Today was our last day in Puerto Chacabuco and I went on a tour to Coyhaique and the River Simpson Valley. Coyhaique is the capital of the region and some 70km from Puerto Chacabuco. The road there leads from Puerto Aysen and winds it’s way between dramatic mountains, damp forests and icy cold rivers. It was a foggy morning and the valleys were misty like a scene from a Tolkien novel.

Our guide Caterina explained that Puerto Chacabuco had been built in 1966 after the course of the river that led to Puerto Aysen changed. The road we were using had only been built in 1980. Before then travel was very difficult and the journey from Puerto Aysen to Coyhaique took 8 hours.

We made a brief stop in the Simpson Valley to take photos and see a museum, then made our way to Coyhaique. Not much time to look around but it seemed pleasant enough, with nothing special or spectacular. It rains much less and gets more sun than Puerto Chacabuco because it’s away from the coast.

On the way back we stopped at La Cascada de Virgen, or Virgin’s Falls in English. A pretty waterfall in the forest, spoilt by the main road passing a few metres in front of it. But then if it wasn’t by the road I wouldn’t have been able to get out of the bus and take photos of it. There was a small restaurant nearby where I ate empanadas, a kebab and drank pisco sour.

It’s always a strange, slightly sad feeling to leave a place knowing I’ll probably never return. I liked Puerto Chacabuco for it’s natural beauty and remoteness. It’s gloomy and damp and cold, but kind of mysterious and beautiful, cut off from the modern world, hidden away in the remote patagonian mountains.

Simpson National Park

View over Coyhaique

Handicrafts in Coyhaique

Virgin and waterfalls, La Casacada de Virgin