El Camino Austral, Chile
Hola,
We are about in the middle of Patagonia -in Coyhaique now. A little warmer,
a little rainier; summer here, but about the same as a Vancouver winter.
But it is a bad summer, we hear.
When the weather is nice, it is a great area for hiking. We took the bus
down the Camino Austral, a Pinnochet legacy, through tiny towns to Villa
Cerro Castillo. We hiked 5 days through the craggy, fantastic mountains of
Cerro Castillo Park, had mostly great weather, campfires every night, and
clear views of the southern constellations. And, for the first time in
Souther America, encountered almost nobody.
Further down the road, we tried to do another trek in the Tamango Reserve
near Cochrane, but there were some freak rainstorms (causing flooding in
some areas) and we were soaked outside and inside (in our packs too). We
hadn`t hit "old growth" forest (if there was any between the grazing cows)
yet, only regenerating shrubs, so there wasn`t any available cover either.
Anyway, we were defeated and returned, spending two days beside a wood stove
in Cochrane. We have noticed in our stopover visits through towns that
people are very attached to their yerba mate (Argentinian drink but they
really suck it back through those pipe-things here), also to Chilean
soap-opera reruns during the summer holidays. There is an interesting one
set in Easter Island at the moment. We did an overnight above Lago Cochrane
when the torrents passed. A turquois and blue lake with freshly
white-capped peaks surrounding. The settings around here are completely
unreal.
We hitchhiked back to Coyhaique. Or tried to, because it took us 2 full
days to get 340 km. Our rides took us past the massive, even astoundingly
more blue and scenic Lago General Carrera (the Largest lake in Chile and
Lago Buenas Aires in Argentina, it is hilarious they refuse to have the same
names for the same geographical bodies... there are other interesting
Chilean/Argentinian issues). We actually weren`t getting far until 5
Isrealis in a truck let us lie across their packs and gear in the back for
the last 5 hour stretch. A truely horrible experience and not recommended
without the proper gear.
We have a day here to recover and are heading further north tomorrow.
Ciao,
C&O
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