Chile and Southern Argentina – Impressions and Contrasts

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We arrived in Chile in San Pedro de Atacama after finally hitting the tarmac following days of gravel and sandy roads in the Bolivian altiplano. San Pedro de Atacama is an oasis in the desert with snow tipped volcanoes to the east. It was so good to come back to a lower altitude with a clearer head, however, we were overwhelmed by the number of tourists and the exorbitant prices for food and accommodation in this quaint desert outpost. We continued south to Antofogasta through the amazing Atacama desert via Calama, a dusty town based on copper mining, then passed the Tropic of Capricorn. We loved the fabulous sand and stone desert landscapes with lots of hills and barren rocky mountains. We passed numerous mines and ruins of adobe houses that were once small mining villages on the side of the road. The only other landmarks on this barren landscape was the Mano de Desierto sculpture and an occasional roadhouse and truck stop. We passed a number of small beach communities with real beach shacks that stood out from the black rocks behind. We stopped at Caldera and La Serena only to find crowded beaches full of holidaying Chilean families. Next stop was the sophisticated city of Santiago surrounded by the Andean mountains. Likewise we found the Chilean people to be sophisticated and charming, but conservative and conventional. We also noted that travel is extremely expensive, many things being overpriced with little value for money. Petrol is expensive and one even has to pay 50cents US to use the Copec gas station toilets!
We continued south to the fertile Colchagua valley famous for its vineyards, fertile soils, orchards and haciendas. As we travelled further south the landscapes became greener as we approached the lakes district with views of snow capped volcanoes to the east. We visited the quaint university town of Valdivia then continued east to the Argentinian border past Lake and Volcano Puyehue.
From Villa La Angostera in Argentina we went south to Bariloche, and Esquel past lakes, mountains and alpine scenery stopping in the delightful village of Trevelin where we experienced some delightful southern Argentinian farm hospitality and a delicious barbequed lamb. We then crossed back into Chile and took the Carretera Austral highway in Northern Patagonia through stunning scenery-rain forests, past green and turquoise blue rivers, fiords and Queulat National Park but travelling very slowly on heavy gravel roads. Further south we crossed the huge Lake General Carrera (shared with Lake Buenos Aires on the Argentinian side) by ferry into southern Argentine Patagonia. We decided not to take the famous Ruta 40-we had had enough of difficult gravel roads! -so we took headed towards the coast and stopped in Caleta Olivia, a quaint wind swept oil and mining town. From here we continued south on Highway 3. We loved the wild beauty of the barren, bleak, windy flatlands of Patagonia and the many elegant guanacos and ostrich like nando birds on the side of the highway. Patagonia has ,“150,000 people, 2 millions sheep, half a million penguins, untouched landscapes, fjords and thousands of islands”.
We stayed in a roadhouse in the middle of nowhere to take in the ambience of the Patagonian steppe, with its big sky, low airbrushed clouds and stunning sunset. We visited the spectacular still advancing glacier, Perito Moreno. In El Calafate we took the opportunity to participate in a tango class. It was at this time we began to realize we were now in Argentina! Argentinian people seem to be lively, passionate and friendly and many simply come over to question us about the bike and our trip.
We continued on highway 3 via dusty Rio Gallegos and crossed the Straits of Magellan by ferry to Tierra del Fuego (land of fire named by explorer Ferdinand Magellan when he saw smoke from the fires of the natives). The north of the island is desolate flat steppe which gradually becomes more hilly and green to the south with forests of deciduous lenta trees and finally snow capped mountains. We reached our final most southern destination at the end of the world, Ushuaia.

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