La Junta -Puerto Raúl Marín – Puerto Cisnes

Jan. 16-19

We took a short bus ride from Futa to Villa Santa Lucia, a tiny pueblo along the highway. After walking a bit out of town, we started hitchhiking to La Junta, an hour south. Since we made it to the Carretera first, other hitchhikers kindly moved down the road to give us priority. We chatted with a traveler from France who had ridden the bus with us and was heading in the same direction. She waved us goodbye, noting that hitchhiking in a group of three is tougher than in pairs or solo.

After a slow 20 minutes, a guy waved us over from a parking area, and we ran over with our heavy bags, hoping for a ride. He asked where we were from, and we said Montana (sorry to our Coloradan families…), to which he casually replied, “Me, too.” Billy, our savior from Montana, was a fly fishing guide on a ranch that attracts tourists escaping the North American winter to fish renowned rivers in Patagonian Chile. Unfortunately, he had to get back to work, so he only could drop us off halfway to our final destination.

We then spent a few more hours on the side of the road with no luck. At some point we decided to start walking to cover some distance and possibly find a good campsite along the river in case we really found no ride! It wasn’t exactly fun to be walking on the side of the highway with our heavy bags, so we only continued on to the next pull-out area. After half an hour, a minivan packed with three Chilean fishermen stopped to help, and surprisingly, our French friend from earlier was also inside; we all laughed at our unexpected reunion after a long day.

It was a quick overnight stop in La Junta. One of the travelers we chatted with was a bikebacker from Sweden who had been biking for almost 2 years…he started in Alaska! We had a few hours the next day to sneak in a quick hike to an overlook of the gorgeous valley showing the confluence of Rio Palena y Rio Rosselot, two rivers known for flyfishing.

We learned about a bus that ran from La Junta to Puerto Raul Marin Balmaceda (RMB) and had asked around town in La Junta where we could catch it. A few people confidently told us in front of the plaza, so we waited around for a while until Devin began to wonder if just maybe the bus did not leave from there. He had spotted a van a few minutes before and mentioned, “I think our bus is going to look something like that.” While I was busy feeding the cutest pup some scraps from an empanada, Devin had run off to find the bus/van. Thanks to Devin’s keen eyes, we caught our ride & took off along a dusty road to Raul Marin.

This was another quick pitstop, but we definitely made the most of it! RMB was settled in 1888 which makes it the oldest town in the Aysén region of Chile; it was accessible only by boat until 2008 when the road connecting it to La Junta was built, & electricity came even more recently. Many make their way to RMB to take a boat tour with local guides for the chance to spot some marine life (dolphins, whales, penguins, etc.). Since we were hopping on a 10 hour ferry from RMB, we opted for a hike. It started in the jungle that brought us vivid memories of Costa Rica and ended on the beach which was more of a Nantucket coast vibe. We were lucky to spot a few dolphins & penguins playing near the shore. While I was on coliguacho swatting duty (Chilean horseflies), Devin took some videos, but they didn’t turn out well into pictures. You will just have to take our word.

We set off the next morning on a large ferry already packed with Chileans; we were some of the few, if not only, gringos aboard and we attracted some attention as a result. I chatted with some pre-teens, whose little English consisted of “hello” and a few unmannerly curse words. They were all on a rugby team and were taking the ferry for 26 hours back home from a tournament on Isla Chiloe. Once we arrived to Puerto Cisnes, we quickly hopped on a night bus taking us to Coyahique to begin prepping for a trek in Cerro Castillo National Park.

Next stop: Coyahique.

~ Rach <3