|
|
|
|
|
South
America / Letter 16 |
|
|
|
|
January 25, 1999
Chile and Argentina Travels
Traveling Chile and Argentina is like icing on the
cake. I am able to camp anywhere. These two
countries pride themselves in a word called
tranquilo and I love it. I left Santiago, Chile
and drove down to Puerto Montt, Chile through
farming and dairy communities. The road sides are
filled with small stores selling melons, onions,
potatoes, and cheese. Puerto Montt begins the Camino
Austral. This is a road that travels down through
national parks to the southern tip of
Chile/Argentina and is often referred to as
Patagonia. I drove one-hour southeast on Ruta 7 to
Hornopiren, Chile where I loaded on a car ferry to
Caleta Gonzalo in the Golfo de Ancud. The views were
unbelievable with a turquoise ocean, snow capped
mountains, a few small glacial fields, beautiful
horses, cowboys with wide brimmed hats, and grazing
sheep everywhere. I arrived in Caleta Gonzalo,
Chile where Dennis Tompkins (ex Esprit magnate) has
a very controversial and large private park. It is a
spectacular and rugged area with many backpackers
and local loggers. From here I traveled south to
Chaiten, Chile, to Puyuhuapi, Puerto Aisen,
Coihaique, and Puerto Ing Ibanez. I then took a
two-hour ferry across with winds that were howling
(50plus miles per hour). The winds were at my stern
and caused just a little bit of rocking. And I can
not describe the beauty. Wow! There are glacier
lakes, trout streams, mountains and trees making it
one of the most beautiful drives of this trip. I arrived in Chile Chico, Chile in one piece and ready
to head south. Since coming down from 16,000 feet in
the Andes of Bolivia, the car has been starting a
bit rough. I hope that maybe in my next life I'll
be lucky enough to be a mechanic!
I did a border crossing into Argentina at Los
Antiguos, which was a breeze compared to Central
America. At Perito Moreno I found out that the
country people were staging a protest and all the
paved roads are closed so I headed south on the
gravel roads to Bajo Caracoles, Argentina. This area
is pampa, which is made up of sand and desert-like
vegetation. I only saw 5 cars in 7 hours of
driving. The road is made up of fist sized chunks of
jagged rock. About half the cars I saw during these
days of travel had broken windshields. When I arrived
my back left tire was getting very low. (the tires are all chewed up from all the sharp
gravel and stone. they have good tread, but this
gravel is worse than Quinn Creek.) The next morning
I head out for Gobernador Gregores on Ruta 40,
then onto Tres Lagos, then west to El Chalten to see
Roy Fitz the most respected Chilean mountain for ice
and mountain climbing. You could see huge glacial
fields of very deep blues flowing into the valley
above the city of El Chalten and another one below
the city into the lake, Lago Viedma. There were a
few icebergs floating in the middle of the lake.
This lake stretched for over 50 miles in length. I then headed south to El Calafate, Argentina where
I will take a boat trip into the glaciers in the
morning.I will let you know how that is in the next
letter.
PS. Another tire going down this evening, but am about 10th in line at the tire repair shop.looks
like I'm not the only one. I also feel lucky that I still have all of
the windows. (knock on wood!)
Cars pass me with netting over their windows and
cardboard over their headlights. Another flat tire
this afternoon....this gravel is undescribable and
putting me in a bad mood.
Hope everyone is well. I will write as soon as
e-mails becomes available. Sorry that there aren't
any pictures e-mail is very slow and expensive.
Hugs, Ben |
|
|
|
|
|
