According to our borrowed Chile guidebook (thanks Catalina!), the Carretera Austral “rank[s] among the world’s ultimate road trips”. Our impression of it when we decided to take it on was that we were in for difficult roads and beautiful scenery. The roads turned out to be somehow better AND worse than we thought. And true to its reputation, the scenery both surprised and humbled us. Before starting the Carretera, however, we needed to make our way down there. On the way south we discovered a whole world of incredible non-Patagonia coastal scenery that we weren’t expecting. Our journey began by taking coastal roads south through Pichilemu (back to our old stomping grounds for a quick visit), Bucalemu, Constitución, Concepción, and finally to Valdivia. Then we crossed over through Osorno and on to Puerto Montt, the gateway to Patagonia.

We were amazed at how much the Chilean coast reminded us of California – but perhaps 50 years ago before so much of it succumbed to overdevelopment. There were beautiful rural farms, rocky coastlines, untouched wetlands, empty beaches, and some good surf spots for Javi. We camped in Condorito all along the way, and of course stopped every now and then for a delicious Pisco Sour. By the time we got to Valdivia, we were ready for a hearty meal out and we were so stoked to find that this university town had an awesome craft beer scene and a lot of great restaurants, many of them German-influenced. So we hunkered down at El Growler with some IPAs and the best Reuben sandwich and fries we’ve had in recent memory. It was a decadent and welcome outing. By the time we got to Puerto Montt, we had already experienced some tough roads and wanted to get Condorito checked out and purchase a roof rack, so we didn’t see much of the town but just ran around doing car stuff. We got him checked out (a-ok!), got some new tires, and were back on the road.

With the help of our nifty guidebook we decided to head down the island of Chiloé then cross over to the Carretera, instead of starting the Carretera from Puerto Montt where it actually begins. We are so happy we did because Chiloé is a really beautiful and unique place. It reminded us a lot of rural Ireland, with green rolling hills, pastoral landscapes, and lots of sheep and cows. To get to Chiloé, we took the first of what would be many (SO MANY) ferry rides with Condorito. We met some California folks on the way and free camped with them at a spot we found using the very helpful iOverlander app. It was fun to hang with some fellow travelers and hear their stories and advice as they’d been traveling for quite a while, driving all the way from California through Central and South America. It was an absolutely gorgeous beach and we saw our first penguin, just swimming along as if no big deal.

As we made our way south we hit a few more tough roads (loose gravel and dirt, potholes, etc), but Condorito made it through and we became more confident about the Carretera. We camped for a couple of nights in the Parque Nacional on the island, and came upon a local food festival put on by the local indigenous community. We ate some delicious empanadas and sopapillas and continued south. In Quellon, we stopped by a coffee shop by the name of Isla Sandwich and had the best strawberry tart/pie thing that we’ve ever had. The coffee was excellent to boot.  Duly charged up, we swung by the ferry office to book a five hour ferry across to Chaitén and made our way to Parque Pumalín for a few days.

Entering Parque Pumalín  was an exciting journey, we had made it to Northern Patagonia and the Carretera! It was happening! Unfortunately, we also learned that a small portion of the Carretera had been wiped out by a terrible mudslide which devastated the town of Santa Lucia. It seems that Chile is used to these kinds of disasters (although obviously the tragic effect is never diminished) – mudslides, earthquakes, floods – and so the government had quickly set up a free seven hour ferry around the mudslide. We sorted out our ferry plans and then headed to Parque Pumalín for a few days of camping and hiking, and a view of our first glacier! Pumalín was started by the late great Doug Tomkins, who founded The NorthFace. His and his wife’s legacy is incredible; they have protected over 2 million acres of land in Chile, and (being Americans) have been able to do it in a way that respects the country’s pride in their own landscapes. We were impressed with the scenery in Pumalín and were surprised that it was so green, lush, and warm. The park was well maintained and the hiking trails were beautiful. We hiked through what felt like a magical fairy land past waterfalls, over rivers, up volcanoes, and down to pristine mountain lakes.

After Parque Pumalín we took our long (and free!) ferry down to a little fishing town called Raul Marin Balmaceda. The ferry ride was really interesting in comparison to the others we’ve taken on this trip given the fact that we were able to sleep in our truck.  While certainly more comfortable than an outside deck, the rocking and rolling of the ferry made for a truly surreal night of “car camping”. Once we arrived in Raul Marin we skipped the town entirely that first time around, but would discover on our way back up the Carretera that it is an absolutely breathtaking place (more on that later). After getting Condorito’s first tow up a hill from a helpful man in a truck (whoops!), we passed through La Junta and continued to make our way further south down the Carretera.

Parque Nacional Quelat was a memorable stop, with a great campsite and a gorgeous hike up to view a huge glacier hanging over a uniquely colored glacial lake that turns into a raging river, with gigantic waterfalls literally everywhere. Needless to say, our minds have just blown been this entire trip. We continued down, camping along the way and seeing a ton of rainbows, turquoise lakes, and snow capped mountains. Throw in dolphins, penguins, seals and otters, and the scenery is unreal.

The biggest town in the area is Coyhaique, and we stopped there to fix our brake lights and do some shopping and some internetting. Like Puerto Montt, we were so focused on doing chores that we didn’t get a good sense of the town, but we knew we would probably need to pass back through later. It’s a pretty town, though, with lots of backpackers and outdoor adventure stuff going on. We were anxious to move on to the Reserva Nacional Cerro Castillo so we left town pretty quickly after everything got done. Cerro Castillo was a highlight for us because it was sort of our replacement for Torres del Paine, the big destination park in Southern Patagonia. Torres del Paine has that vast and mind boggling scenery that Patagonia is famous for, but it was too far south for us to reach. Cerro Castillo has some of that kind of scenery with tall jutting granite spires and is less crowded and much less expensive, albeit maybe not as mind boggling. It was plenty beautiful for us, though, and also set near a neat little dusty town of the same name. We did a bit of hiking and taking on the scenery, and capped it off with some “schop” or draft beers. It wasn’t without its excitement, though, as we needed to get a second tow up a very big, very steep, very gravel covered hill. We were driving to the hiking trail on an out-and-back road, and we knew this hill would be a problem the second we started going down it. When we got stuck on the way back, we were not surprised. As we begrudgingly started walking the very far walk towards town, another nice couple in a truck helped us out and saved us from a shitty situation. Thanks red truck couple!

As we were heading south on the Carretera enjoying ourselves, in the back of our minds we were also trying to figure out how we were going to get back up north. The roads weren’t as bad as we thought they were going to be (generally speaking), as a substantial percentage of it has been paved. However, the times when it was bad it was REALLY bad. We also had to take various ferries because of landslides or the road just plain being cut off by a river, lake, or bay. It’s a very rural part of Chile so it’s just part of the adventure. We were hoping to perhaps find another way back to Puerto Montt (and then on to Festival Nomade near Osorno). We considered taking a really, really long ferry from Aysen or Cisnes, or going through Argentina. Alas, we discovered the former had been booked for the next few weeks. And for the latter option through Argentina, we heard the roads weren’t any better and in some cases worse. Plus we didn’t have our car title yet, which is necessary for crossing an international border. Thus, we decided to head straight back up the Carretera and stop in a few of the places we missed.

That made Puerto Rio Tranquillo our last stop. And it turned out to be the most epic part of our time in Chile so far!

To be continued…

Chile Part 2

We thought long and hard about what to do after Morocco. Originally we did think of this big adventure in three phases: Road Trip in the U.S., Europe & Morocco, and then something else but we weren’t sure if it would be more of Africa, Asia, South America or some far flung tropical island. But as the bike trip ended and we started into Morocco we felt a little exhausted from all the travel and moving from place to place. Privileged problems yes, but we wondered to ourselves if it was time to just throw in the towel and head home. We had enough money to do another big portion, but we could just save it for another time we thought. However, as we moved through Morocco, a totally new and different place to us, we gained renewed energy for discovering new lands and far away places, so we decided we would continue ever forward for another few months (4? 5? 6??). It came down to traveling to either Asia or South America, and we decided on the latter for a few reasons. First, the language. Javi of course speaks Spanish and Laura has a long-term unrealized dream of becoming fluent, and so that was a pro for that part of the world. Also, being from Mexico, Javi felt a desire to connect with other Latin Americans, especially in a continent he had never traveled. We figured Chile was as good a place as any to start, with good surf for Javi and it being one of the more developed countries in S.A. (so not as much culture shock). We found a good flight from Andalusia (which was just a hop skip and jump away from Morocco), and booked our new adventure.

We added to the excitement by also deciding that we needed to purchase a car to drive around and then sell before we headed back to the U.S. Yes, that’s right. The first car we ever buy together would be bought in a foreign country with so much bureaucratic red tape for stuff like that it boggles the mind. We arrived in Santiago in early December with plans to take care of some of that infamous red tape (and possibly even finding a car) for a few days before heading to a little surf town a few hours away called Pichilemu. Needless to say, we were in way over our heads as foreigners trying to purchase a car here, and none of the documentation or car-finding got done in those few days so we went to Pichilemu by bus, empty handed. In fact, the car buying would not occur until almost a month later because of how unprepared we were to go through this process. We will spare you the boring details but basically we had to make a friend, to get a number, to go to the notary, to secure the document, to give to the other guy, etc. Eventually we bought our 2012 Fiat Fiorino, lovingly dubbed “Condorito.” But we are getting ahead of ourselves….

Pichilemu was a cute little town. The surf break wasn’t as spectacular as Javi had hoped, given that this was supposed to be Chile’s number one surf destination, but he got himself a surfboard and wetsuit and managed just fine. We had booked a small cabin right near the ocean for about three weeks, including Christmas. It was janky but charming, with a wonderful host name Marta and two ridiculous and lovable dogs that followed us everywhere we went. It was nice to just chill for that long in one place. That’s really the main reason we booked it for so long, because it had been over a year since we stayed put and made a home. We cooked, listened to podcasts, did yoga, went running along the coast, walked the beaches, and all of those things we took for granted when we were stationary. We also worked on our juggling and poi skills and Laura finally made some headway on her Spanish. Most days we ventured out for delicious fried empanadas and Pisco sours (a national cocktail here), and even found a craft beer place. Not a ton was happening in the town; it was a little early in the season for the crowds so it was quiet. The biggest surprise was the weather. It was JUST LIKE Northern California! Cool, cloudy for the most part, and very windy. Admittedly, it wasn’t the South American summer beach destination that we maybe had in our minds, but we took what we could get. We had a nice quiet Christmas, with a yummy home cooked meal and few classic films it took about 24 hours and the entire town’s bandwidth to download. We had been searching for a car this whole time, but to no avail. The car market in Pichilemu wasn’t exactly top notch. One day we even rented a car to drive to other bigger towns to look at cars. We didn’t find a car but got super excited about road tripping through this country.

After Christmas we headed back to Santiago to spend New Years with some friends. Javi has a local friend Catalina who he met many moons ago in Virginia and reconnected with before we landed. She and her family and friends were kind enough to invite us to their beautiful home in Pirque outside of Santiago for a party and to stay the night. It was amazing, and just what we needed after not meeting many folks in Morocco and Pichilemu. After a little bit of a hangover day it was right back to it with the car search and of course finally finding Condorito.

We started heading south pretty much immediately when we got Condorito. We stopped at the Chilean versions of Wal-Mart and Lowe’s to build out a simple bed (nothing like Pick Up and Went) and get some kitchen and storage items. Before we knew it we had way too much stuff of course, and had spent a third of our budget on the car and supplies, but hey we figured we would sell it all later right?

Our ultimate plan is to head north through the Atacama in Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador, and then return to Chile to sell the car (a requirement for foreigners). But first, we wanted to see at least some of Patagonia. We were so close, we had to! The plan we hatched was to head down the coast to the island of Chiloe, then kick around Northern Patagonia, and head back up to Osorno to attend a music festival and travel around the beautiful Lakes District before going further north. Of course when planning a road trip in South America, always be prepared for anything, including a major, terribly tragic mudslide blocking an entire section of your intended path….

More on those adventures next.

Chile Pt. 1