Check-Ins

Hidden gem. Agree with the previous comments. The staff here are doing a great job. Remote and beautiful campsite. Clean toilet and water available. Wind protection for tents and vehicles. It’s no more than 30 minutes from Ruta 40. Ruta 41, connecting with Chilean X83 and the border crossing at Paso Roballos should also not be missed. This is one of the most scenic roads in South America. Vastly different on each side of the border. If your vehicle can handle the bottom half of Carretera Austral and the gravel parts of Ruta 40, this road is no worse (better conditions we think).

Super friendly staff in this remote border crossing. Takes a little longer because the whole process is done “hard copy” (computer links). Same restriction as for other Chile/Argentina crossings. But best of all is the route you will take to get here - Argentina 41 / Chile X83. In our opinion one of the best drives in Patagonia. Road conditions were better than the southern Carretera Austral when we drove it in Jan 23.

Same as our comments for the Argentina side of the border - super friendly staff in this remote border crossing. Takes a little longer because the whole process is done “hard copy” (no computer links). Same restriction as for other Chile/Argentina crossings. But best of all is the route you will take to get here - Argentina 41 / Chile X83. In our opinion one of the best drives in Patagonia. Road conditions were better than the southern Carretera Austral when we drove it in Jan 23. And, yes, it does “officially” close at 2000.

A lot of flat places to park the car by the gravel road that leads here and has no traffic. Multiple spots with build windshelter for tents.
Great view of the climbing spots and mountains around!
When we were here it was windy during the day, but it stops when the sun goes down. The river is very close, but it was dry - probably is whole summer. No traffic noise from the main road.
The other added campground (camping of the valle de los condores climbing spot) is not accessible by car, only used for tents. It says its forbidden to go there with a car in the climbing guide and rocks are placed in the middle of the road to prevent access by car. We spend our first night at the parking close to the road, as the road further down looked bad in the night, but it gets ok after the first descent from the upper parking. You need high clearance, 4x4 would be needed after rain.

Agree with some of the previous comments. Ruta41 is a great route. It’s a stunning drive, which you can take all the way up to Los Antiguos, or cross the border at Paso Roballos and connect with Chile X83. The R41/X83 drive is one of the best we’ve done in Patagonia, and vastly different on each side of the border. Road conditions were better than the southern Carretera Austral when we drove it in Jan 23. Also, the location of this marker is accurate, but the base map for iOverlander indicates a more significant road - the 103 - closer to Baja Caracoles, which, if coming from the south, looks like a more obvious choice. We believe this road has been closed. We couldn’t find it.

Cheapest is now 8000 for a private room with shared bathroom. if not 10k rooms are available and small increments upwards. good pizza for change from local cuisine.

4000Ars for 2 people and a big rigs per night.
Camping very conveniant because it is very close to the main street.
Wifi only close to sanitary block or administration, but good telephone cover.
Best sanitary block, I have seen in South America, hot water, heated sanitary and clean.
The owner is friendly.

El lugar es atendido por Edvaldo, es una persona muy amable. El lugar cuenta con ducha caliente, agua potable, corriente eléctrica, barbacoa. Es posible ir caminando hasta la playa y ver el atardecer incluso desde el campamento. El precio por persona son 30 Es y por vehículo 15 Rs por noche. Nosotros fuimos en motorhome. Recomendamos 100%
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The place is run by Edvaldo, he is a very kind person. The place has a hot shower, drinking water, electricity, barbecue. It is possible to walk to the beach and watch the sunset even from the camp. The price per person is 30 Es and per vehicle 15 Rs per night. We went in a motorhome. We recommend 100%

Gas station that works 24hrs. There’s water tap in the back of Oxxo supermarket and lot’s of restaurants around including a Häagen-Dazs at another side of the road.
The workers friendly requested us to park to sleep in front of the gas station, precisely in front of oxxo market.
Free. Felt safe and not as noisy as we were expecting (during the day the road is very busy)

formal marina and established campground. most of the services. motorhomes are not seen here but no one told us to leave.

Still a nice place to eat. Really good butter chicken!

Bakery in the Padre Pio Capuchine Mission in Lusangazi which is baking German style sourdough bread, pretzels, buns and sweet things, see picture and pricelist.
Only available on Thursdays and Fridays when the German baker Christian (+265 880 00 40 12 ) is there. You can also order the goodies and pick it up on Saturday at his house near the Chinteche Inn.

Almost all as described from previous traveler except for the fish. For a bad windshield chip price is now 60 bz dollars due to a general price raise but still well below other we contacted. Big Joe is really helpful and fast. You can WA him at +501 631-0492 for checking the price of your damage in advance and appointment.

This is a parking lot next to Thompson. The police allowed us to spend the night because it is forbiden. Extremly noisy on weekends specially at night. We used it becaus
e everything else was crawded. Maybe on low season might be a nice place.

Ferry goed Saturday evening at 20h. Although full we were able to go because we had a truck camper and we could sleep in it. We paid for the camper $167.000 and $133.000 pp (about). We were able to pay the truck part in cash and the rest with Cc when we got to Tortel.
Beautiful ride! Recommended!! We had some rain, some wind and lots of sunshine in the pm.. food is ok (you get 3 meals a day). About 43hrs float. Left on time

Amazing pizza!! Really tasty. And the shrimp empanadas also delicious 😍

Fabulous doggy daycare. Very hands on. 14000 CLP per day. Great backyard, dogs also go on daily walks to other parks. Dogs sleep on their own beds. No crates provided. Must provide your own dog food.

We wanted to find a nice place between Rio Pacuare rafting and Puerto Viejo, and found this place, however we decided not to stay. Unfortunately, there is no shower here and they wanted to charge 10.000colones/person. There are lot of dogs, chickens and a tilapia farm here.

Great little coffee place with outdoor seating. Some very helpful English speaking staff. Coffee is not the cheapest (35p for small, 40 for med, 45 for large), but it's muy Rico! Cool that this dumpy little border town has a place making Americanos and fancy coffees if you're looking for that type of thing.

REALLY EXCELLENT WORK. These kind gentlemen worked on redoing our entire front end all day long (6 hours!) for what an American mechanic would charge by the hour. We paid them an extra 500 pesos for their work. While they were working they noticed we needed other parts replaced (they showed them to us, it was legit), and they happily did it for us and provided the parts for a small fee. Jose was INCREDIBLE. Buy your parts in Douglas and get your work done here.

Beautiful spot for a nice quiet camp. It is a Friday night so there were many locals camping along the road but there is so much space that you can have a private spot very easily. Lots of birds and rabbits around. The canyon is beautiful.
The gate to the park didn't open on Sat morning though. There are no clear hours when it will open.

Nice, central place to stay in Puerto Varas. We put up our tent at the end beach, next to the parking lot, for one night. There was some music from across the river until 2, but overall is was quiet. Around midnight the police came to tell us it was not allowed to stay on the beach, but since it was late we decided to stay anyways and didn’t hear anything else about it. If you come with a tent, maybe walk a little bit further into the bushes so you’re not in plain sight.

Quiet neighborhood with residential parking. 8 min to rincon. Good camp spot for the night in a van. There’s an apartment complex near by - residents park their cars here and walk to apt complex. Safe a bit noisy from the traffic but better than the Main Street.

Packed campground. Don't go by the pictures here, at least in January this place was several rows of tightly packed long term setups, semi-permanent tents around RVs, etc. We found space to pitch a tent for a night at the edge, close to the main road, which is a literal 60 seconds walk to the beach.

Vibe was great. Tons of people with kite surfing equipment, seemingly making the best out of their time. Felt safe.

I noticed water hookups. The bathrooms were seriously spotless. I saw a person cleaning them in the evening, and then again cleaning them in the morning. Took a shower in the morning and it was hot.. not just warm, hot as in having to also open the cold side. Someone did ask me "is the water hot today" which may indicate available hot water may not always be the case.

LTE-wise (Google Fi for us, Telcel towers) it was ok, but not remote working quality. Probably enough to text and to get some picture through or do some light browsing. High ping in the 200s ms. Kept switching me back to 3G and H+, which indicates tower over subscription.

I did not deploy Starlink but saw many dishes on site. There are some tall palm trees close to the edge where the bathrooms are, which is what seems to have more space during the high season, so you may get some obstructions depending on where you camp.

Town seems great, safe, touristy, apparently going through explosive growth as per some of my conversations with locals. Expect to pay a bit more for everything, from beers to food, especially if coming from La Paz prices. Local craft beer available. Some good roadside food options on the way to the next town over (North).

(we try to report on internet access for people trying to work off grid; IG: @pampas.overland)

When we bypassed this place in 2018, it was just a dust bowl. Still dusty but much better now. Close to downtown to allow walking. Paid $300 for a full service site with hot showers included. No wifi but full bars of ATT. Nice place.

Good spot to pass one night. It's close to the road but hidden. It's a huge open space. Nobody came, quiet at night. You just heard some cars passing by.

nice place to relax.
the road from the highway is narrow, steep and covered with low brunches. our lance camper barely made it.

Entrance still free. Plan to be there before 5pm, when the gates of the park are closed. We arrived at 4:50pm and the attendant said the park was closing for the day.

Spent one night here. Car park is up front beat the highway, so lots of noise and the trucks drive through it all the time despite sign forbidding it.

Go all the way in and besides the child park in the truck parking area, there's a bare ground largish spot with a few trees, much less noise and much safer.

It's a hotel in the middle of Songea, they let us stay in the car (we have a campervan) for 10000 (4eur). We had access to WiFi and to a toilet (not very good, but OK.)