What happens when a place once overlooked by the world starts to be discovered by tourism?
That was the question I was asking when I recently travelled through the Aysen region of Chile.Those that have visited Aysen talk about it with a glint in their eye, like they’re letting you in on the world’s best kept secret. They speak in hushed tones of its boundless mountains, glaciers and lakes.
Swoop carries a deep responsibility to protect all the incredible places we visit and Aysen’s growing popularity is an opportunity to better understand what responsible tourism means to people on the ground.
I started in Coyhaique – the gateway to Aysen – on a trip that would take me south to meet with Swoop’s friends and partners across the region. I wanted to listen to what they had to say about the best approaches for developing tourism in this previously undiscovered corner of Patagonia.
Slow travel
‘One thing that I think is key is the speed at which you’re travelling.’ I was talking to tourism consultant Ian Farmer, who is based in Coyhaique. It was a reference to the saying across Patagonia that those who rush waste time – and often miss out those moments and connections that make travel so worthwhile.
‘Connecting with local people is very positive, both for the tourists and for locals, but it’s not always that easy to do – there’s a language issue and there are other cultural differences that sometimes make it hard,’ he continued. ‘I would come back to the point of trying to travel through all of Patagonia in two weeks. Yes, you can do it and you’ll see a lot of stuff, but you’ll never connect with anybody because you don’t spend enough time with them.’
Few people can boast to have slowed their travels more than Mary Vidal, the co-owner of our partner Senderos Patagonia,who are based on the edge of Cerro Castillo National Park. Mary first came to Chile in 2007, before getting her Masters in sustainable tourism and settling here, where she met her husband Christian. Cristian grew up in Cerro Castillo,ractically, born in the saddle. Christian is one of the best horse guides in the region and together they founded Senderos, specialising in horse riding and trekking in Aysen.
Mary was clear that the travellers she sees from Swoop are eager to use local operators that contribute to the local community and have the lightest of impacts on the environment. According to her, tourists have a ‘huge role’ in the evolution of Aysen and crucially can act as a force multiplier beyond just the impact they have during their immediate visit.
‘If we have tourists that see the importance of the natural areas, the national parks and reserves we have as well as the culture,’ said Mary, ‘then I think the local government and the people also will see that value too.’ Responsible tourism was about all stakeholders recognising the value of what’s on your doorstep
Economics and culture
I heard a similar story from Stefan Varinga when I continued on to Puerto Guadal. We were sitting on the veranda at El Mirador de Guadal, the luxury cabins that he and his wife Carolina built on the shores of Lake General Carrera. It was easy to see why they’d chosen this spot: looking across the water there was nothing to see but a wide sweep of snowy mountains, and beyond them the North Patagonian Ice Field.
Stefan developed the theme further. ‘Tourism will not work if there is not any economic progress,’ he said emphatically, but it would only be a success if that progress was in step with what made Aysen special. ‘We should be responsible for what we have around us and keep the culture as much as possible in the region. If you don’t take care of the culture, you lose an important part of why people like to come here. They don’t come here to see Santiago stuff – they come here to see Patagonia stuff!’
I thought I’d already seen quite a bit of the ‘Patagonia stuff’ in Cerro Castillo, taking to the hiking trails and trying my hand at being a gaucho. It wasn’t until I got to Puerto Guadal that I also realised just how diverse that stuff is. While the mountains were wild, the lake and the cabins felt like a slice of southern Italy, reminding me that Aysen didn’t have to be all about deep adventure.
Returning to nature
Leaving the tranquillity of Stefan’s cabins behind I headed off to explore Patagonia National Park. The park was once one of the largest sheep ranches in Chile, until it was developed by the Tompkins Foundation in 2004, who worked in partnership with local communities to help return it to its wilderness. The reserve was donated to the Chilean state in 2018. Trekkers come here for some of the most spectacular trails in Patagonia and the fantastic birdwatching the Chacabuco Valley. Even the approach to the park has you feeling dwarfed by the epic landscapes, as you drive along the famed Carretera Austral which runs along the park perimeter.
‘Rewilding for me is returning nature to a wild state before the estancias existed,’ explains Luis Ibache, who now works in the national park for Rewilding Chile, the local NGO who have taken up the conservation challenge from Tompkins. ‘It’s a grand name but it’s just returning the ecosystem to what is ‘normal’ and what was here before – not interfering, just removing obstacles that do not belong.’
That involves taking the communities who live around the park along with them. Luis works in part with a project to conserve Darwin’s rhea, South America’s largest flightless bird, who can face threats from people stealing their eggs. It’s a multi-generational effort: working with schools so that children can enjoy and fall in love with the nature on their doorstep, while ensuring that their parents also see the economic benefits of the park and its tourists. In a classic case of poacher-turned-gamekeeper, the area’s last puma hunter now even works as a wildlife guide in the park.
I experienced some of these rewilding efforts firsthand at Explora Patagonia Park. There were no pumas for me this time (everyone working there seemed to have a photo of one taken on their phone), but I did wake each morning to wild guanacos grazing around the property. It was a sign of what can happen when the ranch fences come down.
‘When you see wildlife and you don’t expect it, it wakes you up!’ my guide Laura laughed when we talked about it over breakfast. Laura was another Aysen local and for her this was one of the great joys of the job. ‘It’s like a magical moment. I feel that with the landscape, with the changing of the weather – everything is moving and it’s pretty much alive and beautiful.’ This was a place where rewilding and tourism could work happily hand in hand.
Shared experiences
John Hauff, who specialises in remote adventure travel and expedition trekking from Lago Plomo, underscored that everyone in Aysen had the same open approach, even if the routes to responsible tourism would always depend on the location.
‘We’re not about conserving the land just to put it in a box and not let anybody access it or anybody use it like it’s ‘ours’. What we want is to have something which is able to help drive the local economy. Whatever we can share with folks here and whatever they can share with us – fantastic!’
Before I flew home, I had coffee with Explora’s sustainability manager in Santiago, Juan Marambio. We talked about the challenges of scaling up businesses and the opportunities that working togethers with local communities always bring. But he also reminded me about that Patagonian adage of not rushing. It seemed like a good philosophy for those trying to develop tourism here as well as those coming as visitors.
‘Think of how many times you are going to be here in your life?’ he asked. ‘Once at most or twice or three times if you are very lucky. So if you’re going to be here just one time in your whole life, why hurry? Take your time, be here, be present and enjoy the moment. Feel the smell, listen to the sounds – and see with different eyes.’
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