The Carretera Austral is ranking as one of the world’s ultimate road trips. It runs for about 1240 km, mostly unpaved through the mountains and forest of Northern Patagonia. It was a prestigious project of Chile’s former dictator Pinochet, who started building this road in 1976 (only to be finished in 1996), more for symbolic reasons than common sense as he wanted to have a road that tied the whole country together. The road cost a fortune to build due to the remoteness and harsh climate and 11 workers lost their lives in these 20 years. We planned to do about 750 km of this road as we couldn’t get to the northern end as the limited ferry service was booked full. We also missed the southern end as at the border crossing to Argentina, only Chile has built a road. This meant that after crossing the border we had to cross a river without bridge and some rough terrain, which I was up for, but which hasn’t been done a lot before and after enquiring in Coyhaique and several calls to police in Villa O’Higgins we were told that due to the hot water and melting glaciers, the river was too high to cross by 4WDs, only trucks can go through. So here’s our report of the middle section of the Carretera Austral we drove.

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There were some good things about Chiloé, but we struggled to enjoy our time on the island.  The biggest obstacles were bad value and overpriced accommodation options, sights that were mostly average and tábanos, black flies that inundate the area every year in January.  They made camping on the island quite miserable and forced us to look for indoor options.  We’ve had some black flies while driving the Carretera Austral this week but not nearly as many as on Chiloé. Continue reading →

We ended up staying in Valdivia for five days, which was good as we got some more paperwork done and collected some hard to find bits to add to our ‘gear pile’ in order to achieve self sufficiency on the road/campsite. We also visited the small Curiñanco Reserve which has four different forest types in a very small area. We were the only people visiting and got a very detailed description on the paths we were to take and what we were to see if we were going to walk clockwise. When finished with that, he did the whole story again from end to start, just in case we wished to walk anti-clockwise, so we felt quite well prepared! He also ensured us that it wasn’t dangerous, no pumas or other big cats, just pudús (smallest existing deer), which we really want to see, but no luck. The park was beautiful, with lookouts over the ocean. We also came across some massive vultures, not the most attractive birds around…

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The struggles we had to get the car have finally started to pay off.  We spent the last few days camping in scenic spots around Huerquehue National Park and a lake town called Lican Ray.  The camping spot in Huerquehue National Park was amazing!  Maybe one of the most scenic and peaceful spots we’ve camped in (including New Zealand campsites).

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We wish you a Happy New Year for 2013!

It’s been a bit up and down since we left Santiago on the 27th but we feel like we turned a corner yesterday and that things are looking up! On our first night out of Santiago, we found out that we had to take the car for a revision (WOF or APK) and after reading about other experiences of dealing with it we were filled with dread. The revision technica is like the Warrant of Fitness in New Zealand or APK in The Netherlands and is necessary if you want to keep your car legally on the road and be covered for insurance. The dealer who we bought the car from insisted that he would send us a new revision technica with our permanent pardon (ownership papers) but once we paid and took the car he changed the story and said he’d told us that we had to go somewhere else to get it. Our Spanish is bad, but not that bad and we knew we’d been lied to! A few other things popped up during the last few days that made us question everything else the dealer said to us. From only one of the two new car alarm remotes not working, to not knowing where our ownership papers will end up, and a couple of other little things, well these made us feel not quite so positive about Chile so far. But with the knowledge that the revision technica was running out on the 31st December we decided to just try to do it at the next big town we came across after spending a couple of days camping in Siete Tazas National Park.

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Seasons Greetings everyone! We hope you had a lovely Christmas, and indulged in some good food and drink!

As Richard reported we celebrated Christmas Eve with the local Couchsurfing group.  We ‘orphans’ plus locals made up 12 nationalities who mingled, ate, drank and exchanged Christmas cards on the roof top terrace of our host, Johan’s apartment. The potluck was held in the most exposed corner of the roof top terrace (on the 27^th floor of the building!) so while there was plenty of merry making we were extremely cold all night.

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Merry Christmas everyone! We are celebrating Christmas in Santiago as we are a bit stuck here at the moment (more about that later). A couple years ago we organised a Chrismas potluck for ‘orphans’ in Wellington and we have found the same event being organised in Santiago! So tonight we are joining a random group of people for a meal on the rooftop terrace of an apartment building. Everyone also has to bring a Christmas card to exchange.

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