Mallin Colorado ecolodge Chilean Patagonia
I remember seeing Lago General Carrera for the first time in 1995. I had found myself in Torres del Paine, southern Chile, at the end of a five week stay with enough money either to fly back to Santiago or to hitchhike and use the money for food. With nothing in my diary for a month, I chose the latter.
Travelling north from Torres del Paine is rather complicated by the fact that Chile doesn’t really have a landmass for the first few hundred kilometres. It’s all archipelago, Pacific ocean and ice. My journey therefore involved travelling out of Chile, looping out to the Atlantic coast of Argentina and back into Chile at the point at which the southerly highway, Carretera Austral, ends, or starts if you are going north.
The Carretera Austral runs the length of northern Patagonia, the very narrow and sparcely populated stretch of Chile which runs south from Puerto Montt until the land peters out. Despite the grand name, it is basically a very long dirt road opened in 1992 to connect the few villages and towns which exist down here.
The road appears to be a spectacular folly as it follows an impossibly complex and beautiful route past mountains, primary forest, glaciers, rivers, lakes and open plains. In fact, the road has a not so subtle geopolitical purpose. It formed part of the attempt by Chile to keep Argentine paws off what, for them, would be a piece of fabulously valuable foothold on the Pacific.
In this part of Chile, the distance from the Argentine border to the waters of the Pacific are so close as to be positivley tempting. The Carretera Austral therefore helped to at least link the sparse population together – a sort of Maginot Line, just much thinner, and thus far, more effective.
Back to the lake in the photos. Right down near the very end of the Carretera Austral, you come to Lago General Carrera. At least that’s what it’s called in Chile – the lake spans the border with Argentina, on their side it’s called Lago Argentino. It was here that I came back into Chile.
I remember it well because the border crossing involved a long detour over a bridge. Being on foot, I decided to take the direct route by wading over the river. It turned out to be quite a deep river. And fast flowing. And cold. Suffice to say, it’s the only time I have arrived in a country dressed only in my underpants.
General Carrera is the second largest lake in South America. It has to be one of the most beautiful. Quite apart from the turquoise waters backed by stunning snow-capped mountains, what makes the lake so striking is that there is just nobody there. It took me two days to walk and hitchike my way along the southern shore as far as Mallin Colorado (pictured).
Mallin Colorado is a family run ‘accommodation complex’ on the western tip of the lake. It’s not a complex, there are only four cabins. They grow their own vegetables and have horses stabled nearby. It’s like a very beautiful home scattered along the slopes of this most stunning lake.
I remember seeing it and thinking it looked exquisite. Since my budget at the time ran to roadside camping and meals of bread and butter (I had to forego the butter after a couple of weeks) it was some years before I was able to actually stay there to discover just how lovely it is.
During that long journey back to Santiago, I have many vivid memories of wonderful people. I also have countless images in my mind of the landscape. Mallin Colorado was the only accommodation which stayed with me.
If you would like to read more about our Chile holidays or find out about staying with the Christensen family at Mallin Colorado, call us on 01273 676712. You can also read more in our guide to Chile.
Enjoying the empty slopes of the friendly Spanish ski resort of Cerler.
Mid-March rolls on and still no sign of the snow at Cerler melting so this image caught my eye today.
I’ll leave it to better skiers than I to say why Cerler is such a good resort for the variety of pistes, accessibility of safe off-piste, vertical drops and altitude (it’s the highest ski resort in the Pyrenees) . I’m a useless skier, Bambi meets the snow, but I do enjoy it. It’s best for everyone involved if I can be given lots of elbow room as I careen down the piste.
I also prefer it if there aren’t too many people at the bottom judging my style and skill, or lack thereof. Or just openly laughing.
Cerler and actually Spanish resorts in general (with the exception of Baqueira-Beret which I don’t like) are wonderfully unpretentious. There are all sorts up there, all on the snow for the love of being out there. That means there’s a home for me on the slopes, which I appreciate.
It helps that the place feels Spanish, in terms of the people, the quality of the food and the prices. I remember a few years ago being up on the slopes, having a coffee and a rest. As I was chatting with some of our clients, someone on the next table looked up, confused. He was a Brit. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
Turns out he was living in Barcelona and came up to Cerler most weekends in the season to ski. This was the first time he had ever met other Brits. He was visibly relieved when we said that we were staying just a week, he obviously wanted to protect his hidden gem.
Find out more about our skiing holidays in the Pyreenes or read our guide to skiing in Cerler
Beautiful evening cloud formations in Torres del Paine
Another in our servies of guest posts from Chile.
Evening sky from the refugio
This is one of the many fabulous skies that we encountered in Patagonia.
The wonderful thing about being in Patagonia in November was the long evenings. It didn’t get dark until around 9.30 pm, which meant that evening meals were often interrupted by the need to rush outside and capture the last sun on the mountains, or the ever changing cloud formations with the soft colours that are seen in them around sunset. These ones became pink and orange shortly after I took the picture, but it was so cold outside that I didn’t stay to capture the changes and went back inside to watch from the comfort of the log fire in the refugio.
The clouds in this photo are lenticular clouds in formation. Lenticular cloud formations are something I have never seen before, and I found them breathtaking .Lenticular clouds are otherwise known as altocumular standing lenticularis.
They form when a current of moist air is forced upwards as it travels over a mountain, causing the moisture to condense and form a cloud. They look like flat pancakes or discs, and have been mistaken for UFO’s.
This image was taken at the refuge next to Lake Pehoe; a large and surprisingly comfortable refuge that is only accessed by boat or on foot. The colour of the glacial water in Lake Pehoe took us totally by surprise and has to be seen to be believed, being a vibrant turquoise.
Read more about our holidays to Chile or see our guide to Chilean Patagonia.