{"id":11709,"date":"2017-01-20T09:00:18","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T17:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=11709"},"modified":"2017-05-12T10:29:33","modified_gmt":"2017-05-12T17:29:33","slug":"finding-destination-within-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2017\/01\/20\/finding-destination-within-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding the Destination within the Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was no way around it; we were stranded, and the outlook was grim. Chris dropped his bag and paddle on the shoulder of the road, resigning to simply sit down and wait. We didn\u2019t talk, but we were both thinking the same thing: we had spent four days of hard travel to get to the Futaleuf\u00fa and we were still several hours from our destination\u2014if we were lucky enough to get picked up as hitchhikers. On top of that, we had a flight to catch out of Santiago in just a few days, which didn\u2019t leave much time for getting to Futa, let alone experiencing much of it before we had to turn around and head back north.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I dropped my bag, too, and sat down in the silence. The scenery was breathtaking; we were nearing the heart of Patagonia, and the snow-capped mountains around us betrayed the heat we felt in the valley. The countryside was impeccable, glittering with windblown grass and the echoes of ibis overhead.<\/p>\n

Our trip south from Pucon was fraught with challenges from the gate. The overnight ferry from the port city Puerto Montt was booked for days by the time we arrived, leaving us stuck in the fishing town with no planned accommodations. The ferry itself, from Puerto Montt to Chaiten, would not turn out to be comfortable travel. Small, hard plastic seats formed cramped rows in a large, crowded holding bay for hundreds of passengers. Sleeping was impossible, facilities were limited, and we had made the rookie mistake of leaving items of comfort, like additional jackets and food, in our bags checked in cargo.<\/p>\n