2020-06-01_Travel+Leisure

ARGENTINA

C e r r o

Castillo

National

Reserve

Aysén

Queulat

National

Park

Tor tel

Coyhaique

Lake General

Carrera

PACIFIC OCEAN

Chile

80 TRAVEL+LEISURE | JUNE 2020

Santiago’s superb museum of pre-Columbian

art. The markings, he said, were as much as

6,000 years old. Not much is known about

the people who left them, why they did so,

or why they eventually disappeared from the

area. Mena said that, in the hands highest on

the cliff face, he sees the signs of youthful

competition. Perhaps this was a place to play.

NO VISITOR TO Aysén can avoid Lake General

Carrera. At more than 700 square miles,

it blocks the journey south, forcing you on a

detour around its shores. This is a beautiful

inconvenience: the lake’s glacial water is the

unbelievable blue of a child’s crayon drawing,

and the scene is ringed by towering mountains.

The night before we got to the lake, the first

snow of the season had fallen on their summits.

We were staying at Mallín Colorado

Ecolodge, which sits on a hillside high above

the water. It is run by Paula Christensen, whose

family, like the Kossmanns in Puyuhuapi,

vacationed here when she was growing up in

Santiago and eventually decided to build a

hotel in the area. Today there are several

cabins with floor-to-ceiling picture windows

overlooking the lake, and a stylish new lodge

with six rooms and a long veranda. The rooms

are decorated with woven wall hangings

by Christensen’s sister and wooden furniture

made by her brother.

One afternoon Charlie and I drove to Puerto

Río Tranquilo, a town on the shore of General

Carrera, and joined a kayaking trip organized

by one of several adventure companies that

operate from huts along the water. In a tandem

kayak—Charlie up front and me in the back—we

headed toward the area’s most extraordinary

natural phenomenon: a cluster of small marble

islands left behind after giant glaciers carved

the lake out during the last ice age. Over the

millennia, rain and waves have hollowed out

chambers and tunnels, so that these islands

resemble Gothic constructions. We circled the

caves before heading inside. Drifting through

these apertures, with

Scaling the Exploradores Glacier.

(Continued on page 101)

ILLUSTRATION BY MAY PARSEY

TAL0620_F_AysenChile.indd 80 FINAL 4/21/20 8:19 PM