The adventurer Bruce Chatwin put it best: “The word 'Patagonia', like Mandalay or Timbuctoo, has lodged itself in our imagination as a metaphor for The Ultimate, the point beyond which one could not go.” I followed the siren call of this stunning region of Chile on a recent trip to the Aysen region of Patagonia. The origin of the words “Aysen” and “Patagonia” are themselves worth mentioning. The best guess is that the word “Aysen,” a sparsely populated ... read more

Motorcyclists are allowed a day off. Photographers are not. The wonderful organizers of my trip (Ride Adventures LLC from Oregon) had decreed January 31 as a rest day. So I slept in, ate a good breakfast and worked on the blog. I decided to walk the mile and a half to Puerto Guadal, the closest town, for lunch. I aimed for the restaurant run by the mother of an employee of my hotel. I then visited the local supermarket for snacks and water, and started to wander back. It struck me as I walked around that this village was special, squeezed between the lake and the mountains. It had a small one of everything -- butcher, baker, hardware store, hostel and a gazebo on the main square. There was a lot of pride in the way ... read more

Today I was invited into someone’s kitchen for lunch. I arrived at Villa Amengual (some 90 km South of Puyuhuapi) around lunch time and drove round the plaza asking for gas. The tanks at the station had run dry in Puyuhuapi last night before I could refill, and I was running low. I walked up to a little grocery store and a woman called out from inside asking what I wanted. “Nope, no gas to be had. Are you hungry?” “Yes!” “Come in and have some lunch. We have some soup on the stove, and the ñoquis are ready.” “Sounds good to me, where do I go?” “Hey, come into the kitchen. We are all in there and we can talk.” So I did. The road had been awful – a wet slippery gravel climb through ... read more