After Jeinimeni, we made our way north, accross Lake General Carrera to Ibanez. From Ibanez we headed out to the Rio Ibanez waterfall and from there, out onto the X723 road, driving through more spectacular scenery , rejoining the Carratera Austral near Cerro Castillo. We spent an hour or so making enquiries about hiking in the area but were put off by the fact that a local (and probably absentee) landowner was charging extortionate sums for hikers to cross a narrow strip of his land in order to get to the hiking area. On balance we decided to carry on north, back through Coyhaique, out towards central-southern Chile. Towards late afternoon we saw a camping sign and drove off the main road a couple of miles to Las Torres camping, not far from Puerto Aysen. The place was run by an old Spaniard named Nacho, a veteran of the Spanish rock music scene who had decided to risk the last of his savings on buying some cheap land out here, when the Chilean government was still trying to attract settlers. Since the 1990s, he and his Chilean wife, Sandra, had been growing organic produce, supplementing it with camping and a hostel. He showed us his veg and lettuce growing operation and he and Ann talked about horticulture enthusiastically. Later that same evening, he and his wife came over to the cooking area with a couple of guitars and he and I jammed for a while and swapped war stories about the European music scene. Next morning, Nacho gave us a lesson in Mate drink preparation and customs from Goucho culture.
Towards the end of the morning, we set off with the intention of getting to the remote coastal village of Raul Marin Balmaceda. Today's hitchhiker was a clinical psychologist from further north - as on previous occasions, a young Chilean spending vacation time in Patagonia as cheaply as possible. Also on this stretch, we passed through Puyuhuapi, an old German settlement dating from the 1930s.
Raul Marin Balmaceda is truly remote. Getting out there was difficult, even for our 4x4. Its location is on the southern boundary of the central temperate rain forest zone and we spent most of a day walking in the ancient woods. A guide we had booked for a wildlife tour in the evening had been delayed by bad weather, so this had to be put off til the next day. During the night, the ferry bringing monthly supplies to the village arrived. On these occasions, the whole population shows up to unload it at 2 in the morning. Nobody was up until lunchtime the next day, but at least the shops had fresh vegetables when they finally opened. Later that day we finally got our wildlife boat tour on the Rio Rodriguez estuary, seeing pelicans and more sea lions. While we were on the water a ferocious wind and rain storm blew up, tossing our little boat like a leaf. Sorry there are no pictures of this because the main priority was to keep my arse in contact with the boat and not drown!
Heading out or Raul Marin the next morning, we turned back south towards Coyhaique as the car was due back at the hire company, stopping to camp at Las Toninas near the Rio Visentiquero. Beautiful purple sunset.
