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Published: April 6th 2005
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When its cold go thermal
The only photograph not blurred by standing in single degrees in a bikini! I had to use the title. I have been freezing! It has all been a little crazy over the last week or so. Arrived in Coihayque and it poured down with rain the whole time I was there which was a huge shame. The town is nestled in the mountains and everywhere you look there is a mountain peak to admire. The tourist office was not where the guide book said and I spent the morning freezing in internet cafes or wandering around trying to find the tourist office or someone who could explain how the buses worked. Eventually I struck lucky finding someone who informed me that there was 1 bus company which had a bus the next day, otherwise I would have to wait another day. You can imagine my determination. With no sign of the rain stopping there was no way I was staying a moment longer. The problem with being in a place that small is that there are no museums or cinemas or anything indoor to keep you sane. It all becomes about food, coffee, hot chocolate and the internet. Even the local pub was closed and I spent a total of 4 hours on line that day!
So next morning I turned up to find that everyone else who had crossed from the border was also on the bus (actually a minibus). This of course made the journey much easier and more fun. We travelled along the Carretera Austral which is THE ROUTE to do in the south. I can understand why as it is truly stunning. You have valleys, peaks, rivers, streams and waterfalls everywhere you look wish lush greenery, and wild fuchsia all along the way. There are little farms and gauchos with their ponchos on as well as miles and miles of nothing. The journey was only 420 km but took 12 hours since 380 Km is actually on unpaved roads winding through the mountains.
We stopped for lunch at Puyuhuapi a little village in a bay (population 500). I had considered staying there because it had some natural hot springs. In the end I decided against it as they were part of an exclusive hotel and pretty expensive to go to. Anyhow we arrived and stopped at a place which clearly stated ‘Restaurant’. So I asked if they had any empanadas. Apparently not, and no soup either. At this point with no sign of a menu and everyone else sitting down and producing their own food I asked if he served any food. No, and no there were no restaurants serving food according to him. Can you imagine if I had decided to stay in a place where there was no food being served!?!??!?!
Onwards we went to our destination Chaiten. There were rumours and counter rumours on the bus as everyone had gathered different information as to what was happening. Apparently north of Chaiten the roads have been closed due to bad weather. This was certainly believable considering the state of the roads we were on. There was a ferry from Chaiten to Puerto Montt but we had to wait a day for it. Two of the group decided to get dropped off near the border with Argentina. It has to be said we were all a bit worried dropping them off in a place which had about 8 houses and no one could be sure if there was actually a place to stay.
When we got to Chaiten, the minibus conveniently stopped in front of a hospedaje and we all just piled in and took over. Hospedajes are literally people’s homes where they convert any spare space into rooms and open up to the tourists. I was a bit shocked at the one I ended up staying at in Coihayque since at first glance it looked ok but then transpired that the bath was less than clean, there was no toilet paper, discarded beer cans and full ashtrays never shifted the whole time I was there. Chaiten was not much better. No hot water and soap in the kitchen makes you wonder about hygiene. I am sure the sheets on my bed were not clean at all. I had a pretty restless night especially when the hurricane force winds started up and I was trying to figure out if the window in the roof was going to survive.
We actually traipsed out in the howling wind to go and find out the ferry situation. The though of another night in this place is what kept me going! We were assured it would and felt much better when the wind died down later on.
So what to do? We knew there were some hot springs nearby and convinced the owner’s husband to drive us to them. The hot springs were perfect! It must have been about 10 C max, raining and here we were outside in these thermal springs surrounded by mountains and roaring rivers. We all got back to the hospedaje with lifted spirits and ready for a 10 hour overnight trip to Puerto Montt….
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