Chile Chico

Chile Chico sits on the southern shore of Lago General Carrera, the lake that Argentina calls Lago Buenos Aires, a few kilometres from the border at Los Antiguos. The lake protects it with a microclimate of its own, sunnier and drier than anything around, with orchards and poplars in the middle of the steppe. South of town, the Jeinimeni sector of the Parque Nacional Patagonia has lagoons, painted rock and trails with almost no one on them.

It is mostly a crossing point: one night on the way from Los Antiguos into Chile. From here, a spectacular road follows the lake shore west to Puerto Guadal and Puerto Río Tranquilo, where boats visit the marble caves, and joins the Carretera Austral; a ferry crosses the lake north to Puerto Ibáñez. A day in Jeinimeni adds a walk among landscapes that look more like the Northwest than Patagonia.

November to March is the season, when the border, the ferry and the road along the lake all work normally.