Chiloe Island & The Carretera Austral

As soon as we set foot on dry land, after the Navimag journey, in Puerto Montt (not the most picturesque place in Chile) we were inspired to blow a ridiculous amount of cash to rent a pickup truck (or in Australian, the ute). We took a quick ferry across to the island of Chiloe (beloved by guide books and known best for its fishing culture, buildings made of wooden shingles and palofitos-or houses on stilts).

We were more impressed by the Parque Nacional Chiloe where park rangers took pity on us and told us stay in a primitive refugio because of the soggy conditions.
One of the rangers invited us to dinner and I reckon she must have been a bit lonely to welcome the company of two gringos who speak spanish like a couple of five years olds.
There were some beautiful walks out to the dunes through forests of blooming fuschia trees, gigantic nalca plants and other equally unusual foliage.

Darryl made the mistake one night on Chiloe to order Curanto, described as a regional seafood specialty. He found out too late that it comes in an iron pot big enough to take a bath in.

From the busy port of Quellon on Chiloe we took yet another ferry due east to Chaiten on the mainland.
For us, this was the beginning of the Carretera Austral, a mostly gravel road that was motivated by Pinochet to connect the remote areas of south-eastern Chile. It winds through the most incredible scenery we have ever traveled through.

To compensate for having spent so much money on a vehicle we ended up camping most nights. Our first stop was Parque Pumalin, where we camped on Lago Blanco. Instead of a puma we spotted a pudu (the world's smallest deer). In Pumalin we found muddy wet hikes to hidden waterfalls.

Hikes through Alerce forests, trees that live for up to 4000 years and have ferns, moss, lichens and flowering vines growing on every inch of them. Also frogs.

And hikes to retreating glaciars, like Yelcho, through broad river valleys with no discernable path.

On leaving Pumalin, we drove south to the Amarillo thermal baths and had a good hot soak in the middle of a rainforest on a wet cold day, where Darryl could practise his backstroke.

The Carretera Austral, translated as the Southern Way, is a different kind of road. Instead of other cars there are,
gauchos

livestock

flooding

and landslides.

Further south we stayed in the relatively large city of Coyhaique (220 kilometers south of Chaiten), and then pushed a little further to Cerro Castillo. On the way, there were forests of every imaginable autumn color creeping up the slopes of some unusually pointy mountains.

The pickup was due back in a week, so we had to meander up north again, passing through La Junta, Puyuhuapi, and Parque Nacional Queulat, camping below its hanging glaciar.

Through Futaleufu, where a Spanish company wants to build a hydroelectric dam on this perfect river. Whitewater rafters the world over reject this idea unanimously, as do many Chileans, +2 gringos.

One week after leaving Chaiten, a volcano 10 kilometers away from the town erupted, blanketing parts of it in 15 centimeters of ash. Some scientists are calling it a potential Pinatubo, and Darryl was disappointed we hadn't stayed longer to revel its geological glory. I was happy to be safely tucked away in Santiago at that point. And that's where we've been for the last week, watching the Chaiten news updates intently.

Revisiting Lunch on a Navimag Ferry

The bottom third of Chile is a chatoc jumble of volcanic mountains, islands and ice fields. The only way through, regrettably for those of a weaker constitution, is with a boat.

The Navimag ferry, although it looked rather uninviting stacked heavily with live cattle transport,

was not without entertainment(see entries under Deck Chess and Booze).

We shared a four person cabin with two other married backpackers(something of a rarity) that were luckily very cool and didn't snore more than we did. We ate together, froze on deck together and warmed up in the lounge together with the Chilean specialty drink, pisco sour(made of brandy, citrus, sugar and egg white).

It took four nights to get to Puerto Montt through beautiful, desolate, mostly calm waters. Only one evening was spent inspecting the boat railings. All in all, not a bad average.

The sleeping elephant below. You have to have a good imagination. . .or several piscos.

Fin del Mundo or, as El Captain calls it, Culo del Mundo

Two pieces of cargo ready to leave Punta Arenas for the Straight of Magellan, Beagle Channel and Puerto Williams.

Accomodation, when you're a piece of cargo, is pretty minimal. We shared this tiny cabin with 12 burly men, all snoring away over the course of two nights in what may be the most uncomfortable chairs ever designed. We probably look demented due to lack of sleep.

Lesser known brother(Juan Julio) of Loch Ness monster frolicking in the Beagle Channel.

A pod of dolphins followed the boat for about an hour. There were also albatroses, giant petrels, seals, and penguins.

This is Puerto Williamsl(with the Dientes de Navarino mountain range in the background)-truly the southernmost city in the world-sort of.

It´s on Navarino island and there's a settlement even futher down called Puerto Toro (population 26 crusty sea dogs) so apparently it doesn´t really count. El Capitan took a shine to having a girl on board and gave us free passage and meals further south to this little settlement(you can do whatever you like when you`re El Capitan apparently).

Following our return from the boat trip, we packed up and went on a five day walk around the Dientes mountains. This is Darryl, atop paso Australia, and Jess finding a way through Dr. Seuss-like trees.

We had three days of decent weather when it counted most, so we had views south to Cape Horn island, which is that little hazy bit in the background. We tried to get down there on a Navy boat, but just ended up getting in trouble with them instead.

Beavers have decimated some of the forests on the island. We also saw one beaver(a little fatso), and ate one beaver that a local cooked up for us(definitely doesn't taste like chicken).

This is the second last day of the hike, over the highest pass, with views of the Beagle Channel. The previous night, our tent froze. The day after it rained, everything got soaked and slippery and Darryl managed a face plant into a muddy cow bog. By far, the funniest thing that has happened on this trip so far.

Currently we are back in Puerto Natales and are heading north on the navimag ferry for four days to Puerto Montt, reputedly one of the ugliest cities in the south.

love j&d

Freezing Bums in Patagonia

Hello All,
Patagonia is definitely on the gringo trail these days, although infrastructure isn´t exactly all in place yet. This was our view for hours and hours over two long days bussing down to El Chalten, the endless gravel road. There was the occasional guanaco or rhea thrown in for excitement, but mostly just our internal organs getting jarred out of their natural compartments.
There is nothing to do in El Chalten, which is an Argentine frontier town, except go hiking. So we hiked up to Cerro Fitz Roy and Laguna de los Tres on an unusually clear day. Darryl did this in pluggers(or flip flops), of course.




Next stop was El Calafate to see Perito Moreno glaciar.
It calved a huge iceburg while we were there that set off a giganto tidal wave. It sounded like thunder and it was surprising how noisy the glaciar actually was, crackling away as the ice moved in places we couldn´t see.

You can trek on to the glaciar (for a small fee). We discovered that crampons are surprisingly easy to walk in, once you stop stepping on your own pant legs with them(I may have been the only one to have this experience)




Relaxing Santori times at the end of the trek.

The whole point, originally, of us going to Patagonia was to trek in the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. Which we finally did. And will never do again. It took nine days to finish, seven days for my feet to rebel, five days to tire of eating pasta and three to start smelling(badly).
It was worth it in the end though just due to the scenery. Darryl will tell you the area is a sedimentary bed pushed up by a granite intrusion uplift(really badly paraphrased), but maybe photos do it slightly more justice.

The Torres, a mountain climbers dream. We were happy to make it to the mirador(or viewpoint) twice. Once in the afternoon and once prior to sunrise. Sleeping bags were optional, but definitely worth lugging up the mountain as it was f%&ing cold.

Hot Milo and oatmeal as the sun rose.

Up and over the John Gardner pass and views of Glaciar Grey on the descent.


The Q Crew, who circuited the whole 140 kilometer trail during the same time.

On to Punta Arenas!
love, d&j(the two bums)

Still in Bariloche

Hello All,
With a bit of luck we managed to make it back from our 5 day trek in Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi. It´s a beautiful area full of waterfalls, forests and lakes pure enough to drink from. On our first day of hiking, our packs weighed a ton (probably due to all that last minute emergency chocolate thrown in), the second day was painfully long due to an incorrect trail map and total lack of trail markers. The third day was a bit worse as it took us 10 hours from one campsite to the next with infected blisters on Darryl´s feet and a frighteningly steep descent. The fifth day was difficult not due to bad terrain, just lack of bathing! Nevertheless, we somehow made it back without the kind aid of any search and rescue teams.

The map said this would be the easy day?



Such an aussie, Darryl is fascinated by this new substance called 'snow'

Nights were warm enough inside the tent, but views like this drew us out into the cold clouds of midgees

Led astray by the map yet again, Darryl found his own way

Fifth day, Tronador in the background

After a couple days of recovery (spent at the brewery of course) we went on a peaceful rafting trip down the Manso river in which Darryl almost drowned. After our guide tipped us over he got sucked into the 'washing machine' for about a minute. That´s him at the bottom of the pile just prior to submurging.


Luckily the river didn´t like the taste and spat him back out, and the rest of the trip was great fun with Argentine barbecue back at the farm.
We leave Bariloche for El Chalten, further south, on Saturday. Hope you all are well. Love D&J