Balmaceda

Balmaceda is a small town in the Aysén region, which welcomes the area of ​​La Pampa. It has just 500 inhabitants, who began to arrive around the year 1910, and it is the first town of Aysén, in the nearest town to Argentina.
To be populated it was decided to draw a thousand sites in the area, where a school and a plaza were built. It was then when the Chilean government gave him the quality of town, in 1928, and in 1945 the Chilean Air Force installed an airfield on the outskirts of the city, becoming the only international airport in the entire region. With the construction of the highway to Coyhaique the airport lived years of decline, but managed to recover.
In Balmaceda there is also the Huemules border crossing, which connects Chile with Argentina, and which is located at the aerodrome. It is open all year round, but the hours depend on the weather conditions.
It is a very small city, which houses families that are dedicated to livestock and to cultivate the land. In a day you can go full, with the airport and customs in front of it. The number of empty sites in the city is striking, places that were never occupied or that were abandoned after being a victim of fires.
It is the gateway to other attractions, such as Cochrane and Coyhaique.

Attractions
It is the entrance to the pampa, which continues on the Argentine side, and which you see immediately after passing through the Customs at your airport. It is a small town, with simple constructions and natural beauty.

Activities
Stroll through a quiet town, seeing how it survives in such a remote place. From here, you can travel to other attractions, by car or on foot, such as Lake Blanco, Coyhaique, El Fraile Ski Center, among others.

Information

Location
55 kms southeast of Coyhaique, in the Aysén region.

How to get
You can take a flight from Santiago, which makes a stop in Puerto Montt, and it takes only three hours to reach the Balmaceda aerodrome. By land, the Carretera Austral is crossed from Chaiten or the Futaleuf pass.

When to go
All year.

Weather
The Andes no longer stop the strong winds in this area. Coyhaique is in an intermediate zone, where rainfall reaches 950mm., And Balmaceda is part of the steppe zone, with 500mm.

Services
Airport, border crossing.

Surroundings
Paso Huemules, Vista Hermosa, Simpson Valley, La Paloma Lake, Villa Cerro Castillo, El Blanco, Villa Frei, Coyhaique.