21-22 Jan
2015
(First of all, just a note. For the last few posts I do not seem to be able to do the mapping of each photo that I normally do, which allows you to see my route for each day. Don't know what is going on, but will keep trying. Just so you know I am trying to do the map !!)
Woke up early and got moving – No reason to hang around
here. Had another first time camper next to me last night – This time they had
a caravan they had rented, first night on the road. They had been trying to put out the side
awning and had ended up with a real mess with he awning flapping and the side
bars coming to pieces. It was the same
awning as we used to have on our Winnebago to I went over and showed them how
to do it ! Nice little camp site though
– And good showers and toilets (most important ! (As regular people on here will know from my past similar comments !))
The road down through the island (The continents second
biggest island) runs right down through the middle. The people on the island are largely a
seafaring tribe who developed culturally and historically in defiance of
Santiago. It is famous for its tijuelas (houses made from Chilote wood
shingles) and palafitos (houses mounted on stilts along the water’s edge), as
well as more than 150 iconic wooden churches.
Apparently they have a rich spiritual culture based on a distinctive
mythology of witchcraft, ghost ships, and forest gnomes !
Most of the towns and farms are on the more protected
east side, while the western Pacific Ocean side is largely dense forests and
wild and remote national parks. Driving
down through the middle was largely farming and forestry, and half way down I
came to the town of Castro. I won’t call
Castro interesting, but I did see some of the palafitos they were famous for,
although at low tide I am not sure they had that an attractive outlook (or
odour) ! Shortly after Castro I decided
to drive over to Cucao over on the western coast, and that was quite
interesting. Rolling hills and farmland,
we first passed through the little village of Huillinco, which is situated on
the very scenic lake of the same name.
Passed one amazing 4 story tower of a house made of the local wooden
shingles – It was for sale too !!
Coming to Cucao, there is not a lot there – Lots of small
wooden houses (many of which are cabinas, for rental accommodation) and a lot
of hikers, cyclists and other tourists exploring the area. Wooden shingle
churches and houses, and even a bridge over a sea inlet. But I understand they get pretty wild weather
here, especially in the winter, so not an enormous community. Interesting to see though.
Then it was back to the main road (Ruta 5) down through
the middle, where soon after I passed the wreckage of a big semitrailer that
had not quite negotiated a downhill curve in the road ! It looked pretty fresh, and this was confirmed
the next day when I came past again – It had been removed. Then it was into an extensive road works
section – Probably for about 50 or more kms.
They were laying a new concrete road surface so we had to stop about
every 5 kms and wait for oncoming traffic before we could go – Not much fun,
and by the end it was all getting rather tiresome. Given that it is the tourist
season here, seems like not the best time to be doing major road repairs ?
Anyway, eventually got into Quellon, the southern most
town on the island and the official end of Ruta 5 in Chile. This road has stretched all the way down from
the Peruvian border at Arica where we first entered Chile, so although we
missed some of it, I guess I have seen most of this road ! I drove through the little town which is
primarily a fishing town – Plus the twice weekly ferry across to Chaiten, over
on the mainland, leaves from there twice a week. The town port had quite a lot of bars and
looked like a typical fishing port – A few “sailors” lying under the trees
beside the road sleeping
their intake away !!
Also lots of wooden shipbuilding going on along the waters edge –
Interesting to see. I went straight to
a camp site I had logged which sounded great, and it was. The owners Nelly and Omar couldn’t have been
more friendly and welcoming, and despite the language issue (them no English
and my limited Spanish !) I soon learned of the ferry to Chaiten which is
actually on the road I want to travel on down through Patagonia – The Carretera
Austral. After all the roadworks I had
come through on the way south, I really didn’t feel like driving all the way
back to Puerto Montt in order to drive down the other side again, even though
it was only about 250 kms. So Nelly
suggested I go and book a place on the ferry to Chaiten, and she and
Omar led
me to the shipping office in their car – How kind of them. All to no avail though as apparently both the
Friday and Sunday sailings were full already, and the thought of losing 10 days
just sitting around was too much – Even though this is a delightful spot. Later on I got chatting to Eduardo who was
camped beside me with his girlfriend, and were about to catch the ferry to
Chaiten themselves – But only having bicycles, there was no space problem for
them. Eduardo spoke good English, and
explained a lot about the Carretera Austral to me. There are also 3 ferries on that route (which
I knew about), two short 30 minute ones and one long (3 hour) one. The long one
and second short one you also have to book in advance – But these you have to
book at the shipping office in
Puetro Montt !!
We tried to book on line, but there seemed to be an issue, so in the end
I decided to drive back to Puerto Montt early the next morning and go directly
to the shipping office (for which I now had a name and address !), and see if I
could get on a ferry sooner than waiting around in Quellon for 10 days.
Additionally Eduardo told me that the best bit (or one of the best bits)
of the CA is the first part, with the ferry rides, down to Chaiten. So if I
caught a ferry from Quellon to Chaiten, I would miss this bit ! So that made up my mind – I would head back
to Puerto Montt and then do the 1200 km CA (Carretera Austral) from top to
bottom. But I cannot speak highly enough
of Nelly and Omar – They were SO helpful, and their campsite over looking the
bay and looking across to the volcanoes was simply stunning. And they had wifi, hot showers, etc etc. I would quite happily have stayed there for
several days. But……..
So early the next morning, Thursday, I headed back to Puerto
Montt. (Ferry booking office closed on weekends !) It was trying to rain when I got
up – A kind of Scottish mist – a complete change from the numerous clear sunny
days I had enjoyed recently. So I packed
up, filled the water tank ready for a few days in the wilderness of the CA, and
headed back north. I won’t repeat the trip, except to say that I seemed to hit
the roadworks better and they didn’t seem as tiresome as on the way down. I am glad I went down and saw Chiloe, and
glad I went to Quellon and stayed at Nelly and Omar’s camp site – And it was
very fortunate that I
met Eduardo there who was able to explain the fairly
complicated workings of the “system” for driving the CA, without which I might
have been stuck in no man’s land !! I
was back in P Montt by lunch time, found the ferry office – And found I could
not get space on the longer (3 hour) ferry until Monday !! Ah – Oh well, lets go explore around Puerto
Montt for 3 days !! This is the first
time since Alaska that we have really had a problem caused by needing to book
things ahead, so I can’t really complain.
And learning the finer details about the CA is not something you can
easily do from books or the internet – Most of the information is aimed at or
written by cyclists, and they don’t have an issue booking on the ferries ! So 3 days is a minor price to pay.
So I popped into the tourist office in central P Montt,
and they gave me some ideas – A circular route around scenic Lago Llanquihue
just north of P Montt, including getting up close and personal with the
impressive Volcan Osorno that I had been seeing for several days now, and then
heading down towards La Arena on Sunday where I would catch my first
ferry. Lots of camping sites, so not a
problem if I get there a bit early – Wouldn’t want to miss my ferry and have to
wait another week !!
Wandering around downtown P Montt I bumped into Nicholas,
the Chilean lad on a bicycle who I had given a lift to a few days ago ! He was down on the waterfront amongst all the
other stall holders selling Indian cigarettes (?!) to try to raise some money
to fund his ongoing journey to Punta Arenas. He also has a firestick with which
he juggles and blows fire at the traffic lights to also raise money – But I
have yet to see him do that ! He seem to
spend most of his time chatting up the local girls who came by !!
Then it was back to the car – Where I found an itinerant
windscreen wiper salesman fitting new wiper blades to a car next to mine. I had
a bit of a problem with mine driving up from Chiloe in the Sottish mist and
decided new blades were in order, so why not from this lad ? Together with the
guy who was keeping an eye on my car while it was parked (a kind of security
system down here), this ended up being quite a fun half hour while the guy
chatted, told me about the best places to see on the CA, and we generally had
fun while he fitted my new blades !
Unfortunately I didn’t take any pics of him at work !
I then set off to Lago Llanquihue, and I was driving
directly towards snowcapped Volcan Osorno.
What a great sight ! Through the
little lakeside tourist town of Puerto Varas, and then on round the shores of
the lake to Ensenada, where I knew of a possible camp site. I drove in there and was offered a site so
small I could get Troopie in there, and with trees so low that I couldn’t have
put the pop top up if I wanted to. In
addition they wanted 14000 pesos – That’s about $30 !! Ah, but we have private
bathrooms, she said. For 14000 pesos I
would need the bathroom to be gold plated, I told her. She offered me a slightly larger site, but
still not very nice, but this one was 18000 pesos !! I left.
I literally drove 6 feet to the next door place which
also had a camping sign. Bigger blocks,
nice people, wifi, hot showers, can do laundry – How much ? 4000 pesos !!! I can SEE the 14000 peso block from where I
am camping, and I know which is the nicer camp site. So I have decided to relax here for a day or
two, get laundry done, change the fuel filter, and do a few chores, and just
chill out on the shores of Lake Llanquihue.
So here I sit, waiting form my ferry ride on Monday morning to start my
adventure down the Carretera Austral.
Can’t wait !!
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