This is our last day at the lodge and the staff at the lodge created a special itinerary for us combining a boat ride and two hikes - Los Carpinteros and I don't remember the other one.
We drove to Cochrane, about 17 Km. A much larger town than we'd seen for awhile, but the average house was not so nice. There were some nice houses on the army base, but the rest were run down. We had two guides with us: Maca and Manuel, I wasn't sure why initially, but it became clear later on. The weather was sunny and beautiful and the hike was about 6.45 miles, but seemed like a million.
The hike started with a boat ride, captained by Don Pedro, a local legend who also ferried the royal family (Prince Andrew?) upon their visit. He had a small open boat and we went from the dock along a beautiful, but very shallow and fast, river. Because the river was so shallow we had to switch boats about half way and walk for about 50 meters to another boat mooring. From here we went into a very large lake and the wind was quite strong. The lake was deep and very blue. This wasn't a normally scheduled hike and there was some question as to where to let us off. There was a decision to let us out on a beach which was supposed to be very beautiful. He ran the boat up on the beach and we hopped out, then some excitement started. Pedro couldn't get the boat back into the water. Poor Manuel had to take off his shoes/socks, get in the icy water several times, and finally push the boat out far enough that he wouldn't get washed back onto the beach. Pedro's boat didn't have reverse and the wind was quite strong. Eventually Pedro got launched and we started our walk back to the starting point.
We decided on this hike because there were supposed to be birds and the elusive local deer to see. The hike went through forest and there was supposed to be one steep place over rock. Reality was a bit different as there were many steep places that went up over very sheer walls and I got really concerned about the place that was supposed to very very steep. Here are some videos.
Looking back on the hike, it was really pretty and unusual. I was just too tired and not in the mood for all the up/down scaling. We saw other people on the hike which, in itself, was unusual. We saw about 10 people which was 10 more than we had seen on any other hike.
On one of the downhills we heard the woodpecker with the red head and got close to a flicker which I was able to get on camera. Also, it seems that Fuschia are native to the area and they were beautiful to see in the wild.
The highlight of the hike was at lunch. We had lunch at the second boat landing and actually saw others who coveted our lunch spot.
Towards the end of our stop one lone huemule showed himself and we were able to watch him move down the hillside. How majestic and graceful he was.
After lunch we finally got to the spot which was supposed to be very steep and difficult - it turned out to be easier than the other ten spots, but was a bit higher and I was very out of breath. I was so grateful to see the van where the guides said we did the hike really fast.
Our last dinner was really tasteful steak with grilled green onions, beets, and 2 green salads. No star gazing that night again, too much light from the full moon.
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