Blogs from Aisén, Chile, South America - page 8

Hello dear readers, here I am again, struggling to learn how to use the spanish keyboard. Anyway, I made it safely to Coyhaique with about half of the group. We all met in Santiago, as three of them had missed their connections and one was supposed to be on my flight anway. Another joined us at the airport and (happy day) all my luggage came through. Others were not so lucky. Patagonia is breath taking. It is different and familiar and exciting, comforting, dramatic, domestic, and any number of other positive superlatives. I cannot fairly describe what the country side is like here. We drove from a flat plain up through ridges dotted with funny round evergreens that were bent by the wind (sound familiar?) into mountain passes that were stunning, granite walls rising straight up, ... read more

After leaving Coyhaique we had 6 days to cover 420km to get to Chaiten so that we could get the ferry on Wednesday evening to Puerto Montt. We left Coyhaique late after cooking a full english breakfast for our swiss companions and getting our bikes back from the shop so only managed 40km the first afternoon. We had two good days next with 100km one day (and found a cafe en route to get a burger) and 80km the other to make it to Puyuhuapi late afternoon on the Sunday. The next 3 days the weather closed in and rained for pretty much the entire time so we were not happy chaps. To make matters worse when we arrived in Chaiten, expecting it to be some sort of haven to dry out and eat nice food, ... read more

After getting to the Carretera Austral at Villa O'Higgins we got on the road north towards Cochran which is about 260km away. Route 7 is 90% unpaved, with a stretch of tarmac around Cohaique, so it's quite a bumpy ride. The good thing is that there's so much water around we hardly have to carry any as we can fill up at any time and there's virtually no pollution so no need to filter it. We met a group of scottish cyclists on the way who told us about a town called Tortel. It's about 22km off the main road but they told us it is worth the detour. It's built in the hillside of a bay and all the houses are connected by a series of wooden walkways which wind like a maze over the ... read more

Jediny autobus na juh do Coyhaique odchadzal o 6 rano, to znamenalo vstavat po tme o 5, balit stan a vsetko ostatne, nastastie sme nic nezabudli. Prvy hodinu v autobuse sme stravili okruznou jazdou po La Junte, nevieme presne preco, ale uz o 6 sme konecne vyrazili. Cesta vyzerala ako obycajne - kamenita a prasna. Neskor sme sa vyhybali nejakemu tahacu a nas sofer zasiel prilis doprava. Autobus zachrcal a nam bolo hned jasne ze sme poriadne zapadli. Nebezpecne sme sa zacali naklanat a nakoniec sme boli poziadani opustit autobus co sme velmi radi urobili. Kolesa na pravej strane boli vyse polovice zapadnute v suti. Pod nami zraz dole, zarasteni burinami, takze az ked sme vystupili sme si uvedomili ze sme vlastne mali stastie. Tahac nas v tom nenechal, este zavolali dalsi a spolocne sa im ... read more

Just heard there was an earthquake in central Chile yesterday. We are still hundreds of miles to the south, so knew nothing about it. In other words, we are fine. We called at a tiny port called Puerto Chacabuco which is about 8 miles from the larger town of Puerto Aysen. The river that flows between the two used to be navigable, but a recent volcanic eruption made it too shallow. So now all shipping -- including us -- must go to the tiny port. We took the local bus to Aysen (about $1), standing all the way even though a sign clearly indicated no standing was allowed. Also liked the sign that I interpreted as "Bothering the driver can be fatal." It was not a scary ride because we just followed the riverbed, but interesting ... read more