April 14,

We were up at 0700. Our fire had died out sometime through the night and Jeff started another, for some heat. We readied. The showerhead was a rain one but the mechanism holding it did not hold it well and the hot water would not stay on, so you danced from very hot to flat out cold. Then we sorted through our hanging laundry – most was dry. We had our Javas and breakfast of oatmeal. We packed up; Jeff put our dampish clothes loose in the car, to dry out; and he loaded up the rest. It was raining as it had been – it started last night. We texted our hostess that we were leaving and were out by 0834.

Within a couple of minutes we were in line for the ferry, and we waited watching the stray dogs (of which there are many in Patagonia in general), vultures and hawks. Around 0910 the ferry started moving into position. A lady came around selling some handmade alfajores (chocolate covered sandwich cookies filled with dulce de leche). Jeff bought two of them for 1000 CLP, or $1.13 each. The ferry started loading around 0935, and we drove on at 0940. At 1004, the ferry was moving out and underway. Within 10 minutes we saw a seal! Way Cool!! We found a place to sit and ate our desserts we just bought. Now we just explored the ferry and watched the view. We continued on seeing more seals, and lots of birds. We also saw buoys that maybe had lobster pots attached and areas of fish farming. The weather never improved and had heavily hung clouds with brief spots of rain. The mountains remind us so much of fjords, with many trailing cascades of waterfalls down to the water we are ferrying along.

Our ride is a “three hour tour.”😂🤣  Really the passage was 3.5 hours long. But this was followed by us unloading at 1330, caravanning for 30 minutes and reloading onto a second ferry. It’s all part of one ticket price of 84,750 CLP, or $95.27. At 1404 the ferry started moving. During this short ferry ride the sun came out. 🙂 The ferry landed and we exited at 1445 – in the last group off. Then it was a rough, bumpy, gravely road. Jeff passed some vehicles in the pack, and we made decent time even though the road was bad. Finally, we hit the paved road for the last 13 miles to Chaiten.

We arrived at 1600, and checked into our new accommodation. Our host, who seemed a happy chap, showed us about the place. It was more pleasant looking than our place last night. We unloaded and went in search of the ATM and supper. We stuck out with the ATM. We texted our host to let him know…he will take our US $100 bill and give us Chilean change. Yay! Now for supper we found a pizzeria, because any town everywhere has at least one of these!! We chose La Pizzeria, and had a chorizo sausage, caramelized onion, mushroom, and black olive pizza with a Chilean Cab Sav. Hit the spot. We went back and settled in. Our place did not heat up well with the wall mounted electric heater. We called it a 2100. The saving grace – we had an electric blanket!