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Heading south



Despite its potentially majestic setting by the water, Puerto Montt didn’t impress us.  It’s a town seemingly the size of Albury with the aesthetic appeal of Port Kembla and the traffic congestion of Bangkok.  Our mood wasn’t helped by a wasted few hours trying to book ferries online, though the culprit was surprisingly not the Spanish language website but our Australian bank being unable to confirm our credit card transaction.

 After picking up the car and a short one night and half day stay, we left civilisation behind and set off on the Carretera Austral. The road starts in Puerto Montt and runs south for 1200km of ferries, fjords, glaciers, mountains and forests.  We aren’t doing the whole journey and back – just travelling as far as we feel comfortable.
First impressions on the first ferry crossing 50km south of Puerto Montt were very much of New Zealands fjordland (rather than Norways fjords). 

After a very slow afternoon drive thanks to the ferry and numerous roadworks we arrived at Hornopiren to pitch tents in one of the most scenic campsites imaginable.  

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