April 15,

I slept well with the electric blanket, but was awakened by the power going off. So we got around quickly as it was cold. There was hot water for a shower so we both did quick ones, in case we would run out. This place only had an electric heat – no fireplace. Jeff texted our host about the power outage. He didn’t respond right away. So we had Granola with some of the wonderful apricot marmalade that he made and tap-water hot, hot chocolate. Then finally our host responded…it was an area wide outage. The host came and turned on a generator, which was right next to the cabin. I heated water for my coffee – Jeff did not want more hot chocolate instead started packing/loading up.

It was 0920, when we headed out, not as early of a start as we had wanted, but is what it is. The sky was brilliant blue and cloudless. We had a long drive, but it took us crossing a couple of one-laned bridges, as well as two lane ones, over some decent sized rivers that started as waterfalls, of which we saw so many of. Always in view were the spectacular snow-capped mountains, some were the classic cone-peaked, others were saw-toothed topped. There were also valleys with numerous farmsteads of cattle, horses, sheep, goats and pigs. We both knew there were chickens, but did not see those. Mostly what has surprised us were large amounts of dogs, most of them seemed to not have a family home as such, and just running around in small packs (3-4) barking, protecting their territory. Anyway, there was more greenery and trees, on the Chilean side of Patagonia versus the Argentine side. There were even large elephant ear type plants lining the roads! As we moved on we finally were seeing more of the red swath of vegetation near the tops of the mountains like in the Argentine side.

The road turned to gravel for quite a stretch at Queulat National Park, we thought this might be due to a number of hairpin curves and twists. Because when they stopped the road returned back to being paved. There was even some of the gravel road that had a stretch of one lane being on and off cement/gravel while the other lane stayed gravel. This we couldn’t explain. I guess this is my question?? section.

We came to a waterfall, at Salto El Condor. It was a large wonderful cascade of water right on the roadside with a little trail to hike alongside it get back for the glory of the fall. Gorgeous! We enjoy the stop to strech our legs. We drove on. I saw three fenced in alpacas right close to the road. By the time I realized what I had seen we passed them and Jeff did not see them. The drive on the road continued to snake, wind, turn and bend, opening up new views, valleys, and vistas, while closing others. Then another hairpin turn: more peaks, different waterfalls and streams into rivers. It just keeps going…

We picked up an older woman hitchhiker around 1345. She didn’t speak English, but through Google translate she nodded when I said we were going to Coyhaique. We pulled in for gas and there was an area map. I got out to see in and see a big overall picture of where we were. The lady we picked up got out and pointed out a town, Puerto Aysen. Through pantomime, I figured that this is where she wanted to go. We came to a cross road. We would have just stayed on Hwy 7, but her town was on the other road. Both ended up in Coyhaique, so we went along the way to her town. It’s a beautiful day for a drive. We saw some gauchos, as there were wider valleys to work bigger farms. She wanted out before the town, so we let her out. But we decided to continue on, as we were close to the end of the road at Puerto Chacabuco, so we went on to the end of the road, so to speak. We ate “lunner” here at Restaurante Y Cocineria. We had Hake fish, poor man’s style; and sausage (ended up being hotdogs- forgot I was in Chile and that is what sausage means) and fries. We should have both had the fish…it was great! I had a glass of white wine. The bill was 37,510 CLP, which is $42.67. We left taking most of the fries as takeaway and stopped at a grocery store. Now we went back to the cut off to the town of Coyhaique. We stopped at two more waterfalls along the way, Cascada La Vigen, and Cascada Velo La Novia. Both so different and spectacular in their own right; and they seemed full force(?)

We turned off, in town, onto a bad gravel road. We arrived at our new place, just outside of town along the Rio Simpson around 1900 as the sun was going away, due to the mountains. We unloaded and settled in. What a beautiful day it had been!