Melimoyu

Patagonia continues to be a fascinating travel destination for us where we would definitely like to spend much more time than we have had the opportunity to do so thus far. At the end of February, we managed to get to know a new part of it, and that trip turned into a bit of an epic because… well, it’s Patagonia and things don’t always work out as planned.

The place we wanted to visit is a tiny hamlet called Melimoyu, which is literally just a handful of houses, surrounded by Patagonian rainforest and what will soon become the Melimoyo National Park following the pledge of the Bachelet Government in 2017 to add around 40,000 square kilometres to Chile’s National Park network. That’s about the size of the whole of Switzerland, in case you were wondering.

That’s the type of views one can expect around Melimoyu

The village itself obviously is not the reason to come to this part of the world, but rather the beautiful fjords that cut through jungle covered hills, with the snow-capped Monte Melimoyu towering above. During the southern-hemisphere’s summer months, blue whales may also be seen migrating through these fjords.

Melimoyu is only starting to realise its tourism potential, with salmon farming currently still being the much bigger thing around there. In fact, the only place where we could find accommodation in Melimoyu was a “lodge” mainly used by salmon farm workers who come down there for their 10-day shifts. Still, we did notice that the locals were catching up to the idea that the fish farms are doing more harm than good to the area and that (eco)tourism may be the way forward. The place is still lacking the infrastructure, although the first eco domes are being built to house future tourists like us.

One of the new eco domos that are currently under construction for future tourists like ourselves

The village is not connected to the outside world by roads and this remoteness definitely adds to its charm. But it also means there are really only two ways of getting there: by bush plane or by sea. We chose the latter, making use of the ferry from Quellón (that´s on the Island of Chileo where the Panamericana Highway ends) to Puerto Chacabuco in central Patagonia, which is not too far from Coyhaique and the Carretera Austral, a part of Patagonia we covered in previous blog posts (in 2016 and 2017).

The ferry is supposed to leave Quellón twice a week, except it is not uncommon for it to be massively delayed for weather, mechanical and/or general Chile/Patagonia reasons. Luck would have it that we also got stuck for more than 30 hours on it for what should have been an 8-hour trip…  It all started with us boarding normally around midnight, finding a somewhat quiet(ish) spot to spread out our sleeping bags, etc, only to wake up in the morning to find out that we hadn´t moved and where still in Quellón.

Monte Melimoyu from the ferry

A mechanic was supposed to be on his way to fix some mysterious mechanical issue by midday, which turned to 15:00h, which later became 18:00, etc. 24 hours later we were finally on our way. On the way back 5 days later we were also 24 hours delayed, obviously the ferry had not yet had time to catch-up with the delay from the way down, and to make matters worse, it also got stuck again, this time due to a fishermen´s strike somewhere on an island further south along the route. These guys basically positioned themselves in its way and wouldn't let it go past for a few hours.

Of course, we didn't let these delays get in the way of enjoying our time in Melimoyu as best as we could, with a few hikes, boat trips and generally just enjoying the peace and tranquility of the place. A few more photos in below slide show (or higher resolution here):