In Deserto: Made it to Melimoyu

It’s raining here in Melimoyu, but the weather does little to diminish the beauty of this landscape. Rather, the coast of Chile is one of those places where the soft light of a cloudy day creates beauty not in contrast but in finer shades of blue, green, and grey.

I arrived with Sebástian, the manager of the Melimoyu property, yesterday on the ferry. We departed Puerto Chacabuco in the morning and traveled through the network of channels that characterizes the coast of southern Chile, passing through sun, clouds, and rain on our 15-hour journey north. At 1 am we entered Melimoyu bay, where a small boat with an outboard motor greeted us to take us to land, as the bay is too shallow for the ferry to come any closer to shore. It was a surreal experience, stepping out of a door in the hull of the ferry at water level and into a small motorboat, then taking off into darkness and watching the lights of the ferry shrink in the distance.

The town of Melimoyu is tiny, with maybe 15 houses. Patagonia Sur’s property is a short boat ride away, with guest and staff houses overlooking the bay and several thousand acres of lush temperate rain forest inland, bordering a glacier and a volcano at the far end. I did a little exploring today with Sebástian and look forward to doing more over the next few days.

Pictures from the ferry, and one from the property, are below.