Lodge: History

Puyuhuapi: Patagonia Hotels, Lodge

Puyuhuapi Lodge & Spa is located 209 km south of Chaitén, 215 kilometers north of Coyhaique, on the edge of Dorita Bay and approximately 30 minutes by boat to the town of Puyuhuapi. It is only possible to arrive by sea, crossing the Puyuhuapi channel with a journey of around 10 minutes, as there is no land access.

Puyuhuapi, an indigenous term that refers to the “place of puye fish” is surrounded by three waters: saltwater from the sea, freshwater from the mountains, and hot thermal waters with great therapeutic qualities, strong levels of mineralization and temperatures reaching 85ºC. Subterranean outcrops emerge from the Melimoyu volcano, which has a height of 2440 meters, is active, and is located south of the mouth of the river Palena in front of Melinka Island.

It was businessman Eberhard Kossmann, president of the shipyard Astilleros Asenav in Valdivia who, captured by the magic of Bahía Dorita, wanted to create a place that would combine modernity and comfort within the wildness of Chilean Patagonia. In 1986, sailing together with his family through the fjords from Puerto Montt towards the south, Eberhard passed through for the first time, finding it an ideal harbor in which to anchor and stock up with supplies of fresh water. At this time, there was only one modest lodging house that received very few visitors, which had been built by pioneer Ernesto Hein from Coyhaique. In this era, the lodging house was property of a creditor bank, from which it had been handed over to some Canadian businessmen who attracted North American tourists to go fly-fishing in the mountain lakes, travelling only by seaplane.

The business visionary was struck by the beauty of the place, where the Termas de Puyuhuapi (Puyuhuapi Hot Springs) were located, for its magnetism and its protected bay. Three years later, on a subsequent journey, he was unexpectedly presented with an offer to buy the property. The extraordinary geographic location of Bahía Dorita seduced him: protected, in a beautiful southern fjord, with an awesome view of the mountain range and virgin forest of Chilean Patagonia, and what’s more enriched by the presence of thermal springs. Without any previous experience in the area of tourism, he was far from daunted by the isolation, the climate and the building complexities, and instead considered that these conditions constituted a personal challenge that he would duly take on with the project of the lodging house.

That is how he saw Puyuhuapi Lodge & Spa; as a cozy and quality ecolodge that allows you to enjoy the thermal open air pools as well as another covered pool at sea level. It started with the premise that nothing of this sort existed in the rest of the world and that the isolation of this southern region represented a unique opportunity for disconnection from urban routine, and a connection with nature in its original state. It is an opportunity to be relished and enjoyed.