going down to patagonia - photos from the Nahuel Huapi Traverse

I’m writing from our lovely airbnb in Coyhaique in the Aysen Region of Chile. It’s the most sparsely populated area in all of Chile (there’s about .85 people / km of land) and the beginning of Ruta 7 of the Careterra Austral. Last month we were in Bariloche, at the northern most part of Patagonia and we’ve been slowly making our way down South. We had 3 weeks in the beautiful island of Chiloe where we settled into a cozy cottage and wrote, watched movies, baked and played with our favourite street dog. From there we begun our adventure further south! From the southern most town of Quellon (and end of the Pan American Highway!!) we took a 30 hour ferry ride to Puerto Chacabuco.

We passed time by watching Chilean Soap Operas, people watching, being serenaded by musicians and eating lots of chocolate. We saw whales, dolphins, and marine birds. There are much easier ways to get to Coyhaique, but we discovered the option to ferry and thought it would be a fun way to see more of the country.

I’ve been super behind with editing photos and videos, so it all might cascade down in a funny backlog in the next while. But here’s a snipped from a trip report I wrote about our Nahuel Huapi Traverse:

Over a milanesa dinner (fried veal cutlet, with melted mozzerla cheese, ham and tomatoes), Lauren and I were laughing hystericaly about the camp showers in Colonia Suiza. I tried to turn on the cold water tap and the faucet handle swung off onto the grimy floor (I promptly decided to switch showers). Delirious and hungry, the warm cottage restaurant in Colonia Suiza was a welcome reprieve from our 19km descent and walk back to town.

To backtrack, after some internet searching, I found out about the Nahuel Huapi Traverse in Bariloche, Argentina. We did not intend to come to Argentina this early, but to renew our Chilean Visa, we had to make a quick dip out.

The classic Nahuel Huapi Traverse is a route that brings you through 4 different refugios (huts) over 5 days- Frey, Jakob, Laguna Negra and Lopez. I decided to adapt our trip and skip a technical traverse and go down through Colonia Suiza and back up through the valley.

Tomorrow we’ll be back in Argentina in El Chalten. Catch you on the flip side!