Puerto Tranquilo is a small town in the Chilean Patagonia with a lot of interest to it. It is a town that lives mainly of tourism but they don't get as much as places like Torres del Paine or Punta Arenas do.
There are basically three main attractions in Tranquilo: the marble caves, the Exploradores glacier and San Rafael lagoon. And the accommodation is mainly camping or wooden cabins, you might find some hostel rooms but there aren't any big hotels.
We stayed at the camping Bellavista, right at the end of the town, past the football field. It costs 4.000 pesos per person, per night and you have wifi, kitchen, common areas and hot showers. We brought our own food from Coyhaique to cook, toiletries (including toilet roll) and a bunch of cash. The town is very basic so ATMs, money exchange and luxuries as such are out of reach. You can only buy bread at the few bakeries that there are and they are not always open, which sometimes means going around the whole town (about 20 minutes walking) to find some flat round bread, which seems to be the only type they sell.
Up until here you're probably thinking the town is impossible and boring, however it is quite pretty, surrounded by mountains and with a turquoise lake right at the centre of town.
We arrived at around 1pm on the 22nd, set our tent and took pictures around the town while we waited for our friend that we met on the journey from Los Antiguos to Coyhaique to arrive on a later bus from there. After we set up Eunice's tent we then walked 10 minutes and tried to get a tour to the marble caves, the tours are cheaper if you go in a group. Luckily, there was a French girl trying to get a group for the tour too, and in the end we got 9 people in the group, which reduced the cost to only 6.000 pesos per person.
It seemed as soon as we got in the boat it decided to start raining but we proceeded to travel 15 minutes until we reached the caves.
The caves, as the name indicates, are made of marble rock and they show beautiful colours of yellow, brown, grey and blue carved by the wind and the water, it almost looked like a fairytale.
As we were moving we saw more and more of these caves, we went into some bigger ones and once, the guide turned the engine off and couldn't get it running again, we were thinking about the cold and wet night on that boat when suddenly the engine worked! We managed to see some last caves and went back.
The way back was worse than the way in, we got splashed with the water and rain and what looked like a little bit of wet hail and we arrived soaked and cold, so we decided to walk back and dry off.
That night we met a Greek couple that have been travelling for 2 years on a motorcycle! Have a look at their blog to know more about it! Worldvespa.wordpress.com
The next day we didn't go to the glacier Exploradores because the cheapest tour we found was 45.000 pesos each, and even though food, equipment, tour guide and entry are included, we still skipped it and decided to do something by ourselves. So we made some sandwiches, we got some fruit, chocolate and water and walked to the centre, from there we took the unpaved road that leads to the Glacier and Lagoon and started walking. Just as we were walking a car went past and we successfully hitchhiked for the first time.
The guy that picked us up was Iram, a tour guide for the glacier that showed us everything of interest along the way, like the lake Tranquilo we were originally planning to see, he stopped several times to let us take pictures and explained us about the landscape. He was stopping at KM21 and two kms further, he told us there was a waterfall, and he didn't only tell us this, he also took us there, going past his house just to help us out.
The waterfall wasn't very big but you could feel the spray from the distance, the water was clear and good to drink and even though you had to go past several obstacles to get close, Oli did and took some pictures.
The three of us (including Eunice) sat to have lunch with the amazing view of the waterfall, had some of its water and started making our way back walking.
On the way back we walked for 5 kilometers without seeing a single car, but 2 kms later we got picked up and taken back to the town, again by people who work with tourists, this time at the San Rafael lagoon. As a payment we got asked to promote their tour. It costs 100.000 pesos with all equipment, transport, food and guide included. (www.turismolosarrayanes.com)
We enjoyed Tranquilo not only for its attractions but also because of the beauty of the place and the kindness of the people. Totally worth a visit if you're around.
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