Coyhaique & the Best Hostel Ever

We spent Easter weekend in Coyhaique, Chile. We hadn´t planned on it, but the country comes to a crawl on this holiday weekend and there were no buses going any where. None the less we had a great time. We arrived very late and were very hungry when we got off the bus Friday. First priority, get food. We were on our way to eat when a lady approached us offering a place to stay. She was very persistent, but our stomachs demanded we mind them before sorting out where to stay for the night. We got directions to her hostel and after eating went to find it. The directions were easy enough to follow and we found ourselves under a sign that read "The best hostel ever. Will make you feel like home only better" It was written in english and hebrew. The sign was there, the house was white as she had said, but the walk way was dark and we weren´t sure any one was home. When we reached the door no one anwsered, but it was open and I passed into an entry way. I knocked on the second door. At this point I was really hoping the sign was indeed for this house. To my relief the women we had met on the street came to the door and showed us our room. It was run down, but comfortable. The next morning we met Yolanda, the owner. A lovely lady and she set about making us breakfast. This turned out to be the best breakfast either of us have had since we left the states. She made eggs! There was homemade jams of several flavors, all fabulous, and homemade Aji. Yolanda told us her life story, kept the food coming and was tickled pink watching Lou eat. She had me take this picture, he has one breakfast sandwich with Aji, cheese, avocado and egg, and another of opposite gusto covered in sweet jams. Since we had the whole weekend we decided to explore the local park. Yolanda let us leave our extra gear at her place and we walk out the door towards the park to hike the loop and camp Saturday night. We got a little turned around trying to find the park entrance but made it into camp just before sunset. The next morning we hiked up to the summit within the park. Nothing grand, but nice views. The tree line ended abruptly before the final slope to the summit where there was even a little snow to hike in. Coyhaique is visible below, with snowcapped Andean peaks surrounding. The ridge was sunny and windless we took advantage and had a healthy lunch break. On the way down Lou tried to take a short cut around a false summit. Since I am not as sure footed as Lou I opted to go the designate route despite having to climb again. Turns out Lou´s shortcut wasn´t short after all, I easily got up and down before he reconnected with the trail to get this pic. No matter Lou still felt a winner, this Mountain goat does enjoy challenges from time to time. .We returned to The Best Hostel Ever that night and enjoyed another fabulous breakfast before getting on the bus Monday morning. We are very excited to try to make Yolanda´s Aji ourselves, she happily offered us the recipe. Without a doubt this is the place to stay if you are even in this corner of the world. We even bought some of Yolanda´s jam to have with our morning bread for the remainder of our travels. It is just as good today as it was the first time we had it. Below I am standing with Yolanda in front of the wood stove she uses to make all her jams (she also has two gas stoves for guests to cook meals on as they please). The jars we are holding are Aji, one of which she gifted to us before leaving. Very Yummy stuff with just about anything.