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One of the most unique towns on the Carretera Austral, Caleta Tortel is a village made entirely of wooden boardwalks.
No cars, no roads, just a maze of walkways and your own two feet.
The town is situated on the Tortel Fjord, surrounded by a forest of cypress trees. Caleta Tortel was originally founded as a logging town, and the town’s boardwalks are constructed of the local Guaitecas cypress tree.
You don’t need to spend a lot of time here, but Tortel is worth exploring for at least an afternoon, and there’s plenty to keep you busy if you’ve a few nights to spare. You won’t find another town like this on the Carreteta Austral.
Here’s everything you need to know about Caleta Tortel, from the best things to do, where to stay and eat, how to get there and around and amenities in town.
About Caleta Tortel
Caleta Tortel is a unique village on the Tortel Fjord, made entirely of wooden boardwalks.
No cars are allowed in the village, just your own two feet!
Stilt houses are perched on the side of a cypress-covered hill next to the coast, with a maze of pathways connecting the residents’ houses, government buildings, and even a library. Not bad for a town of just over 500 people!
The town is situated near the mouth of the mighty Baker River and sits right between the Southern and Northern Patagonian Ice Fields.
Although the Kawesqar Indigenous people have long called the area home, the town was officially established in 1955 as a logging town. Workers came from nearby Chiloe Island to log the local Guaitecas cypress.
🛻 Caleta Tortel was one stop on our road trip along the Carretera Austral in Chilean Patagonia. Don’t forget to browse all our posts about the Carretera Austral, or if you want to skip the multiple tabs and scribbling notes from my blog, I’ve got you covered with my Carretera Austral Road Trip Handbook. A 365-page eBook compiling everything I know about the highway into one beautifully designed place, available offline in your pocket while you’re on the carreterra!
PLANNING YOUR CARRETERA AUSTRAL ROAD TRIP CAN BE CONFUSING… I KNOW, I’VE BEEN THERE!
I spent months planning our Carretera Austral road trip – jumping between tabs, scribbling notes, and trying to remember ferry times. It’s a confusing region, and it’s easy to get it wrong!
That’s why I created the Carretera Austral Road Trip Handbook: all the info you need in one beautifully designed guide, available offline while you’re on the highway. Pair it with our Custom Google Map (500+ pins!), and you’ll have a clear, stress-free plan for the road trip of a lifetime – before you leave and while you’re on the highway.
Caleta Tortel map
How to get to Caleta Tortel
- 🚗 By car: Caleta Tortel is a short side trip off the official Carretera Austral. The road into the town was only completed in 2003. It’s unpaved, like the rest of the highway in this area, but it was in pretty good condition when we visited.
If you’re coming from Villa O’Higgins in the south, you’ll need to take the free ferry over the Mitchell Fjord from Rio Bravo to Puerto Yungay (info and timings in my Carretera Austral ferries guide). From Puerto Yungay, where you disembark the ferry, it’s approximately 1 hour’s drive to Caleta Tortel.
If you’re travelling south, you’ll most likely be coming from Cochrane. This is a particularly scenic stretch of the Carretera Austral and should take 2.5 – 3 hours.
There is a big car park at the entrance to the town where you have to park, as the road ends and it’s boardwalks only!
📍 I’ve pinned lots of miradors and scenic stops en route to Caleta Tortel (from the north or the south!) on my Carretera Austral map
- ⛴️ By boat: if you’re travelling to the region via boat, the TABSA ferry from Puerto Natales to Puerto Yungay has a stop at Caleta Tortel, where foot or bicycle passengers can disembark (no cars are allowed to disembark here, given the town has no roads!).
- 🚌 By bus: it’s possible to get to Caleta Tortel via bus from Cochrane. I believe this route is run by two companies, Buses Aldea and Los Glaciares, and between them, there is at least one bus per day. There is also a bus from Villa O’Higgins to Tortel at least once per week (more in the high season), operated by Buses Silva.
This is the most up-to-date timetable I could find. The bus terminal is at the entrance of town in the car park.
How to get around in Caleta Tortel
When you arrive in Caleta Tortel, you’ll find a lot of cars parked in a big car park and on the side of the road. The road ends, and from that point on, it’s walking on the boardwalks only!
If you’re staying at one of the accommodations in town, it’s ideal if you can condense your luggage down to a backpack and just bring what you need. The boardwalks are steep in parts with lots of stairs, you don’t want to roll around a suitcase!
Where to stay in Caleta Tortel
🏨 ACCOMMODATION
There are a handful of accommodations around Caleta Tortel, of varying quality. Make sure you check reviews thoroughly before you book, there are some stinkers here!
🏕️ CAMPING
If you want to stay at a proper campground with amenities in town, then you’ll need to have a tent and be ready and able to carry your gear via the boardwalks, given that no cars are allowed!
However, most of the campgrounds in town have shocking reviews, with poor and unclean facilities. Camping Delta Baker looks the best and seems to have a very sweet and kind owner who makes up for the amenities, which leave a little to be desired for the price.
If you’ve got a car or the facilities to free camp, there are some gorgeous sites outside of town right along the Baker River. Because we were in our amazing camper from Camper Travel Chile with a power system, hot water, toilet and shower, we were able to comfortably free camp all along the Carretera Austral.
We parked here on a lovely grassy spot right next to the water, with only horses and a cow for neighbours. It was beautiful, safe and peaceful.
Things to do in Caleta Tortel
1. Wander around the boardwalks
Caleta Tortel is a village connected entirely by cypress wood walkways. It’s such a unique place, and strolling around the boardwalks is the best thing to do in town.
There are more than 8 km (5 mi) to wander, and you can easily let yourself get lost as you explore the maze of the village.
There is one principal path that runs along the coast (Pasarela Costanera) and dozens of other side paths that incline up into the forest-clad mountain.
If you’d prefer to follow a map, this trail on AllTrails is the main coastal path through the town.
2. Hike Cerro Vigia
For some excellent views over the town, Cerro Vigia is a small hill looming above Caleta Tortel.
The landscape was entirely unexpected, rocky and scrubby, which felt totally at odds with the misty waterfront you see from the boardwalks below. The bog and endless mud definitely feel right at home, though!
There are two ways you can do this hike.
The first is a short, 2.4 km (1.5 mi) out-and-back trail, starting from the car park in town, going up to the lookout and coming straight back.
Alternatively, you can follow a loop trail where you ascend Cerro Vigia from the entrance of town and take a longer descent down the other side, popping out at the bottom end of town near Playa Ancha and returning to the car park via the boardwalks.
We did the combo loop, but don’t make the same mistake we did by doing it in reverse!
We wanted to eat lunch in town first, so we hiked clockwise, but it was a much longer and slower ascent doing it this way, and we should have started with Cerro Vigia straight from the car park.
If you do the loop, you should be prepared for MUD and lots of it! It was extremely boggy, and we were very glad to have our hiking boots on. Don’t do this in trainers or shoes that will get wet. There are big sections of the trail where there are wooden planks and basic boardwalks, but still a lot of mud.
We were lucky enough to have three sweet doggies accompany us from town the entire way to the top, which was so nice!
3. Isla de los Muertos
One of the most popular activities to do in Caleta Tortel is to take a short boat ride to Isla de los Muertos.
The Island of the Dead has a sad history. The exact story is contested and nobody knows what happened for sure, but a group of workers from a logging company were left to die on the island.
Some people thought the supply ship with their provisions couldn’t make it due to a storm, and they died from scurvy. Other theories include poisoned flour, so their employer didn’t have to pay them.
Either way, it’s a very sad story, and there are 33 wooden cypress crosses on the island commemorating the workers.
There are many signs around town for boat captains who run trips to the island. Waeskar Expediciones and Turismo Katalalixar are both reputable, well-rated companies.
If you want to do this tour, I’d recommend getting in touch in advance as they need a minimum number of passengers to run the trip, and the town can be pretty quiet!
4. Take a tour to Jorge Montt Glacier
If you’ve got multiple days to spend in Caleta Tortel, you can take a boat tour to one of the glaciers near the town. Tortel sits in a privileged position right in the divide between the Southern Patagonian Ice Field and the Northern Patagonian Ice Field.
There are glaciers all over the Carretera Austral, and the reality is you can’t see them all. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time to visit a glacier from Tortel, and chose to do a glacier trekking tour at Glaciar Exploradores instead. However, they look very quiet, remote and rarely visited, so this could be a good choice for a glacier boat tour!
The Jorge Montt Glacier is in the SOUTHERN ice field. The glacier is located in the Bernardo O’Higgins National Park and can be reached by boat, cruising through the fjords.
It’s an all-day tour, 7 – 9 hours, and if the weather is in your favour, you’ll be able to dock and get out of the boat and walk near the glacier.
Turismo Katalalixar is a very well-rated option for glacier tours. Again, if this is something you want to do while in Caleta Tortel, I’d recommend getting in touch in advance as the tour does require minimum numbers to run, and the town is not very busy!
5. Or Steffen Glacier
Alternatively, you can take a tour to a glacier in the NORTHERN ice field.
Steffen Glacier is the southernmost and one of the biggest glaciers in the Campo del Hielo Norte. I believe tours to this glacier are slightly shorter, more like 6 – 8 hours, as you cruise through the Steffen Fjord.
I’d also recommend Turismo Katalalixar for this tour. Coordinate in advance to make sure the tour has minimum numbers.
Where to eat in Caleta Tortel
The best place to eat in Caleta Tortel is the one that is open! Well, when we visited in April at the start of low season, at least. There are a handful of good restaurants around town, but their opening hours are inconsistent and not well-published.
- 🍝 Kuspe Patagonia: a surprisingly gorgeous place on the edge of town that serves up quite high-class dishes for a very reasonable price, considering the remote location. Their menu changes seasonally (sometimes daily) depending on supplies and ingredients available, but they manage to whip up some excellent food! Closes for the off-season.
- 🥙 Baguala Restaurant y Cabaña: sadly this restaurant is closed Mondays, which is when we visited, but it’s an otherwise reliable option that usually stays open year-round. They have quite a decent range of options on the menu and serve up some great dishes – chimichurri pork ribs? Yes please!
- 🥟 El Patagon Tortel: a very small and cosy local spot with tasty empanadas and sopaipillas and a range of typical fish and meat dishes that change daily.
- 🌭 Comercial Hijos de Pioneros: great takeaway food and very cheap compared to other restaurants in town. Think sandwiches, hot dogs, burgers, fries and other snacks. The restaurant is in the living room of the owner’s home, very casual and relaxed, and the family who runs it are so kind and welcoming.
- 🍗 Restaurant El Mirador: tucked away at the far end of town, this place was open when we needed it to be! That wasn’t the only reason we visited, it has great reviews, and the family who runs it is very friendly.
The restaurant is part of their home, and the menu is whatever they have available that day! For us, it was a choice of pork, chicken or fish served with rice or chips and a salad. It’s basic but hearty food, and the servings were HUGE! Prices were reasonable for the location, 17,000 CLP for a main plate.
📍 All of these restaurants are pinned on my Carretera Austral custom map
Things to know before visiting Caleta Tortel
- 🌤️ Best time to visit: like all of Patagonia, the best time to visit Caleta Tortel is generally in the warmer months between October – April. Although you should expect wild weather at any time of the year, this is Patagonia, after all!
Caleta Tortel is a notoriously wet and rainy destination, with a near-constant mist hanging in the air, adding a moody feel to the town. We actually couldn’t believe our luck with a sunny day in April!
- 🗓️ How long to stay: it depends what your plans are in Caleta Tortel. If you plan to visit one of the glaciers (a full-day experience), you’ll want to stay 1 – 2 nights. If you’re just going to explore the town, you can do it in a day. We spent one night camping just outside of town, which was perfect for us.
- ⚠️ Safety: we felt completely safe in Caleta Tortel, as we did everywhere on the Carretera Austral. These tiny towns are incredibly welcoming and people are friendly.
- 🗣️ Language: Spanish is the official language in Chile, and there is barely any English spoken in the remote towns of the Carretera Austral. Chilean Spanish is notoriously hard to understand, so even if you’ve got a decent level of Spanish, be prepared to struggle with their unique vocabulary, fast speaking and mumbling!
- 💰 Currency: the currency in Chile is the Chilean Peso (CLP). While in some more touristy areas of the country, US Dollars are occasionally accepted for tourist activities, this isn’t the case in Caleta Tortel.
- 💧 Can you drink the water: tap water is safe to drink in most parts of Chilean Patagonia, including Caleta Tortel. It’s a good idea to check with your accommodation before you drink, just to be sure.
Amenities in Caleta Tortel
- 🛒 Supermarkets: there are not that many supermarkets in Caleta Tortel. There are a few small minimarts, but I wouldn’t count on doing a big shop here. Minimarket Polita looks to be the biggest. It’s best to come stocked from Cochrane or Villa O’Higgins, as both have much more choice, although not any big supermarket chains.
- 🏧 ATMs: there are no ATMs in Caleta Tortel.
- 💳 Card or cash payments: I’d suggest coming with plenty of cash. Some places do have card machines, but they often don’t work. We had to pay for our lunch in cash as the machine wasn’t booting up!
- ⛽️ Petrol stations: there is a COPEC station at the entrance to town. It only had diesel (1,265 CLP) and 93 (1,501 CLP). These prices will obviously change, but to give you a gauge, it was ever so slightly cheaper than Villa O’Higgins and slightly more expensive than in Cochrane, which makes sense. There was also air for your tyres.
- 📱 Phone service and wifi: there is 3G reception with Movistar in Caleta Tortel. It wasn’t the fastest, but it worked fine enough. I believe Entel also has service and is considered the best provider for this area, however due to new laws that came into effect banning foreigners from registering SIM cards, it’s near impossible to get an Entel SIM as a tourist. We had no problem buying a Movistar one. I think they did some quick thinking to find a workaround, but Entel repeatedly told us in multiple stores that it was not possible.
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Final thoughts: Caleta Tortel
Caleta Tortel is a very unique town, unlike any other on the Carretera Austral.
I must say, I didn’t find the moody ocean vibe as charming as some of the mountain towns we visited along the highway (looking at you, Cochrane!), but Caleta Tortel is definitely worth a visit to experience something different if you’ve got time in your Carretera Austral itinerary.
You don’t need a lot of time here, a day will suffice to see the town, but if you’ve got the equipment to camp, we loved the spot we stayed right on the mighty Rio Baker.
📍 Where to next? If you’re travelling along the Carretera Austral, your next stop will most likely be Cochrane if you’re heading north or the end of the road in Villa O’Higgins if you’re travelling south.
MORE CARRETERA AUSTRAL POSTS
- Villa O’Higgins, Chile Guide: End of the Carretera Austral
- Cochrane, Chile Travel Guide: Patagonia’s New Hiking Hub
- Puerto Rio Tranquilo, Chile Travel Guide: Marble & Ice
- Villa Cerro Castillo, Chile Travel Guide: Hiking & Huemuls
- Coyhaique, Chile Travel Guide: Capital of The Carretera
The Comments
Jane
Thanks for the great post! We don’t have enough time to drive all the way to Villa O’higgins. Is Tortel worth going to in it’s own right if we’re not planning to go to O’Higgins or should we skip Tortel for less driving? I wonder if we will get our glacier fill at the Parque Nacional Laguna San Rafael glacier, meaning it’s not worth going all the way to Tortel to see Jorge Montt Glacier. Thanks for any insights!
Sally Rodrick
JaneHi Jane, Tortel was unique but it wasn’t a huge highlight for us personally. VOH was much better, but if you don’t have time to make it all the way there, I’d skip Tortel and spend more time around Cochrane and Parque Nacional Patagonia – HUGE highlight! You’ll definitely get your fill of glaciers! Enjoy it, it’s such an incredibly remote and wonderful part of the world. Sally x