Caleta Tortel — The Venice of South America
The city of Caleta Tortel is sometimes called the Venice of South America. It is really cute. What they call "streets" are just wood pontoons! You walk up and down this tiny town along elevated boardwalks, with the water and mountains all around. After a quick lunch on one of the viewpoints, we started looking for somewhere to drink beers. This is how we found El Mirador restaurant — a place producing its own local draft beer. Good beverage ;-)
And we found two French guys working there for a few weeks. One of them had already been travelling more than a year across South America. As we spent the whole day waiting for our ferry, we had plenty of time to talk and learn more about each other. This is the kind of person you might call an "eternal traveller" — we think we met fewer than ten people like this during this whole year. They simply cannot stop travelling!
41 Hours of Fjords (and Jail-Style Food)
We took the ferry to Puerto Natales with Transbordadora Austral Broom S.A. — 41 hours on the water. Buying the tickets was awful. It's impossible to pay online, and you have to pay in cash only at one of their very few offices scattered across the Carretera Austral. The worst part is that they don't give you a proper invoice because they don't want to declare it to the government. Just black money in the end. When you know that we paid three times more than a Chilean, it is really ripping off tourists. And of course, nobody can explain why. Moreover, the food was horrible. Jail style!
Well, we still didn't regret it — because we had a beautiful weather most of the time, which is really rare according to locals. Crossing all the fjords surrounded by mountains with snow-covered peaks was something special. We didn't see orcas or whales (as Austral Broom smartly advertises...). We briefly spotted two seals.
Puerto Edén — a Tiny Stop in the Wilderness
Midway through the crossing the ferry stopped at Puerto Edén, a remote settlement accessible only by boat. A quick glimpse of life at the end of the world.
Would We Do It Again?
If we had to do it again, we are not sure we would. Most tourists either take the ferry directly from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales, fly, or cross one of the land borders via Argentina. Any of those options is more economical and straightforward than this route.
This is how we ended up in the beautiful city of Puerto Natales!
November 10–12, 2018