Cochamó. Wait... we made it?!

It was afternoon on Monday November 10 when Chains and Bandit (me and Nate, respectively) pulled into Cochamó. We set off from Seattle 134 days ago with our sights set on this Patagonian town. And we’re here!

Now I’ll catch you all up on how we got here.


Friday November 7.

Woke up in Bariloche, the Argentinean Aspen, full of trendy ski gear and chocolate shops. Our 10th floor hostel had one spectacular view over the snowy-peak-bordered lake. We decided to climb up to Cerro Otto for a 360 degree spectacular view. We were told to get an earlier start and to expect some wind and maybe some rain.


We walked the 5km along the water ooohing and ahhhhing over the mountains. We arrived at the Teleferico and kept walking. The sandy path took us up. And up. And up.


My legs weren’t working as I told them to. They quickly tired and I slowed down to a tortuga’s pace. Dogs barked from afar, but we just kept on marching along. Suddenly the view opened up. It was spectacular. We could see mountains on all sides. But we also saw the storm clouds coming towards us. We turned back to our own mountain and put one foot in front of the other.

Finally we made it to the top. The air was bitter cold and the wind was fierce. We walked around the complex, which was closed for the season and took a few photos with numb fingers. The wind almost carried me off.



I was very ready to start heading down. My fingers were just about frozen and the storm clouds looked like they would open up any second. We took the longer, but less difficult way down.

Nate found some rocks to boulder around on. I was very cold, so I started walking. The rain found its way to us. Small droplets cascaded onto our rain jackets as we broke into a jog.

At the bottom of the hill we splurged on a 2 peso (60 cent) hot chocolate. The walk back into town was uncomfortable, but it was so good to be warm again.


The rain continued for the rest of the day. Since our shoes were soaked, we had to run errands in our flip flops. Pelting rain in frigid temperatures. I don’t think my feet have ever experienced that much pain before!

Dinner was a concoction of whatever we had; it was too cold to leave the hostel.

The cab came by to pick us up at 6:45am on Saturday November 8. Our bus to Puerto Montt took us past some spectacular views and, of course, across the border into Chile.




Puerto Montt was not so nice. So we hopped a collectivo to Puerto Varas, the more touristy siblingcity.







We found our hostel after a few minutes and after a quick supermarket run, whipped up a few burgers.




We rested up and dined out that night.

Sunday November 9.

The city had no electricity. And our hostel didn’t have any room for us that night. So we set off looking for a new place. We found an awesome cute B&B (or as Nate rightly pointed out, a C&D). The family who owned the colorful creaky house were sweet and the bunkbeds came with breakfast, internet and unlimited use of the kitchen. Fantastic.

Most everything was closed for Sunday, so we took some time to walk around town. We cruised up and down the streets. Made the worst mac n cheese ever.

Monday November 10.

Ran errands and just barely made the bus to Cochamó. On the way we saw spectacular views of snow capped volcanoes, but that was just the beginning of the spectacular views that we’d be getting. Two hours later we pulled into Cochamó. It was a dusty gravel road kind of town. Nestled on the shore of a lake and surrounded by jaw-dropping mountains. Everything had a relaxed ease about it. The way the people walked arm-in-arm dropping you an “hola” as they strolled through the streets. I like it.

We got the picturesque room overlooking the lake. A scenic afternoon walk took us out of town and bordering the lake. A car pulls over. “I think I found your blog,” calls Daniel out of the driver’s window. It was his refugio that we were going to the next day. Nate was giddy as we said our ‘see you later’s. We were here! One of the many destinations of the Big Trip.

Quiet evening in the quiet little town. And a soup dinner.