Today is 3/13/22, day 10 of our trip to Chile. Thankfully, we no longer need to self report any Covid symptoms.
This morning we rolled out of bed at 5:30am before the sun and walked 5 minutes across from the Holiday Inn to the airport. We were in time to get a Starbucks coffee as they opened. Thank goodness this time there was normal boarding and premium customers were able to board first. We saw the sun come up from the plane window. The food on this flight was disappointing, no vegetarian option and what there was for food and coffee awful. The flight was about 2 hours long with some cloudiness, so not much of a view from the flight. A few hours later we landed in the small airport of Balmaceda and started the long drive along Highway 7 to the Explora at the National park of Patagonia. This 250-300 mile trip took about 6 hours along a mostly unpaved and poor road.
You know the route is less traveled when google maps isn't able to give directions. The above shows the route we used. In our 17 seat van were the two of us, our driver, Jose and his wife (to help keep him awake). This post is written after we returned and I was finally able to see how we went. Our driver and his wife didn't speak English and my Spanish is limited, so we missed much of the landmarks.
The trip was basically in two parts identified by before and after Puerto Rio Tranquilo. Part 1 - to Rio Tranquilo and about 3 hours of driving. As we went through the initial passes you could see the tall poles which marked the height of the snow in the winter. We found out later that the passes regularly close each season due to snow. Because I didn’t have any food on the plane I was quite hungry and at my lunch at about 10am, not knowing how long we had to go. Part 1 started well and we had about 2 hours of paved and windy road. We should have been ready for the rest of the road by looking at the windshield of the van - cracked and pitted in several places by stones. We went by massive young mountains with razor backs and named exotically, like the Castle Hill - cerro castillo and cerro elephant.
There were low clouds and it was rather grey so you couldn’t quite see
any of the peaks or much of the national parks we drove through. According to the map, we even should have seen the Pacific Ocean along the way, but I missed that.
At one point a bird hit the window- I don’t think it died. There was a river crossing we could see from the road with a pull ferry - a boat on each side and you had to pull yourself across if you wanted to be on the other side of the river. We saw a herd of goats and a mini Golden Gate Bridge along the way. We were amazed to see bicyclists and came to find out this was a very popular route for long distance bikers - how they managed the gravel and dust I don't understand and don't think it would be much fun.
The next landmark after Cerro Castillo was General Carreras Lake. Here is some information about this lake: it is shared between Chile and Argentina, called General Carreras Lake in Chile, Buenos Aires Lake in Argentina and the autochthonous name of the lake is Chelenko, which means "stormy waters" in Aonikenk - the indigenous peoples' language. It is the largest lake in Chile and the third largest in South America, after Titicaca in Peru and in Mar Chiquita in Argentina. It was formed by glaciers and drains into the Pacific Ocean via the River Baker. There were some marble columns which we didn't see and I guess some marble was mined there at some point. Looking at what I wrote at the time, I thought we were only a third of the way to our destination. As you look at the map and as the crow flies you can see that we were about two thirds of the way.
Part 2 of the trip was Puerto Rio Tranquilo to the Explora in the Patagonia National Park. Rio Tranquilo is a busy little way-stop - it has the only gas station (privately owned, by the way) for hundreds of kilometers. We stopped for a break and lunch, but I had already eaten mine, so Chris and I went for a walk to see the lake. After about 20 minutes continued on. This part of the road was really poor and very busy with cars, busses and big trucks, sometimes going at a very fast clip, especially based on it's poor quality. Visibility was poor due to dust of passing vehicles. One time we were sure the bus and truck would hit. Road construction didn't help our speed and at various points you could wait for some time until allowed to come through.
Along the way, at different points, we saw two birds which looked like the crested caracara which is the biggest falcon and often walks along the road scavenging. We saw several at the hotel too.
It got very dusty as we came up behind a bus and couldn’t pass, but after General Carreras Lake the road got comparatively a bit better. We went across and by other rivers and lakes, like Black Lake, Rio Leonis, Bertrand Lake and Rio Baker. Rio Baker is the largest river in Chile in terms of volume. It flows out of Lake Bertrand and is fed by General Carrera Lake. At one point it forms a delta and splits where only the northern fork is navigable. The water is an amazing, almost florescent turquoise-blue color due to the glacial sediments deposited along the way. The River is big for tourism - there are some rapids which people shoot and it is well known for fishing.
Three hours after Puerto Rio Tranquilo we finally arrived at Patagonia National park. A few miles on we saw, and took on, a hitchhiker who turned. Out to be the son of one of the employees- still not sure what he was doing there walking in the middle of no where.
After we got to the National Park we started to see herds of Guanaco including a herd on hotel grounds. We also saw an illegal small group of cows in the park. Supposedly there are about 30 puma on the grounds, but we never saw them.
It was nice to finally get to the room. This lodge just opened- it is a new concession won by Explora- we are some of the first guests here. It is a small hotel with only 20 rooms. Looks like it’s only about half full, so blissfully quiet. We didn’t really understand dinner- nothing written down and staff English was far from fluent. Seems there’s a main course- always meat, 2 vegetables served family style, a roll, a choice of 1 sweet or ice cream. Night was very quiet and lots of stars.
Comentários