We live in Puerto Guadal, so this is our own list of what's worth your time here, from the marble caves and the fossil beds to riding with the gauchos and the glaciers up the valleys.
Puerto Guadal is a village of around 600 people in Chile's Aysén region, on the south shore of Lago General Carrera. A short drive from the village you join the Carretera Austral at El Maitén, and the road east round the lake runs to Chile Chico and on to Argentina. Behind the village the mountains climb towards the Northern Patagonian Icefield, and in front of it is the lake, the biggest in Chile and the second biggest in South America, and that extraordinary turquoise.
Most people drive straight past on their way between Puerto Río Tranquilo and Cochrane. The ones who stop find a proper working village with some of the best riding and walking in Patagonia on its doorstep, and far fewer people than the better-known spots up the road.
This is what Guadal does best. The estancias around the village still work cattle on horseback, and riding out with the gauchos takes you across rivers, through lenga forest and up to lookouts over the lake that you simply can't reach any other way. There are gentle rides for beginners and long days in the saddle for confident riders.
For the real thing, head out for anything from two to nine days with pack horses, camping in the summer pastures where the gauchos take the cattle each year. Routes go to places like Pampa del Zorro and the high lagoons, with no roads and nobody else about.
Everyone has heard of the Capillas de Mármol, the famous marble chapels near Puerto Río Tranquilo, about 45 minutes' drive from Guadal. Fewer people know there are marble caves right here too, a few kilometres from the village, where the waves have carved the rock into tunnels and arches. Getting into them depends on the lake level and the wind, so it's one to plan with someone who knows the water.
High in the hills above Guadal are beds of marine fossils, shells and all, left from when this land sat under the sea. You can walk or ride up, and the views across the lake to the icefield on the way are worth the climb alone. Further along the lake there are the petrified bones of the Chilesaurus, a dinosaur first found in this region.
The huemul is the rare southern Andean deer on Chile's coat of arms, and there are very few left. Some of the land around Guadal is part of the effort to protect them, and with a good guide you can follow their tracks through the forest and, if you're lucky, see one.
The Río Baker is the only river that drains Lago General Carrera, and by volume it's the biggest river in Chile. About an hour from Guadal is the Confluencia, where the milky Río Nef crashes into the Baker's blue water. The Baker is also one of the best fly fishing rivers in the country, for trout and salmon.
The Chacabuco valley, now part of Patagonia National Park, is about an hour and a half away. It was a huge sheep estancia until it was bought and rewilded, and today it's one of the best places in Patagonia to see guanacos, condors and, with patience, pumas. The wilder Jeinimeni sector, with its caves and painted valleys, is further east towards Chile Chico.
North of Guadal, valleys run west off the Carretera Austral towards the Northern Patagonian Icefield. The walk up the Río Leones valley to the lake and glacier at its head is one of the great days out in Aysén, and the Exploradores valley near Puerto Río Tranquilo leads to another glacier you can walk on with a guide. From the end of the Exploradores road, boats head out through the channels to Laguna San Rafael, where the San Rafael glacier breaks off into the water in a wall of blue ice.
Guadal has a small Saturday market with local honey, jams and crafts, and every February the village puts on its fiesta, with horse racing and traditional games that are well worth planning a trip around. And if you're staying on an estancia, a day working the cattle with the gauchos followed by a proper asado is hard to beat.
Give it at least four days. It takes a day to get here and a day to get back, and you'll want time to get properly into the hills. A week lets you ride, get out on the lake and see the national park without rushing.
The season runs from roughly November to April. December to March is best for the high country and nights out on horseback. January and February are the busiest months, and autumn in March and April turns the lenga forests red and gold.
Fly into Balmaceda (BBA) from Santiago or Puerto Montt. From there it's about five hours' drive south along the Carretera Austral, through Cerro Castillo and Puerto Río Tranquilo. When you travel with us, we meet you at the airport.
There are lodges and cabins in and around the village, and working estancias on the lake shore where everything is included. For a big group, The House gives you a whole estancia to yourselves.
Most of the best of Guadal isn't bookable online, and much of it is run by people who don't advertise at all. We live here, we know who's good, and we'll put your days together, book it all in English and meet you at the airport.
