The Carretera Austral

About 30 years ago, Chile sensed that, if it wouldn’t do any effort to get the part south of Puerto Montt more Chilean, it would soon be a part of Argentina (especially because Argentina would be very happy to have access to the Pacific Ocean). Therefore, Pinochet decided to start one of the biggest construction projects in Chilean history: to build a road from Puerto Montt all the way south to Punta Arenas. They didn’t get all the way, because there were some glaciers in the way, and even today some parts can only be travelled by boat. Furthermore, when talking about “a road” don’t think about a modern highway like we know them in Europe, but think more in the direction of “dust, gravel and potholes”. But it’s possible to travel on this road by bike and we decided to cycle a part of it.

From Puerto Montt, we took a ferry to Chaitén (yes, the village that recently got more or less wiped off the map because of an erupting volcano) from where we started cycling south over a thick layer of ashes in the beginning and with acid rain in our eyes (we couldn’t see the volcano due to a thick layer of clouds, but locals told us that it is still spitting ashes into the sky). Luckily about 40 km south of Chaitén, clouds of ashes got less and we were left alone with the “normal clouds” producing fairly ordinary rain. ;-)

The most remarkable thing of this road is probably the absence of people in any form: no tourists, but also no inhabitants. First because we are travelling outside the high-season, most of the hostels, hospedajes, campsites and hotels are closed.  Add to this the events in Chaitén and they will probably stay closed this summer as tourism is low. But when there are people (we came through a village where one person lived with 3 cats and another village with 5 houses of which 2 were occupied with each one person…) they are always very happy to see some cyclists come by to keep them company for an evening to chase their solitude. For us this meant cozy evenings around the fire-place, eating fried bread, drinking mate and enjoying a nice and warm bed while listening to the wind and rain outside. :-)

And when the sun finally comes out (in our case it did after two days of rain and clouds) the landscapes are just spectacular! One glacier after another, uninterrupted mountain chains, snowy hilltops, jungle, clear blue lakes, rivers everywhere… and the best thing of all: nobody around! Absolute silence, (almost) no cars and empty national parks. A thing hard to imagine in our overcrowded Europe. :-)

After 7 days we reached Coyhaique, where we entered “civilized world” again. And as all needs to be seen in perspective, we have to admit, that it was quite nice to enjoy the sun on a terrace with a good coffee and a piece of cake. :-)

Vera & Jean-Christophe

3 Comments

  1. Posted October 20, 2008 at 21:56 | Permalink

    Rien que de lire vos aventures, je suis épuisée, alors que je suis confortablement installée sur un moelleux canapé, bien à l’abri du vent et du froid. Que d’énergie et de courage vous avez ! Bravo les enfants, et tous nos encouragements pour la suite de votre périple. Mamma

  2. Posted October 23, 2008 at 13:11 | Permalink

    *Je suis votre périble grâce à Ivana qui me donne régilièrement des nouvelles et j’ apprends combien les luttes sont difficiles contre le vent , la pluie, les cailloux….mais je sais aussi à quel point vous êtes déterminés et courageux. Je pense beaucoup à vous, heureuse de vous avoir rencontrés cet été.Gros bisous. Françoise V.

  3. Posted October 29, 2008 at 22:17 | Permalink

    Merci Françoise pour ce message. Finalement, le plus dur dans un voyage comme celui là, c’est le psychique. On ne fait rien sans un bon moral, et la lutte est plus contre soi-même que contre les éléments. Mais pour le moment, ça reste encore un plaisir ! Grosses bises de notre part.