Chaiten
Parque Nacional Queulot
Carretera Austral Views
Puerto Guadal
Cook Tito whipping up a one-pot wonder for dinner :)
The Carretera Austral is the road that was built by a past leader of Chile (Pinochet) which was completed in the 90´s. The southern part of Chile is not well traversed and before the road was built, most travel to the far south was by plane or through Argentina. While the environment on Argentina´s side is sparce and fairly boring, for that stretch of land, Chile´s same stretch is vastly different on the other side of Andes Mountain chain. It is a phenomenal drive, walk, ride, or whatever you choose to do when you are there.
We started the Carretera from Chaiten. Chaiten is the town which the government has pretty much shut down since the volcano eruption last year. It is sparcely inhabited by some very frustrated Chileans. It seems the government has suspended power, water, and other necessities and is trying to buy land from people at very low costs. The rumor is that they want to gain the land, make necessary changes, and then redistribute it to the wealthier people. We felt good helping the local bus station owner by buying a ticket to head south from Chaiten. We wish them luck in their fight!
We traveled down some amazing dirt road and stopped at National Park Queulot where we hiked up to a huge Glacier. Then we caught a bus to Coyhaique again driving through amazing scenery. We arrived there and followed the lonely planets directions to our campground. Unfortunately they were slightly off and we walked for about an hour before we found it at around 9:30 pm (still daylight though) and had a late dinner. We left Coyhaique a day later headed to Puerto Guadal. That was a beautiful drive past glacier fields and a huge shimmering laguna. We got dropped off 10 km outside of Puerta Guadal and started walking to town, a nice man picked us up in his pickup and drove us the rest of the way there (hitch hiking is a way of life down here, very common, and very safe). We camped lakeside and enjoyed a beautiful patagonian sunrise the next morning. We caught a bus that day for Chile Chico where we would cross into Argentina.
We started the Carretera from Chaiten. Chaiten is the town which the government has pretty much shut down since the volcano eruption last year. It is sparcely inhabited by some very frustrated Chileans. It seems the government has suspended power, water, and other necessities and is trying to buy land from people at very low costs. The rumor is that they want to gain the land, make necessary changes, and then redistribute it to the wealthier people. We felt good helping the local bus station owner by buying a ticket to head south from Chaiten. We wish them luck in their fight!
We traveled down some amazing dirt road and stopped at National Park Queulot where we hiked up to a huge Glacier. Then we caught a bus to Coyhaique again driving through amazing scenery. We arrived there and followed the lonely planets directions to our campground. Unfortunately they were slightly off and we walked for about an hour before we found it at around 9:30 pm (still daylight though) and had a late dinner. We left Coyhaique a day later headed to Puerto Guadal. That was a beautiful drive past glacier fields and a huge shimmering laguna. We got dropped off 10 km outside of Puerta Guadal and started walking to town, a nice man picked us up in his pickup and drove us the rest of the way there (hitch hiking is a way of life down here, very common, and very safe). We camped lakeside and enjoyed a beautiful patagonian sunrise the next morning. We caught a bus that day for Chile Chico where we would cross into Argentina.
2 comments:
The question is how you can turn this experience into a job! Your pictures are AMAZING, stories just as compelling - A guidebook perhaps? Thanks for sharing.
Chris
We wish we knew. We are trying for jobs as we speak.....Internet is our friend right now
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