Blogs from Carretera Austral, Aisén, Chile, South America - page 6

An interesting thing happened as the bus pulled up in Cerro Castillo. Carl, an English guy I'd first met in Futaleufu, then again in Puyuhuapi, got off to stretch his legs. Nothing too strange there you might think, you bump into the same people all the time when you're on the road. Except in this case, Carl had been cycling the Carretera Austral. So what the hell was he doing on a bus, and where was his bike? Turned out he'd managed to break it, so it was now lying back in Coyhaique, waiting to be fixed. Other people have bad luck too it seems. The journey to Rio Tranquilo took us along the shores of the Lago General Carrerra, the second largest in South America. Instantly, I was struck by its incredible turqouise colour. How ... read more

As the bus wound down the Carretera Austral from Chaiten towards Puyuhuapi, we were passing glaciers on our left one minute, crystal clear waters on our right the next, with the odd towering mountain chucked in just for good measure. It was all too good to be true, and 50km outside of Puyuhuapi, it started to rain. Really rain. Arriving in town, the rain had let up, but the sky was still threatening more, so I was more than pleased when the tourist office recommended me a camping which was under a roof. Perfect. I set up camp, had a lovely cup of tea, then decided to go on the rather cheesy interpretative trail which the office had recommended. Puyuhuapi is located at the edge of a fjord, and the first part of the walk took ... read more

River! The Futaleufu is a world class, big-water, glacier fed, turquoise and beautiful river that flows from the eastern side of the Andes in Argentina, but then swings backward from its natural easterly course and cuts the Andes in two by heading back to Chile and making a short and steep plunge to the Pacific. While not as long or deep as the Grand Canyon, the water and rapids in the Fu are of similar size. While not having any famous mountains nearby, the canyon systems of the valley are deep, green, forested valleys filled with glaciers and jutting volcanic peaks. It is a magnificent pastoral glacial valley. The Fu is also a precious remaining gem. Several of the biggest whitewater and wild rivers in Chile have been dammed over the past 50 years, and of ... read more

After 3 days of feasting in Coyhaique we departed feeling rejuvenated with bulging panniers filled with our xmas treats. We left with a howling tail wind and almost sunshine. Just before we left town we popped into the ´Aysen - Reserva de vida´ information centre, to learn more about the ´SIN REPRESA´battle, and were lucky enough to find a very passionate American woman to answer all our questions in english. It´s such a emotive topic with the locals of Patagonia we have had many lengthy conversations about the dams but alas in Spanish and we were struggling to peice it all together. Chile lost ownership of it´s water rights when Pinochet had power, and now multinational companies plan to dam many remote and untouched rivers, including the captivating Rio Baker, a river we followed from it´s ... read more

When we first arrived in Chile 10 days ago, we were perhaps a little dissapointed as our expectations didn´t reconcile with what we found in Futeleufu. With our pantry almost empty we hoped to restock with food and fuel, but found shops to be few, small and with limited supplies. We talked with some Americans who were faced with the prospect of a 150km drive to the nearest petrol station on a near empty tank. Days later and still not with much in the way of maps and food, we met a British cyclist heading in the opposite direction. When we mentioned that we found the Chileans to be more reserved than the outgoing and friendly Argentinos he replied "yeah, they´re all c**ts down there" and all the towns were s**tholes. Armed with this knowledge we ... read more