Day 292: La Carretera Austral – Day 3
After a peaceful night’s sleep parked in our fiord-facing mirador, we woke up to a lovely surprise: since the fiord was connected to the ocean, there were sea lions and dolphins swimming right in front of our campsite! They were a little too far away for us to get a good picture, but we enjoyed watching them play around as we ate our breakfast.
We took off around 8:30AM and made our way to Coyhaique by noon. Coyhaique was a HUGE city, with a university, Costco-sized grocery stores and a strong 3G data signal. Unfortunately, there was also a lot of traffic and not many parking spots, so after we picked up a few essentials we got back on the road and ate lunch on a quiet shoulder outside of town. We continued our drive south for a few more hours before calling it an early day at 4:30PM.
Driving around the fiord in the early morning light
“From this place you can see the River Cisnes coursing through the valley, it is 160KM from its source at the mouth of the Puyuhuapi Canal to the south of Port Cisnes. With a basin of 5,196km² of surface area, this part of the river increases considerably, creating sections of backwater and fast moving rapids. The surrounding vegetation is mainly made up of species of evergreen forest.”
Lindsay runs out into the wildflowers to take a picture of some wind turbines – harvest that natural energy, Chile!
Another glorious day in Patagonia
Pulling over to the side of the road for lunch
“Native Huemul: The Huemul Deer is native and exclusive to the Southern Andes, and is in danger of extinction. It is distributed from central Chile to the Magallanes region, today the largest populations are found in this region and in Aysén. In Aysén and the Castle Peak National Reserve you have the possibility to observe this beautiful specie in the Southern route in its natural habitat, which is a privilege and pride of this region and we invite you to support the conservation by taking care and driving slowly through this habitat.”
Looking for the elusive Huemul Deer as we drive through their supposed habitat – we saw nuthin’
Summertime in Patagonia – the land is covered in wildflowers
“The Devil’s Slope Viewpoint: From here you can see a majestic panoramic view of the imposing Castle Peak which is 2,75m in height and covered in snow and dense forest. Below, you can see the winding curves of the Ibanez River, which is over 88KM in length, flowing into the General Carrera Lake. Reflecting nature, the winding and steep curvy pass of the Devil’s Slope arises, opened by the first settlers who travelled in this virgin and inhospitable Southern route.”
The twisty road of the Devil’s Slope
The jagged profile of Castle Peak
Cruising down the Carretera Austral
“Dead Forest” – Igor has to stop and takes pictures of the dead trees
Normally we like to keep driving until dinnertime, but Lindsay slammed on the brakes when Igor found the PERFECT campsite in the late afternoon. It was big (you could easily fit 5 cars), private (hidden behind a row of thick trees and bushes), and had water access (a very clean river). It was still warm and sunny when we pulled over, so we decided to take care of business. It had now been 3 days since our last shower and our bodies and clothes were starting to smell pretty ripe (TMI?). While the sunshine helped us to strip down, the water was way too cold for us to get in all the way. I’ll let you imagine how we managed to get clean. Suffice to say, we felt very refreshed by the end of the ordeal.
Our favorite campsite of the trip! A secluded spot next to the river, hidden from the road behind some dense trees
We call it a day really early, giving us plenty of time to wash our clothes and even take a “Polish shower” in the frigid stream. Hey! It may be primitive, but it keeps us from being stinky!
Taking pictures of our little oasis, and chilling a bottle of bubbly in the river
When it starts to rain at night, we hang our damp laundry over our heads as we tuck into bed