sorry, only google translate…
One of the reasons why Carretera Austral is compared to Route 66 is due to the spectacular and diverse landscape. It is also touted as the “Ruta del Parque Nacional” because it connects the most important national parks in Patagonia with the rest of the country. Construction began during the Pinochet military regime and later continued under the socialist government as a social promise. As I said, it is not finished (for a long time) and the existing part does not have much in common with a modern trunk road, especially in the south. It is only tarred there in the villages, the rest is partly a rough gravel road. We sometimes hardly drive faster than 40 km / h for a long time, but that somehow makes this road trip so appealing.
The landscape changes every few dozen kilometers, sometimes forested steep slopes that remind us a little of the island landscape in Halong Bay, then green hills and rivers like in New Zealand or steep mountains like in South Tyrol. Everything alternates and mixes, you could just stop constantly.
After Cochrane, our first shorter stop is the village of Rio Tranquilo. It is located on Lago General Carrera – the second largest lake in South America – which stretches across the border to Argentina. It is mainly visited by tourists because of the tours to a glacier and the marble caves found there. We already had a glacier tour in Iceland (and it is also absurdly expensive), but marble caves are new to us and we take a boat to explore them. In principle, they are similar to sandstone caves, but they are remains of the glaciers and have only been expanded and rounded off by the water. Nevertheless, it is astonishing that water eats its way through the hard marble. Incidentally, the formations are of course much more stable and radiate a corresponding majesty.
We continue to Cerro Castillo, a mountain with a hike that is said to be similar to Fitz Roy and Torres del Paine. And shortly before the suitable starting point Villa Cerro Castillo, we hardly trust our bodies shaken after more than 1000km (yes, we have calculated that) gravel road, the road is suddenly paved! Definitely very pleasant, but somehow weird not having to yell at me anymore or to turn the music to full volume, because it is too loud at 50 km / h in the car. And somehow a bit boring …
When we see the Cerro Castillo from a distance, however, we lose a bit of the desire for 20 € per person. (!!!) output. Mind you not for a day in the national park of the same name, but only for the hike !!! We still stay overnight to wait for the weather the next morning. Perhaps we will still feel like it … The weather then makes the decision halfway easy for us, it is clear, but we can already see the clouds coming up, it really doesn’t have to be that way! In addition, Tobi’s shoulder suddenly started to hurt at night some time ago and accordingly he is a bit tired.
Therefore, we decide that the distant view must be enough today and drive on to Coyhaique, hoping to find an open pharmacy for a few pain relievers after almost a week. In addition, after a week without a reasonable supermarket, our supplies are slowly exhausted, we have to do the laundry and organize a ferry. After we have given up our laundry, we are annoyed again by one of these completely inefficient supermarkets. It is particularly bad here because there are many people, so everything takes forever and we spend almost two hours shopping. Someone should offer Aldi efficiency seminars in Chile, maybe that’s a gap in the market … We’ll get painkillers too, and really strong ones. 100mg diclofenac, in Germany you only get 25mg, otherwise you need a prescription. And the pharmacist thinks Tobi should just take two a day !!! We limit that to one, the night will be funny anyways…