Since I arrived in Chile, I had one conviction regarding Patagonia: it had to be done by car! From top to bottom, through Chile and Argentina, this area has more than 2500 kms length, two mystic dirt roads (Carretera Austral in Chile and Ruta 40 in Argentina) and a tempting lack of regular connections and civilization in general. With a 4WD vehicle you can go (almost) everywhere and, with time, it is the perfect companion to discover the true unexplored Patagonia, far from the tourist traps. This adventure started taking shape when two friends from Portugal came to visit me and we decided to go to Patagonia. A 17-day road trip through the entire Patagonia was the plan, from Chaitén to Ushuaia, driving more than 5000 kms across the most remote parts of this remote place. Another friend from Paranal joined the group and the four of us departed to the end of the world. We flew to Coihaique, in the middle of the Carretera Austral and there we rented a vehicle, which played one of the main roles on this trip. Suzuki Grand Vitara 2010, 4-Wheel Drive (4WD), air conditioning, 7000 kms, 2400cc, manual transmission and a lot of character!
The first unexpected event happened already before the trip started. One of my friends had his bag lost somewhere on the way to South America and we had it sent to Coihaique. Fortunately, it arrived the day after and we didn't lose much time with that. We spent one night in Coihaique, the capital of the XI region of Chile and the center of this part of Patagonia, and went the next day to Puyuhuapi after getting the bag from the airport. We basically went North through Carretera Austral, which is paved around Coihaique but soon becames an exciting and dangerous dirt road. Distances here are large and the road conditions are bad, so every 300 kms we have to drive takes not less than 6 hours and this is the normal distance between villages. In between, the landscape changes quite often from high basaltic snowed rocks to deep green forests, always sided at some point by rivers or crossed by water streams. The road traffic is barely existent, we could drive for 6 hours and pass by just a couple of vehicles. Mobile phone coverage is zero and sometimes phone coverage in villages as well...
We reached the first checkpoint of the trip. Puyuhuapi, a small village by an amazingly calm lake, known in Chile for its top level hot springs (which we didn't visit) and for the big Queulat National Park, which we trekked the morning after, to try and see a glacier. It was covered with the typical morning mist, so it was a flop, but the trek was very nice, through dense woods. We met the first israeli group of the journey. Like every other group we met, they were hitchiking, but we had the car full, so no luck for them. We went back to the village, filled the tank (Petrol is another big issue in Patagonia) and departed to the next stop: Futaleufú, known by its world-class rapids, the best rafting in South America. We kept going North through the Carretera Austral, until the second unforeseen event happened. One of the girls asked to drive, full of confidence, and after 15 minutes we had the car sent outside the road and landing on a considerable rain pond and several wood trunks. Result: A bad wheel, a damaged door, the front bumper heavily damaged and a car in the water without any hope to get out of it, in the middle of nowhere! First thought: How the f*ck do we get out of here?! Second thought: This is it, concerning holidays!
Luckily, after a few minutes, we stopped a car passing by and asked for help. They went to get a rope and came back to help us get the car out of there. A second car stopped as well to help. The plan was quite simple: tie a rope to our jeep and pull it out of the pond with another jeep. Easier said than done, the car was stuck with some logs underwater and it took a while and one broken rope to get it out. I was helping with the independent 4WD torque, but while in the water it was useless. We finally made it, thanked the people who helped (they were priceless), changed a wheel and it was on the road again, though we thought it wouldn't be possible. We drove to the closest village and called the rent-a-car company to report the event. They advised us to get back to Coihaique to have the car properly checked... Ok, we didn't get any further and went back. On the way we stopped at a proper garage to see if the car would make it to Coihaique and to report the event to the police, for insurance matters. We slept another night in Puyuhuapi and the next day drove all the way to the beginning. We arrived at noon, thinking the trip had come to an end... Miraculously, at 5 pm we had the car checked and they told us we could still use it for the rest of the trip. The tire we changed was actually good, though the steering was a bit damaged, however the car was able to continue. We got back on the road immediately, with a damaged door, a couple of lights less and a front bumper half ruined, but happy and grateful that we could go on with the plan. We slept close to the Argentinean border and prepared to cross it the next morning. We didn't get to raft, but in the end we gained one extra day to spend elsewhere... Who would have thought?...
Crossing into Chile, we found ourselves in the 12th region, the Magellan Region. This area is separated from the Aisen Region (where we started the trip) by a large ice field, which means that it has no land access from the rest of the country and you have to cross into Argentina to reach it. I had been in this region before, for one week last year, but my friends hadn't and this is one of the icons of the Chilean Patagonia. The capital is Punta Arenas, where we stopped for one night to see penguins. We took a 5-hour boat ride to Isla Magdalena, in the middle of the Magellan Strait, home of thousands of penguins that are used to human presence and let you get really close. It is always a stunning experience to suddenly see yourself surrounded by such charismatic animals.
On the next day, we departed to Puerto Natales, the closest town to Torres del Paine, the most famous Chilean National Park and the symbol of the Chilean Patagonia. We settled there, as accommodation inside the park is very expensive. Last year I was there to do the famous trek to the Torres, so this year we split into two groups for the first day: my portuguese friends went to do it while me and my Chilean friend decided to do an historical route around the Eberhardt fiord, including kayaking and biking. Hidden behind the wildness of Torres del Paine, Puerto Natales also has its own history and was a port of extreme relevance until the Panama Channel was opened. All boats to South America would go through the Magellan Strait and would stop here for trading and food. The first settlers arrived here from Europe and established huge industries of meat and fish processing. During this trip we kayaked to an island in the middle of the fiord, where ancient graves could be found, though now it is occupied by many bird species who come here to nest. We then biked on one of the fiord shores, in a peaceful idyllic scenery.
The day after, me and my Portuguese friend were going for an epic journey to Torres del Paine, for an alternative trek to a glacier and a cascade, rated as an 18-hour walk there and back! We thought we could make it in 12 hours easy and decided to give it a try. However, our beloved car wanted some attention and surprises started again: a flat tire! Nobody had noticed it the day before so it must have been during the trip to Torres del Paine but losing air slowly during the night. We replaced the tire and searched for a garage to try to recover the tire. We were told that the tire was good and somehow it had deflated... Good, we replaced the tire again and moved on with our plans, three hours late. We started the trek at 12:15. According to our best estimates we wouldn't make it to the end, but we decided to do part of it anyway, until it was time to go back. We managed to do an epic trek, up to the end and back again, in 7.5 hours, heroic but that left us almost dead! We saw the beautiful waterfall, two glaciers and one lagoon. We didn't see more than 5 people along the way, which made it a peaceful and isolated trek to a rather unexplored part of the park. When we arrived back at Puerto Natales, the second surprise of the day: another flat tire! Not the same, another! This one had clearly got a puncture during the way back and we didn't notice it! The tire was completely wasted and we had to buy another one. Statistics so far: one accident, one wasted tire, one flat tire, five tire changes. We were getting experts on this...
