The following day, Sunday, we caught the 8am bus to Quellon...which left at 8.20am...which is the norm on Chiloe. Our ferry was due to leave at midday so this should give us plenty of time. What we hadn´t counted on was the ferry company saying "sorry, no more tickets available for todays crossing, but we do have tickets available for Wednesdays sailing". Aargh!! We couldn´t believe it. We had already stayed longer than we would have chosen on Chiloe waiting for this ferry. However, it seemed very much at the discretion of the office salesperson whether he would "find" any more availability, and slowly but surely 2 tickets came available, then 2 more and finally there were tickets available for Claire & I (no thanks to a Slovenian psychopath. Eventually everyone who was waiting managed to get on board but they sure did stretch it out. The crossing was really smooth and the sun shone the whole way. At the beginning of the 5 hour voyage we had dolphins jumping on front of the boat leading the way. We spent most of the time on deck talking with Paul and Nadia, an Ozzy couple we had first seen in the national park on Chiloe. 
Arriving in Chaiten we made straight for Casa Hexagon as Claire had made a reservation the previous day. Good thing she did as they were fully booked and even as we arrived there were people from the ferry being turned away. Finally we had made it out of Chiloe and onto the Carretera Austral. The CA has become one of SA´s best roadtrips. Part of the adventure is simply navigating along some of the simplar parts of the highway. Pinochet´s quest to cut a road through Aisen was not based on common sense or a pragmatic plan, it argueably had more to do with the symbolism of a highway that tied together the disparate regions of the country.
People are drawn to this highway in part because it isnt lined with Subway, Shell & Strabucks. But that also means the route requires extra planning & a good dose of prudence.
We wanted to make the most of our time in Chaiten so we immediately met up with a local guide to find out what our options were. Due to limited bus service out of town it was clear that we would only have the following day to do an excursion before leaving again, otherwise we would have to stay an additional 3 days. We arranged for a driver to take us to Parque Pumalin. An area the size of Rhode Island, the park is owned by one man - US entrepreneur Doug Tomkins. He founded both Espirit & North Face Clothing! With the profits he started purchasing small Patagonian Farms to protect their ancient forrests from development. All the land is to be preserved & only developed as parkland that is open to all visitors.
Unfortunately the following morning when we were ready to commence our excursion we got the news that no one was available to take us. All was not lost though. We were able to get public transport to the park and the guide, who couldn't take us due to previous commitments, said he would be coming back on the road and could pick us up. There is no public bus we could have gotten. It is hard to describe just how isolated an area this is. There are 3 main trails within the park which are all within easy reach of each other. Tronador was the first trail and straight away we were greeted with cascading waterfalls, beautiful natural rooty trails, and wooden ladders and steps, where required, to ease one´s passage. 45 minutes and we didn´t see another living soul. Claire enjoyed it but as there had been rain the previous night she was nervous of the wooden steps/ladders which could be quite slippy. I loved it. This was just my kind of playground. Beautiful, natural and completely isolated. .
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On our second trail, The Alerce Trail, we did see a few other people (2 groups of 4 with guides). This is the easiest trail in the park as it is almost completely flat. The attraction here is the enormous Alerce trees. They are similar to the sequoia trees of Yosemite park in California. Huge trunks soaring almost endlessly into the sky. And so old. There is a plaque at one point on the trail stating that when the first Spanish expedition arrived in 1540 these alerce trees were already over 1000 years old. Impressive. They are definitely a sight to behold as you crane your neck upwards to see where these arborial giants finally terminate in the sky. This was another short walk of probably less than an hour.:
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Our final walk, following lunch, was "Cascadas Encandidas".
This was the longest trail of the day, almost 3 hours, and involved lots and lots of wooden steps and ladders. Not what Claire was hoping for. This trail also had some of the most spectacular waterfalls we have seen anywhere on our travels. Again, we did not see another person for the entire 3 hours we were on the trail. In addition to amazing waterfalls, bridges, and natural paths, the trail also took us through more alerce woods.. Fabulous. Unfortunately on our way down out of this trail Claire did take a tumble and landed heavily on her ribs. She was completely winded and in a lot of pain. She was able to continue and thankfully our new found friend arrived, as promised, at about 5.30pm and took us home. A great day out that I would recommend to anyone who finds themselves in the area but almost 2 weeks on & Claire´s ribs are still very sore so thread carefully.
Alerce Trees are slow growing conifers with a distribution at altitudes over 600m. The species were declared a National Monument & it´s felling prohibited. It can live up to 4,000 years which makes it one of the longest living tress in the world!
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