This is a tour in an apropriate car, probably a pickup truck which has space for two to three passengers plus your guide who drives. Also available for a small family of 2 adults and upto two smaller kids. Pure driving time will be limited to eight hours per day. We will break the drive up, so it does not get too heavy or boring, making breaks at nice places aside the route.

The Carretera Austral Sur has a length of aprox. 550km from Coyhaique to iVilla O'Higgins. It is basically a gravel road over most of its extension. Our trip starts at the regional airport of Balmaceda where we will welcome you. We are driving just a little bit South the first afternoon, to relax in a small but cozy little hostal close to Cerro Castillo. There you can relax from the long flight  you have had. During the following days we will drive down South, have a small horseriding trip on the side, see the beautiful waters of the General Carrera lake, and the famous marble formations on its lakeside shores - which we of course will visit , time and weather permitting. We have another small sidetrip into the Valdivian rainforest of the Exploradores valley, where a huge glacier with the same name waits to get viewed by you.
On we go, passing the small town of Cochrane and driving to a Refugio close to the confluence of the rivers Baker and Ñadis. Here we will spend a day and three nights (two nights if option Villa O'Higgins is chosen), exploring the Salton del Rio Baker.  We drive further down by road to Tortel where we will see first hand how the people there construct their houses and interconnecting ways on stilts. Here, we either return and drive back to our Refugio at the river confluence, or we sleep in Tortel, and continue with our optional leg to Villa O'Higgins (see below).

From the Refugio we will travel to Cochrane the very next day, having a stroll in town and visit the nearby Tamango Nacional Reserve by boat and on foot, which is wellknown for its population of  huemul - a kind of Andean deer. The next morning will see us with an early start, since the way is long. We will leave Chile via Paso Roballos, and visit Argentina. And again you will see another type of Patagonia, the pampa. Reaching the Estancia Telken in the evening, the family Nauta will take care of us. The next day, our trip brings us via the small town of Perito Moreno to a border crossing called Paso Pallavicini, where we enter Chile again. From there, it is but a short tough bit of road  to get to Pto. Ing. Ibañez on the Carrera Lake, and back to Coyhaique. We spend the last day together with a little city tour in the Region's capital, followed by a walk to the closeby Nacional Reserve with the same name. After a nice dinner in one of the many little restaurants in town, you spend a last night in your hotel, before we wish you farewell at the airport in Balmaceda or in Coyhaique, like you prefer.

*Option Villa O'Higgins: For this last part of the Carretera Austral you will need three days more time, bringing the total trip time to 15 days. At day six, when we are in Tortel, we divert from the normal itinerary, spending the night in the village and driving over a wild road to the Fiordo Mitchell the next day, where we take a ferry and continue the last 100km to Villa O'Higgins at a slower pace, giving time for more stops. In Villa O'Higgins we will have a two days / three nights stay, when we can explore the surroundings, by hiking to a glacier view in the Mosco Valley, or- if available ( and at an extra cost)- use a boatride to visit a glacier, which flows right into the nearby O'Higgins lake. You also will have some time to relax in Villa O'Higgins, or maybe go fishing.
We will not go more South now. Returning, we will reach Cochrane, where we will continue with the normal itinerary. 
 
At the following pages you will find:

Summary of the trip

Included in the price

What is NOT included in the price

Personal Equipment

Itinerary, day by day

Map Overview of Region Aysén

Map Overview  tour 07W02 - Area Coyhaique to Rio Ibañez

Map Overview tour 07W02 - Area Rio Murta to Puerto Bertrand

Map Overview tour 07W02 - Area Exploradores Valley

Map Overview tour 07W02 - Area Puerto Bertrand to Laguna Esmeralda

Map Overview tour 07W02 - Area Laguna Esmeralda to Tortel

If you have special questions, want to book, please contact us mentioning  tour code 07W02.