Carretera Day 2: Parque Nacional Queulat to Villa Amengual

After staying up a bit later than usual, we sleep in while raindrops sprinkle on the window above our heads. We finally get up and make breakfast and the clouds begin to clear just as we finish our coffee.

We hang around camp for a while making friends with another Californian heading north by motorbike and by mid-afternoon finally motivate to see the glacier.

The hike up to the glacier takes us through temperate rainforest where we hear frogs, see hummingbirds, and are surrounded by ferns, moss and other water loving plants. A dinosaur sighting in these surroundings wouldn’t be entirely surprising. About an hour and a half brings us to a closer viewpoint to observe the glacier, sparkling blue in the sun.

After the hike we return to camp and decide to drive a bit further before camping for the night. The next portion of road transitions to pavement as it takes us through more rainforest and into a valley where the road hugs a huge cliff towering above us, carved out by glaciers that have since melted. We follow Río Cisnes as it grows more and more massive, and just after dark we make it to a campground on a lake south of Villa Amengual. Exhausted, we go to sleep immediately.