The Carretera Austral

The town of Puyuapi as seen from the ‘mirador’ (viewpoint) at the top of a short trail through sheep pasture.

Construction of the ‘Carretera Austral’ (“Southern Highway”) started in the 1970s, connecting a few isolated villages that were previously accessible only by boat. Today, the work continues (one man who works on the road construction estimated it’ll take another 15 years to finish paving it) but the gravel road does in fact run the full 1240 kilometers from Puerto Montt at it’s northern end to Villa O’Higgins in at the southern tip.

New towns have popped up, due to the influx of construction workers building the road, followed by — much more recently — the tourists.

First Stop: Villa O’Higgins

We arrived in Villa O’Higgins very ready for a warm bed and dry roof over our heads after hiking and camping in weather that alternated between pouring rain and intermittent sun gusts. So we splurged on a private room at the very popular hostel La Mosca. Not the cheapest place in town, but certainly the epicenter. The breakfast that came with our room was worth it alone: real coffee, scrambled eggs, grilled cheese, homemade peach jam and a philosophical conversation with our hostess and a pair of 50-something motociclistas about the future of the planet.

The town itself wasn’t much more than a cluster of houses, mini markets, and cabañas. Like El Chaltén in Argentina, this pueblo was built in the 1960s to stake a claim on the land as part of Chile & Argentina’s dispute over where the border lies is this wild place, rich in forests, water, and dramatic vistas.

The land of not much more than minimarkets…

…and very friendly street dogs.

Our cohort of fellow Carretera travelers pitched their tents at the campground across the street, and we joined them there for the second night in Villa O’Higgins, where we sunbathed, read, played music, and ate dinner with Dave and Jen from Portland. I was laid up with the effects of a stomach ache that would follow me up the entire Carretera after so many days of living on bread, lentils, meat, and the occasional cup of coffee.

Pat contemplates when he’ll get fresh produce again as he munches yet another sandwich under our sink-laundered hiking clothes.

Buses run only once or twice a week between the more remote towns on the Carretera. We were extremely lucky that an early morning bus was heading north to Cochrane just two days after we arrived. We snagged it.

Two nights in Villa O’Higgins was plenty. Ready for Cochrane!

Second Stop: Cochrane

We ended up renting a nice little cabaña with Carlos the wedding photographer from Santiago, who we met getting off the bus. He kindly overlooked the fact that we were having some serious digestive issues…which laid Pat up and inspired me to cook up a big pot of chicken soup with…vegetables! So many fresh veggies in the store across from our cabaña. I wanted to weep with joy.

We found this jolly fellow first in Torres del Paine, then in Candelario Mancilla, then in the cabaña next to ours in Cochrane. Apparently drinking beer with olives is a thing in Minnesota.

Some chicken soup did the guy good.

We found a giant seesaw in the riverfront park in Cochrane.

Walking in the “suburbs” of Cochrane.

Two days of recuperation included a visit to Cafe Tamango, a leisurely stroll in our first tee shirt weather in a while, and more free plums from the trees lining the streets than we knew what to do with. Plus late night hot chocolate with rum for me and Carlos while Pat slept off his woes. We liked this town. After two days, we felt strong enough to keep moving north.

Third Stop: Coyhaique

We arrived in the biggest town on the Carretera and hauled our bags up the hill to a tranquil little room overlooking the city.

The view of Coyhaique from our little apartment at Hospedaje Los Ciprices.

When we asked our hosts where we could find some soup, they directed us to Mama Gaucha, a very delicious pizza place with impressive salads and absolutely no soup on the menu. The next day, we enjoyed fajitas in a sushi restaurant with the most amazing U.S. music videos on rotation. This place was weird.

Coyhaique was home to dead-end roads, truckloads of sheep, alien graffiti, and the best espresso in a cute little cafe. Still, it didn’t capture our hearts.

Ready to move on to Chaiten and Parque Pumalin with the hopes that we’d arrive with renewed hiking strength and stable stomachs, we marched down to the bus station…only to discover that the next bus left in five days. Hell no.

The only way out of town: ‘haciendo dedo’ (hitchhiking).

Hitchhiking is a very popular way to travel the Carretera Austral. So popular, in fact, that the competition is fierce on a road thick with hitchhikers and not-so-thick with traffic.

But we had good luck. We didn’t have to wait long to string together a series of rides from Coyhaique to the turnoff to Puerto Cisnes, to Villa Mañihuales, to Villa Amengual, to Puyuapi.

Too much dust in the back of the first pickup truck. Still, it was a beautiful ride and we were grateful.

An adorable town, worth spending time in. I’d come back for a hike through Bosque Encantado and a visit to the fancy resort & spa across the lake.

Forget about snagging any rides after lunch time — it’s true here that the early bird gets the worm. Luckily, there was an evening bus from Puyuapi to La Junta, which left us just enough time to have lunch and hike to the top of the mirador for the view at the top of this post.

Fourth Stop: La Junta

Luck really was a theme during this leg of our trip: we arrived in La Junta as the sun was setting. The bus station happened to be open past their regular business hours and there happened to be a bus leaving at 7 the next morning for Chaiten — only one of two busses that week. Huzzah! We tucked ourselves into a hostel for the night, tried to tune out the Spanish owner’s antisemitic jokes, and were on our way before sunrise the next morning.

Last Stop on the Carretera: Chaiten & Parque Pumalin

This place was on our radar because had heard so much about Douglas Tompkins’ conservation efforts in Chile. The late founder of The North Face used his fortune from the sale of the company to buy up land in Chile & Argentina for conservation purposes. Parque Pumalin was part of that effort, and encompasses virgin forest, active volcanoes, glaciers, rivers, and meadows (former pasture land).

Wifi, breakfast, and local tips from the very friendly folks in The Green Bus in Chaiten.

We hiked into El Amarillo, where we camped for a night. Then we hiked nine hours round-trip over desolate ash-covered valley to the edge of a glacier. Not our favorite hike, but it did make the artisanal burgers at La Pizzaria in Chaiten that much more delicious.

Day three was Las Cascadas Escondidas (waterfalls), virgin forest with 3,000-year-old Alerce trees, and the still-smoking Chaiten volcano, which last erupted in 2008.

Up next: how we got back to civilization in Puerto Montt on a night boat full of cows…