Carretera Austral day 1: Puerto Yungay to Villa O'Higgins

The ferry pulled into Caleta Tortel, a roadless town with boardwalks instead of roads around 640am and I think most of the passengers disembarked there. It was still dark until 8am and it was cold so we did not get up. We arrived at Puerto Yungay, our final stop and our destination at 9am. We had our breakfast before this as usual and then the rush off of the boat by the remaining vehicles and no pedestrians. There was already a short queue of cars lined up for the next ferry from the same port. We made a u turn and lined up. I walked up to the signage which indicated that the slow season started in April and there were only ferries one at 12pm and 4pm. I asked others and they indicated the 10am ferry still was going on. Sure enough, a few minutes later the feet showed up and we backed on. This ferry crossed this arm of the fjord and was free. We were headed south to the last town on the Carretera Austral, the southern road, in Chile. Prior to this road the towns in this area of Chile were isolated from the rest of Chile and were accessible by boat or from towns in Argentina. They started building this road in the 70s and completed it in 1996 but it is still only half paved. The road ends at Villa O'Higgins, 100 km south of Puerto Yungay, and after that there is a pedestrian ferry that can take you to Argentina and two days hiking from El Chalten and Mt Fitz Roy where we were a month ago. Our target today was the southern end of the carretera and then head north.

The scenery was beautiful and there were glaciers on the mountains and waterfalls coursing down filling the lakes and streams connecting the lakes. The fall colors were just starting with red up to and some orange and yellows starting. There was not a lot of traffic and the weather had been wet so the road was not dusty. 

Last night our gray tank was full and I had to off load some of the water into the cassette and I found a spot and dumped the rest. The kids played outside with rocks.

We stopped for lunch and let the kids throw some rocks into a stream at a picnic spot. 

The road was slow and there were some spots with washboard. 

We arrived in town after 3pm and checked around for laundry and only found a campground had same day laundry for $15 a load. We had two loads worth. We dropped off the laundry and would come back in three hours. We dropped by the gas station and filled up gas and water and then went to the tienda to buy some groceries and then went to the end of the road and took a photo.

We went back to town to find pizza but everything was shut down for the season or else didn't have any pizza. There were no more tourists in town and it was a bit sad. When we were leaving Alaska back in 2017 it was the same way and everything was shut down. 

We went to cook in the campground while waiting for laundry and when it was done a few of the clothes were damp so we had to hang them. We ended up camping at the airport parking lot. It was small. The kids roller blades around. It was a lot warmer than the last three nights had been. It was 50 F  instead of 40 F and it was nice.