We arrived in Coyhaique in the early evening and my lasting memory of the place will be the time that we spent trying to leave.....
We had heard that the Chillean side of the Lake District was less travelled than the Argentinian side and a few people that we'd met on our travels had told us how beautiful it was. One of the advantages of travelling and having the luxury of time is the ability to change your plans on a whim and that's what we decided to do.
To quote Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman; "Big mistake. Big. Huge".
We took the bus from the airport (in the pouring rain, it's worth noting that Argentina has 300+ days of sunshine and Chile has 200+ days of rain!) and arrived at our hostel which was set a long way back from the main road in woodland, Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor describe Hostel Salamandras as 'rustic' [Note to self for future reference: whilst the word 'rustic' conjures up an English country garden kind of picture in my mind of a slightly aged picket fence and original sash windows rather than double glazed and all sorts of home cooked delights on the kitchen table, when the word is used to describe accommodation it should be treated with a cautious mind and not a romantic one].
'Rustic' in this instance meant; remote, cold and damp, with no heating (and remember set a long way back from the road in woodland). As the taxi's engine faded away, in the distance I could hear the faint strumming of a banjo (Twang-a-twang-twang twang-twang twang-twang twang......) at the same time Abby was thinking she could see something nasty in the woodshed.
It didn't take long to decide that we weren't staying, but it turned out that leaving was harder than we expected.....
We managed to find a great twin room in the town and on the owners recommendation we went for a pizza and a beer at a strange Leprechaun themed restaurant where we laughed about our day (and the fact that we were eating in a Leprechaun themed restaurant) when what we should have been doing was hatching an escape plan.
We went to the bus station to take a bus towards El Chalten at 9:30am and were told that buses to El Chalten only leave on even dated days, great we thought as it was the 8th... Not so great it was 9:30 and the bus left at 7am. So the rest of the day was spent trying to find an alternative route which we did, we booked a mini bus to Ibanez (pronounced Ibanyez) which is done by walking up to a minibus parked at the side of the street, giving the man inside it 800 pesos and your address and accepting his assurances that he would indeed pick us up at 06:45 and get us to the ferry port at Ibanez in time for the 10am ferry.
Then we had to book the ferry to Chile Chico which is the border crossing back in to Argentina, a bus to take us from Chile Chico to Los Antiguos and contingency accomodation in Los Antiguos just in case we aren't able to get a bus - which based on our experience was highly likely.
After an anxious 5 minutes in the morning when we'd almost convinced ourselves that we'd been ripped off and then agreed that as 800 pesos is £10 it was unlikely, hardly the biggest money making scam in the world the bus arrived and got us to the ferry in plenty of time.
The road to Ibanez was beautiful 'moody' scenery, dark green rolling hills and a heavily cloud laiden sky with a glimmer of sun pushing through the edge of the blanket of cloud a long way in the distance. The hills are glacial deposits and the uneven yet obvious pathway that the glacier left behind as it travelled through make me think what a truly incredible world it is that we live in and how long ago this pathway was carved in to Chiles landscape.
When we got off the ferry at Chile Chico we were able to take a Collectivo to the least stringent border crossing that I've ever experienced and a few minutes later we were in Los Antiguos a purely functional stop before we take the 8am bus for the 12 hour trip to El Chalten.
See you there.
Raine x
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