We packed up the house and got out of town, more rain was following us, but that didn’t dampen our spirits as we were starting the Carretera Astral which traverses the majority of the accessible Chilean Patagonia. We first stopped in Puerto Montt the official beginning of the Carretera Astral, Maddy and the kids walked around town while I got an oil change and tire check.
Puerto Montt is probably the largest town we will see until we cross over into Argentina, it is a port town and you can catch a ferry to lots of different spots along Patagonia including all the way to lands end (not the retail store).
Once we had all our tasks finished we headed out of town toward Hornopiren where we would stay the night before our 4 hour ferry ride to Chaiten. We did have one ferry crossing on the day, it was one which required no reservation between La Arena and Puelche; crossing our first Fjord of the trip!
The ferry was short 40 minutes and we were on our way south. We did get some sunny weather in the middle of the day but it was short lived. We arrived in Hornopiren and stayed at the Austral Lodge, which was an amazing rustic cabin that was recently remodeling. We wished we had stayed there longer or at least until the clouds had broken it was beautiful in the clouds and fog anyway.
Travel-Trotter 