Carretera Austral

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The Carretera Austral links the previously inaccesible (well, only by boat) villages south of Puerto Montt in Chile. It's a pretty rough track, winding past fjords, lakes and rocky mountains. While travelling on it, one sees the vegetation change from south Patagonia's lenga and ñire woods to a lush temperate rainforest. Tall trees, damp moss, bamboo and a really sexy scent coming of the forest make for quite the new outdoor experience. If it weren't for the pretty damn low temperatures, this would feel very tropical.
I started of in Coyhaique, a rather uninteresting town with the very nice camping Alborada (or was it -o). The owner thought i was slightly out of my head - ¡¿Quieres acamper te en este tiempo?! It was raining and the temperature was around 2 degrees celsius indeed, but well, i have to make good use of my new, and far more weatherproof tent. After hitching myself to the center of town to stock up on groceries and getting pretty much soaked on the way back, i had an evening that felt very luxurious: wine, impro-burritos del acampador and tea afterwards, while sitting in a small shelter.
The next day i took a walk in the small parque Nacional de Coyhaique, trying to spot pumas but being apparently not too good at that. Coyhaique's park is nice, but after three hours you've seen most of it, and there's not much more to do in and around town. In the low-season, it feels rather off the beaten track, but that didn't make it very interesting. I decided to pack my bags and try to hitchhike to Puyuhuapi, or at least in that direction. Two hours of waiting got me 10 km further, at the start of the road to the north, where i waited until someone told me it wasn't the best place to get a ride. By then, it was 5pm, i was still 210 km away from Puyuhuapi, and because it was Sunday, not too many cars came by - i'll keep that in mind for next time. I ended up catching a ride back to the camping, spending another night there before buying a bus ticket the next day.
Waiting for the bus, i met Tobias from Switzerland and Danielle, Elad, Dudu and Sagi from Israel. After a bumpy ride - no sleeping on the bus this time, we reached Puyuhuapi well after nightfall, and strolled through town until we found an improvised campground. The owner lit a fire for us, and it was all very cosy. Tuesday surprised us with constant sunshine, pretty remarkeable for this region and this time of the year. At sunrise, a layer of mist shrouded the mountains around the fjord at the end of which Puyuhuapi lies (it's a magnificent setting). Small fishing boats were rocking in the waves, rays of light came through the bamboo bushes and it was all very magical. My breakfast with avocado (they're everywhere here, it's like a dream) and cheese on toasted bread made everything even better.
After meeting nearly everyone of the town's 600 inhabitants looking for busdriver Manolo, we finally got a ride to nearby Parque Queulat, one of the finest forests i've ever seen. It's known for it's glacier hanging above a waterfall, and while that surely is a fine sight, i was much more impressed with the vegetation and the whole atmosphere of the forest. Sadly (well, good for the forest i guess), there's only about 5km of trails, so exploration possibilities are limited. We went - through the aformentioned ridiculously lovable forest - up to the glacier, where we took some touristy picks, and returned to town afterwards, where i night with fine pasta (dried mushrooms rock my world), pisco sour and too much wine was spent. My entire being felt smoked next morning - the camping's shelter doesn't have a really good ventilation system.
Today, the weather changed to the downpour that is more typical for this region. We're waiting for a bus to our next stop and eating too much (it's one of the pleasant activities when the weather does not cooperate).

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Photos

Elad, me,Sagi and Dudu
by someone holding Dudu's camera, or a self timer

Ventisquero Colgante
by Dudu

Elad and me
in Parquer Nacional Queulat