Booking ferries from Puerto Montt and Chiloé to La Carretera Austral

Camping on the country side

Back in Chile and making my way down to Puerto Montt, by me the last outpost before the gigantic outstretch of La Patagonia with only small towns and villages. I took the route from Entre Río down toward lake Llanquihue through a sunny and picturesque countryside with cows, flowering fields and volcanoes in the distance.

After setting up camp in the countryside, I continued toward Puerto Montt and later Chiloé. On the way I concouled a toursim office about the ferries to Chiloé and La Carretera Austral (the latter the main road that goes through the Chilean Patagonia). I was alarmed when she told me they only run once a week, and that day was the next day.

Ferry to Chiloé

Not completely confident in the information she gave me, I set a higher pace to reach the Naviera Austral office in Puerto Montt to see what is actually going on. Puerto Montt is not a super large port, and fairly easy to navigate. The office (Puerto Montt, Angelmo 1673) I was looking for was on right next to the harbour, and I had, although limited, numerous options of going from Chiloé to Chaiten where I´d continue on the Carretera Austral.
At the end, I spent just two days on Chiloé, which unfortunately was not enough to experience the magic everyone talks about. - I´ll be back!

So, unless you take sufficient time to travel through Chiloé, I´d find it more interesting to take La Carretera Austral from Puerto Montt to Hornopirén, where you can take a ferry (+10km land + short ferry) to Caleta Gonzalo, and from there continue some 50km to Chaiten. According to wikitravel the whole thing costs ~5,000 Chilean pesos. 

Some basic info about La Carretera Austral

http://wikitravel.org/en/Carretera_Austral

Map of Ferry connections to Chaiten

http://www.navieraustral.cl/rutas/ruta-chaiten/