It is a trip of the extrems. Incredible landscapes, never seen vegetation and colors. Wild and untouched, with glaciers and unspoiled rivers and lakes. Because most of the roads are unpaved and sometimes very steep, the trip can be heaven or hell, depending on the weather and your car. Luckily, the weather was on our side and our car is the best - as you know. :-) One local told us, that it was in fact the first sunny week in two month and that the temperatures can easily reach minus 25 degrees celsius in winter.
After crossing the border to Chile at Los Antiguos and leaving the small town Chile Chico behind us, the awesome panorama of the Lago Gerenal Carrera with its uncountable blue shades left us speachless.
Or in Flow's case upside down.
From sleepy Puerto Tranquilo, you can visit by boat the Capilla de Marmol, marble caves carved and polished by the water in thousends of years. (Our enthusiastic guide even said they were 3000 milions years old, but well, that seems a little bit exagerated) The colour of the water made us believe we were in the Caribbean and we even took a little dip ignoring the cold.
The millions of flowers made up for the dusty roads. Sometimes there were fiels of flowers, as far as the eye could see.
In the little villages along the way, the locals like to embellish their gardens with roses. The houses still look the same way as in the times of the pioneers. And this isn't so long ago. Some villages are only 70 years old.
The construction of the carretera, the road to the wild south only started in 1983. Up to this day it is 1182 km long, from Caleta Gonzalo in the north to Villa Higgins in the south. Plans are to prolongue the road until Puerto Natales, but you only need to get a closer look at the map to wonder how this should be possible. Only glaciers and fjords. Good luck with that!
We celebrated the new year in a camping near Coyhaique with Jürgen, Claudia and their kids Marius and Eva. The german family had more or less the same itinery as we did, so we shared some days together.
In Puerto Cisnes, after the worst 20 km of the Carretera, we were recompensated by the most wonderful sunset at the harbour. No, these colours are genuine, no photoshop needed!
As always the small details like that out of time window are the most charming.
Less charming for some are the difficult roads. I say for some because our powerful Moby Dick never failed us and even pulled out a unlucky truck from the ditch. It can be a real asset to have 320 horsepower and 4x4!
After these efforts we relaxed at the hot springs of Puyuhuapi. Aaaah so good!
On the only rainy day, nature offered us to stay under its umbrella.
We pushed as far as Chaitén in the north of the Carretera Austral. Due to the eruption in May 2008 of the volcano only 10 km away, Chaitén was transformed in a ghost town. The population was evacuated and starts slowly moving back, ignoring the thread of the next eruption.
But the town still looks very gloomy and many houses are still burried under the volcanic ash.
We weren't sad to leave Chaitén for Futalefú, world famous amongst kayakers for the mighty river Futalefú. Flow was a very active kajaker some years ago and was thrilled to meet by chance friends from Switzerland, who were there specially to kayak.
We stayed at the campside Cara del Indio, directly by the river, and while Flow went kayaking with his friends, Mireille tried rafting, which she enjoyed very much. The Futalefú has strong currents, much water and therefore huge waves. It was a blast!
Flow could have stayed for a week, but there are so many things left to see! So after a couple of days we crossed the border again, back to Argentina, and you will soon read from us again.
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