Caleta Tortel – Chile (Carretera Austral area)

Caleta Tortel is a unique isolated village at the mouth of the Río Baker, built up with boardwalks, footbridges and staircases instead of roads. Leg power brings you around the village, or you can take a water taxi.

The scenery is beautiful; it’s surrounded by milky glacier water and breathtaking hills and mountains. Just strolling around, admiring the place’s extraordinary beauty and observing how the locals live in a special place like this, makes it already well worth going to Caleta Tortel.

No cars here! Explore this pretty village on foot, by boat or by kayak.

Close to the village’s entrance there’s also a trail going up with some magnificent panoramic views of town and the Río Baker’s delta. Jumping on a boat or kayak makes your Tortel experience complete. Just cruising around in the village’s area is marvelous, or join a longer tour to other great spots.

Isla de los Muertos is located in the delta of the Río Baker. In the winter of 1906, the majority of a group of workers died here and nobody knows exactly what happened. The different theories and the mysterious graveyard on this lush green island will let your imagination run wild. Beautiful kayak tours descending the last part of the Río Baker, visiting the Isla de los Muertos, and ending with paddling on the area’s sea water are also possible.

Caleta Tortel is also the point to organize the spectacular boat trip to the Steffen Glacier, located in the southern part of the Laguna San Rafael NP or to the Jorge Montt Glacier, a splendid glacier coming down from the famous Southern Ice Fields. Poor cameras! They’ll be working overtime shooting all those amazing views!

Caleta Tortel has an excellent bus connection with Cochrane! No ATM or petrol station!

Tip: An amazing 2 day ferry route is operating between Caleta Tortel & Puerto Natales (Torres del Paine)! Check the timetable and prices on www.tabsa.cl, route “Puerto Yungay – Puerto Natales”.