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Outflow of Lago General Carrera and headwaters of Rio Baker
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The Carretera Austral is southern Chile's Route 7, which took over 20 years to build. The ¨highway¨ runs about 1,240 kilometers from Puerto Montt to Villa O'Higgins through rural Patagonia.This dusty and bumpy gravel road is coveted by cyclists, motorbikers and road trippers for its beauty and variety of landscapes. We ended up going from Cochrane to Chaiten along this dirt road...rarely without our jaws dropped.
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When you miss the mini-bus, hitching gives a back seat and killer view, albeit windy:
The Rio Baker and some of the endless miles of rosehips |
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| We got dropped off in Rio Tranquilo to check out the marble caves on the Lago General Carrera |
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| The caves are created by wave action, but up close the marble literally looks chiseled. |
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| Lago General Carrera |
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| 3 hours north, Reserva Nacional Cerro Castillo (Castle, as the mt depicts) and nearing the end of the dry range lands before crossing out of the rain shadow dynamics- one of the most fascinating parts of traversing Patagonia. |
The farmlands outside of Coyhaique, with much influence from German settlers of this area.
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Coyhaique, a big cow town, and our biggest city (a whopping 50,000 ppl) since leaving
La Paz, Bolivia |
Bus compadres, present and future ranchers (super nice dad!)
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| Puyuhuapi Fjord. Chile at its most sublime. |
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| The fisheries here have virtually all been replaced by Atlantic salmon aquaculture. Geoignorami |
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| The village of Puyuhuapi from the mirador. Every other house had some kind of tourist accommodation. Again we thanked the stars for visiting during the low season. |
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| Puyuhuapi is on the outskirts of Parque Nacional Queulat, a magical temperate jungle with snow capped peaks, hanging glaciers, bamboo and monster ferns |
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| Prehistoric hide and seek! |
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| Bosque Encantado (Enchanted Forest) was a gorgeous walk through the forest and up to a glacier |
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| MOSS! and our new friend Maria (from Valencia, Spain). Maria is a founding member of Espacio Crisol, an inspiring collective providing a meeting space and tools for social change. |
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| Into the mystic |
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| Puyuhuapi is also known for its hand made rugs and stellar porter beer (ze Germans know best!) |
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| We ended up staying 3 nights in this lovely little cabin, all woodwork done by the owner. |
From Puyuhuapi, we headed north to Chaiten. The town was evacuated in May 2008 when the Chaiten volcano erupted creating a plume of ash and sulphurous steam that rose to 19 miles (31 km), from which ashfall drifted across Patagonia, and over to the Atlantic Ocean. A week after the eruption, the town was completely flooded after a lahar (volcanic mudflow) caused the banks of the Blanco River to overflow. In 2008, the government ultimately decided to abandon the town (for a time it no longer figured on any official map!) and relocate it, leaving the residents abandoned and furious. The provincial capital was moved to Futaleufu. In 2011, Piñera`s government reversed the plans to rebuild Chaiten 10km away, and went to work on rebuilding the town in its current location. We heard incredible stories of courage and belonging - people coming back to what was left of their homes and start again.
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| Vestiges of the ash that fell over the town... some people have finally been able to dig their houses and and vans out. |
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| Chaiten´s waterfront properties... |
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| ...and blissful waterfront views of the bay |
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| A common site in Chilean towns (and Colombian)...deserted outdoor gym equipment |
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| The wolf-in-sheep's-clothing-of-a-mountain in the background is the fierce Volcan Chaiten standing from inside the blast zone. Trees like broken matchsticks. |
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| But everything changes... some 6 years later and already ferns and other pioneer plants and trees are making a comeback. Power of life! |
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| A half hour drive further north into the initially controversial Pumalin Park, we found ourselves in the dazzling lushness of Chilean temperate rainforest... Controversial mostly because a foreign billionaire couple (and Conservacion Patagonica) has bought over 8,000 square km of Chile and Argentina over the last twenty plus years for conservation. |
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Pumalin is the home to the have-to-see-them-to-believe it ancient cypress trees
(Fitzroya cupressoides), which have a very small endemic range within Patagonia and have almost all been cut. The trees seen here are part of the last grove accessible within a short distance from a road, and now protected thanks to the private financing of Conservacion Patagonia. |
Some trees are known to be upward of 3000 yrs old
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| An amazingly moving and grounding experience |
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| what a place! |
Futaleufu, our next destination, is home to world-renowned rafting on the sublime turquoise waters of the river of the same name (Futa for short). When we got there in mid-April only one operator, Futaleufu Experience, was still doing trips. Fate had it that we ended up rafting two days with the legendary Josh Lowry as our guide. Since we had barely any Chilean cash (the bank only took MasterCard, the exchange rate awful), Josh let us pay in Argentinian pesos and his grocery tab. Plus he let us (as clients) camp out in the apple orchard behind the business/house (which was overflowing with fruit) and cook in his kitchen. We had the time of our lives: the spellbinding beauty of the canyon of the Futa, the intensity and fun of the class IV-V+rapids in the Bridge to Bridge and Hells Canyon, Josh´s infectious laugh, generosity and zen-like company, making friends with rafting guides Miha and Kaja (from Slovenia), endless apples, and the quaintness of a small mountain town (low season rocks!).
We are thrilled to hear the news that today the Chilean government has said NO to HydroAysén plans to dam the Rio Baker further south. However, the Futaleufu continues to be under threat of damming and mining! http://www.futaleufuriverkeeper.org/hydroelectricity/
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The Futa in all its magnificence, what Josh called Heaven´s Canyon: five continuous
class 5 and 5+ rapids |
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| The tributary Rio Azul. Stunning. |
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| And this is before our first trip down the river!!! Waaahoooo! Stoked! |
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A short hike out of town in the adjacent valley, taken from Eagle Rock:
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| Peak of the hike, and views towards: |
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| Fall colors of subalpine lenga forests |
Our next adventures would take us back to Argentina. We decided not to hitch from Neuquen to El Bolson and as luck would have it the bus found the ditch ten minutes out of town...doh.
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| Firetruck rescue tow and the grazing lands outside of Neuquen |
Stay on the highside!
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