Chile Aysén Kayak Expedition

Aysén Region, Chile · Chile

Extreme7 daysSouth America~£4,000 est.

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Overview

The Aysén fjords are Patagonia with the crowds subtracted and the consequences multiplied: a labyrinth of drowned valleys, hanging glaciers and Valdivian rainforest where the nearest road can be three days' paddle away. The classic line works the channels around Puyuhuapi and the Queulat fjord, where the Ventisquero Colgante hangs its ice over a 200-metre rock lip and meltwater falls free into the sea beside your kayak. Chilean dolphins ride bows, huemul tracks stitch the beaches, and the silence between rain squalls is total. Be honest about the grade: 4,000 mm of rain a year, williwaw gusts that arrive without warning off the icefields, and water cold enough to make a swim a genuine emergency. Drysuits, bombproof self-rescue, satellite comms and ten days of food are the entry ticket, and most parties rightly go guided out of Puyuhuapi or Puerto Cisnes. November to March gives the longest weather windows. Around £4,000 for a supported week — expensive, and worth it for fjords Norway would envy, with nobody else in them.