South on the Carretera Austral

Glacier, Bosque Encantado, Chile.

 After a fantastic few days in Parque Pumalin, even if it rained most of the time, it was time to get serious, it was time to head south into the heart of Patagonia, it was time to hit the Carretera Austral. And after Pudus, an earthquake and a great time hanging with Nick, fishing, and even a little hiking and biking, I was pretty excited, hopefully the terrible taste in mouth left by my Peruvian experience would soon disappear.  We were heading south on the Carretera Austral.

The road stretches almost 1200 km (or 1156 km, 718 miles, depending on which source you consider), from Puerto Montt in the north, all the way to Villa O'Higgins in the south. The road is unpaved most of the way, and sometimes, it is brutal, my van, and thus I, struggled at times. One day we drove for six hours (with stops for photographs of course), and only covered 120 km. You can do that math, it was slow-going much of the time, brutal washboard sections, potholes which peppered the road like bugs on your windshield in summer, and switchbacks, steep uphill sections, mud, construction areas, gravel, a total lack of a shoulder most of the time, and locals driving red, 4WD pickups, politely, but really fast. There were occasionally white pickups, maybe silver, but no blue, or green, definitely no orange, just lots and lots of red pickups. But, while the road is mostly bad, even horrible in stretches, the scenery, well, it can be amazing. It is an incredible stretch of road, we just had to take our time, go slow, and hope that nothing breaks or that we don't slide off some cliff into a river gorge, lake or fjord.

The Carretera Austral was the brain-child of former President Augusto Pinochet. He proposed the massive project, to build a road connecting the Pan-American Highway in Puerto Montt, to the southern coast, and Patagonia, in response to perceived threats from Argentina, he felt a road would allow the army to protect Chilean Patagonia from Argentina. The project started in 1976, and by 1982, you could drive from Chaiten to Coyhaique, with other sections, north to Puerto Montt and the south to Cochrane, being finished soon after. Now, I use the word "finished" to point out only that you can drive the Carretera Austral today, from Puerto Montt (plus three ferry rides early) to Villa O'Higgins, but the road is far from finished. There are paved sections, especially up north, but after Villa Cerra Castillo, it is all gravel and dirt, potholes and washboards, all the way to Villa O'Higgins. This is a tough road to travel, beautiful, even raw and brutal at times, but just an impressive stretch of road. And what is just totally amazing to me, even a life-long biker like me, is the number of people on bicycles, fully-laden with panniers, handlebar bags, front panniers, even BOB trailers, going up and down, on this road, it is just amazing. I will talk about this later, but know, the real studs of the Carretera are those folks on bikes, total studs.

Left El Volcan, and immediately picked up hitchhikers, something which would become the norm, even almost a requirement as I headed south on the Carretarra Austral. This couple, German, very nice older couple (relative to others I would pick up along the road), he was an experienced traveler in Patagonia, she worked for Patagonia, the company, in Europe, and immediately noticed my dedication to the company, pants, nanopuff jacket, hat and fleece nearby in the van. I dropped them off in Chaiten, then headed to another hot springs, Termas El Amarillo, but road was totally iffy, so instead went into Parque Pumalin, again, the southern section, get into a campground early. The weather was nice, rain had finally stopped, so needed to hike or bike, do something, and getting a campsite early is nice. I tried to get to a campsite up near a lagoon, think glacier nearby, but road again was just not something I felt confident about, so ended up at campground Grande, nice, but not El Volcan. I did later meet a great German couple in the 'Big Grasshopper', big Sprinter, modified by pros as a camper, just beautiful inside, and very green on the outside. I biked around, explored, place nice, and very quiet, to bed early, many miles to cover the next day.

I traveled, picked up more hitchhikers, including two Israelis who would end up riding with me three separate times. I also picked up two Chilean hitchhikers on their first visit this far south from Santiago. I tried to get down to Futaleufu, maybe do some whitewater rafting, some of the best whitewater in South America, but road brutal, 40 minutes and 12 km later, I turned around and headed back for Ruta 5, the Carretera Austral. Continued south, through La Junta, Reserva Nacional Lago Rosselot, and eventually into Puyuhuapi, where I ended up at campground La Sirena, along fjord. And guess who had gotten there before me, my two Israeli friends, Sagi and Dean, who I picked up first thing in the morning but dropped off when I turned off for Futaleufu. Funny. So we arranged, next morning we would travel together again, to Ventisquero Colgante, the hanging glacier in Parque Nacional Queulat. Next morning, now the 29th of December, we three took off south, and on the way out of town, picked up three more Israelis, five of them, and me, way too many Israelis in one van. We hiked the 3.3 km up to the Ventisquero Colgante together (well, they jogged up and I trundled along behind), great view, but there were something like 15 people there in addition to me and my Israelis. Back down quickly, and I had already decided to stay at the campground in the Parque, campground right beside the parking lot for the hike to the hanging glacier. I got Sitio 1, great site, while my Israeli friends took off, still heading south. Campsite, great, just wonderful, though 'park ranger' ended up dumping five young Chileans at my site with me, apparently the campground filled up, so time to double-up. They were nice folks, all spoke some English, and all were medical school students (totally different system, they started at the University at 18 years old in the medical field, do 4 years, then residency, etc., very different), and none had any camping experience, I had to let them us my stove to cook dinner as none of them could get their borrowed stove to work. Up early, weather great, off for the Bosque Encantado, 'enchanted forest', for another 3+ km hike, and another glacier, laguna, but this one was just wonderful, much better than Ventisquero Colgante, and the trail, beautiful early, crossed a river later, and views of glacier right from near the edge of the laguna below the glacier, wonderful. And as I pulled into the parking lot for the hike, guess who I saw hitching along the road, my Israeli friends, Sagi and Dean. And after my hike, 3+ hours later, they were still there, so they loaded up for the third time, and we took off again, heading south, on the Carretera Austral. I made it to the biggest town in this part of Chile, Coyhaique the next day, after spending the night in Villa Manihuales. I have yet to see those two Israelis since. 

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