Yelcho Hotel en la Patagonia

Sadly, I have to state that this was our worst experience in Chili. Luckly we only had to stay one night. One of the crucial elements we evaluate when staying abroad is whether our stay is clean and hygienic. And that is exactly what was not the case: dirty pillow, floor, towel, .... It takes away the intention to give a higher score. Lodge mediocre, food mediocre, ... A pity because the potential is there

A timber US-style “lodge” has been erected at a well chosen isolated locatiin on a small bay of Yelcho lake.There is a sand/ gravel beach with a little rip-rap boat harbour and a most photogenic collection of driftwood,flowers,bushes,and mangrove - type roots. Inshore there is a little woodland populated by cabins. We had meals in the lodge,and stayed in on of the cabins more remote from the lodge.Access between these is by a rough track which is hazardous to negotiate on foot at night owing to large holes and missing planks in the middle of a wooden bridge deck. The cabin was very spacious and would once have been of a reasonable standard.This is no longer the case.The bathroom was functionally unacceptable,and on reporting the defects to the staff is was clear that they were very longstanding. There was,for continuous periods up to 30 hours,insufficient water pressure to operate the instantaneous gas hot water heater.This was located outside the building,but still appeared unsafe owing to the unit having a six inch gap between it and the dangling flue pipe. The bathroom was also equipped with a WC cistern ,repaired with a cable tie which failed at night.It now has a repair made by my old piece of string.The bath tap will not direct ANY water into the bath,only to a shower.There is a working gas hob,but no suitable vessels to carry hot water up the tricky openwork steps up to the bath.There is of course no toilet brush or sink plug.Black grout and peeling paper border stuck to the tiles complete the picture. The kitchen has the blessing of good lighting( almost nil elsewhere) ,gas hob and student-type portable oven/ grill.An addition has been a new microwave on high shelf,but this is only for show as the mains cable is too short to reach a socket! The gigantic main lounge area has plenty of windows,tedious to close up with the tatty and stained “Roman” blinds.One of these is on a window within inches of the stovepipe,but is only lightly charred- so far.If you do not like living so dangerously ,there is a powerful gas blown air heater.Despite this combination ,there is no CO detector, fire alarm or fire blanket. The cabin could be of a good standard after a little intelligent repair and upgrading. My friends ,staying in the main lodge rooms,did not experience so many problems.The staff there seem to do their best,but are badly under resourced- they do not have a single map, or other information about walks in the area.There does not even seem to be any paper to write out a menu.It was even difficult to find means for me to write out a defect list for the cabin.There was ONE useful book in the whole place ( a local Flora) ,but it was too big to carry out to identify the plants. This is a brainless waste of a rare location.

Extremely comfortable accommodation with a view over lake. Food in the restaurant is superb. The area is absolutely astounding with differing landscapes and views in all directions, an excellent fishing location with boats and Ghillies available to take you to the best areas.

Second time we stayed there (first Dec 2018), for logistical reasons, but they have not improved anything. I'd say it's gotten worse. The first bad impression we got when we make contact on the front desk with a person who was not wearing his mask (required by law) and instead was wearing a useless face shield and even more useless surgical gloves. The second was when we wanted to ask for our reservation, which they could not find. Having to make more inquiries, the manager was required, who also arrived with his useless face shield. When asked to put on the masks, they did with disgust and after that the care was less than mediocre. The reservation of the cabin was for 2 nights and you can see that these facilities were once luxurious, but time has taken its toll. The bathroom is an example of the lack of maintenance or renewal needs. The rooms were clean but the kitchen had several cookwares that were dirty. The wifi is non-existent in cabins. A claim was made to the front desk, but the answer is that they were having problems with the connection lately: the reality is that the network did not even exist.