Puyuhuapi

Having completed our Cerro Castillo Trek, we started travelling north from Coyhaique along the Carretera Austral, using one of the local buses that are heading that way. Once leaving behind town, one is quickly surrounded by lush temperate rain forest and an impressive mountain scenery. Our first stop was Puyuhuapi, a tiny village about 140km north for Coyhauique.

Puyuhuapi was founded in the 1930s by a handful of Sudenten-Germans (originally from what is now part of the Czech Republic), who left pre-war Europe in search of adventure and new opportunities far away from the conflict that was brewing back home at that time. The village sits at the end of a fjord, which at that time provided the only access, and many street names still have German sounding names.

Nowadays, with road access via the Carretera Austral, the village has grown to 800+ permanent inhabitants, and during the summer months attracts visitors like us for its beautiful surrounding, remote and quiet location, a couple of nearby hot springs and the Queulat National Park with its hanging glacier.

Like most other parts of Chilean Patagonia, it also gets around 4000mm of rain per year, so when the heavens opened on us shortly after our arrival (and it didn't really stop raining for more than 20 minutes at the time until we left), the planned visit to one of the two hot springs was promoted to the top of our agenda fairly quickly.

Christian enjoying the views across the fjord from the Termas del Ventísquero

One of the two hot springs are part of a luxury Lodge on the far side of the fjord (only accessible by boat), while the other one, called Termas del Ventísquero, caters for more normal folk like us... so that was where we were going. We were the first to arrive in the morning and therefore could enjoy the little hot pools and views across the fjords without too much distraction.

Relaxing a absorbing the heat as well as the views

When it eventually got a bit too hot we had a quick dip in the refreshing salty waters of the fjord, before heading back to the hot pools for a little more. We spent a good part of the day at the Termas, until it got a little more busy in the afternoon.

Cooling down in the fjord

The second day, with the rain still drizzling down on us, we decided to visit the National Park for a little walk. There are a couple of short trails, the most interesting of them is no doubt the one that heads to the viewpoint from where on can see the hanging Ventísquero glacier.

Suspension bridge at the start of the trail

Of course we didn't have the greatest of view of the glacier because of the rain, but it was still very impressive and the walk through the forest was enjoyable, too. Reportedly the glacier  retreated about 8 km since it was first discovered in 1875, which means that its spectacular location, towering above a steep cliff, is likely to change in only a few decades as it continues to retreat.

The view of the glacier from the view point on a rainy day

We enjoyed our couple of days in Puyuhuapi, relaxing and recovering from our Cerro Castillo trek, and gathering strength for our journey up north. We had to adapt our travel plans because of some unforeseen circumstances (a landslide cutting the Carretera Austral road connection), but more on this in our next post.