When: Year-round; in winter, with warmer clothes and fewer hours of daylight
How hard: Low, except for Laguna Cerro Castillo: eight hours
Coyhaique fits into a long weekend without feeling rushed, because almost everything worth seeing is within an hour and a half's drive. This route assumes you fly into Balmaceda and rent a car right there: you can do it by bus, but Cerro Castillo means an early start.
It works year-round. In winter there are fewer hours of daylight and the road to Castillo can be icy in the morning, so it's best to set out after nine.
From Balmaceda airport to Coyhaique it's 55 km of paved road that are already part of the trip: you cross the Simpson valley with the mountains ahead.
The afternoon leaves time for the pentagonal Plaza de Armas—five sides and ten streets, laid out in the 1930 town plan, when everything was just beginning—and, if you arrive early and have the legs, for hiking up Cerro Mackay: about four or five hours round trip, with the whole city in view. Check access beforehand, since the route crosses private land, and come down while it's still light.
For a meal, downtown Coyhaique is where the region's restaurants are concentrated.
It's about 96 km south on the Carretera Austral to Villa Cerro Castillo, a little over an hour's drive, with viewpoints along the way. Cerro Castillo National Park is Aysén's postcard: a basalt wall with a hanging glacier and a lake at its foot.
The trail to Laguna Cerro Castillo is about 14 km and some eight hours round trip. In season you can hike it on your own with the day pass sold by the association that manages the trails; in winter, only with a CONAF-approved guide, which you need to arrange in advance. It is worth confirming the current rules before you go. If your body or the weather isn't up to it, the massif can also be seen from the village, and nearby is the Paredón de las Manos, with rock paintings.
Head back while it's light: the road is winding and freezes in winter.
Río Simpson National Reserve is 32 km along the road to Puerto Aysén and can be explored in a morning: short trails, the waterfall and a visitor center that does a good job of explaining what this forest is made of.
If your flight leaves late, there's time to go a little farther and see Cascada La Virgen, a waterfall right beside the road, one of those things you can see from the car that still make everyone stop.
Then back to Balmaceda, leaving an hour to spare.
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