Agora mais um trecho do relato de Zelfa e Gunnar que fizeram uma viajem pelo Chile em 2001 pela "Carretera Austral". Acompanhe algumas histórias deste passeio com muita aventura e lugares bonitos.

The rain had stopped and we woke up to a beautiful sunny day where we could see the top of the mountains around us covered with fresh snow. Gunnar went out to the car before breakfast to find out that two tiers were on the ground, being our 4th and 5th flat tier. We had to ask for help to take the tiers to be fixed. Finally everything was set more gas and off we were to a great new starting on the 'Carrretera Austral'. Smoke of humidity was arising from the trees and mountains, which gave a misty feeling on an early crispy morning. The sun was coming through beautiful and heavy white clouds, which felt like they we very close to us.

Again enjoying seeing the little farms with their chimneys burning wood and sooner we were coming closer to higher mountains when we arrived at Villa Santa Lucia. Santa Lucia has 30 houses, a military camp, one small shop, and accommodation can be found on main street. There is also an old typical wooden church common in the region. Here the road splits continuing north to Chaiten where this part of the Carretera Austral ends, as there's literally no more road. One has to catch a ferry to Chiloe Island or on to Puerto Montt. Since we were not on vacation... this had just been a break from Buenos Aires, we couldn't venture much further north because we were not sure how often the ferries would run as by now it wasn't summer time any more when there's more frequency on these boats.

So, we decided to go east and cross back to Argentina through the Futaleufu pass, which had been advised as the most beautiful one.
For a long time we had talked about driving on this gravel road on the Chilean side, as several years ago we had done the parallel road 'Ruta 40' in Argentina. Looking at the map, one has really no idea of how immense and paradisiac this place is. We had driven in many parts of the world including Canada and Alaska and were impressed with those mountains.

But, here in Chile and Argentina everything is much more impressive, more natural, more native and it gives a through feeling of adventure, as one never knows what's going to happen next and how we'll be able to survive. Being in civilized and paved roads is great, but the excitement of driving through these unknown places where very few people have been is a real sense of adventure.

President Pinochet opened the 'Carretera Austral' in 1988 as a continuation of the Pan-American Highway extending a further 1,013-Km through southern Chile. The 'gravel highway' is divided in 3 major sections: Puerto Montt - Chaiten (242 Km); Chaiten - Coyhaique (435 Km); and Coyhaique - Cochrane (336 Km). We did the middle one from Coyhaique north and our next adventure will be the southern part.

The last portion of the Chilean side was again breathtaking. We saw incredible mountains, lakes, rivers, and more water falls. It was like being in a small Switzerland probably 100 years ago. Little villages, several farms, until we started seeing more people driving by and then saw kayaks, zodiacs, life jaquets, and all kids of water sports equipment on some camps off the road. Immediately we thought we were in the middle of a famous river. It was so confirmed when we reached the town of Futaleufu, the frontier town with Argentina. We stopped at a hosteria that had a lot of advertising for water sports and found out that Futaleufu was the world known town in the summer for high risk water sports. www.exchile.com

We had a great fish lunch at the only restaurant opened 'El Encuentro' and spent a good deal of time talking to the owner who had been also ex mayor in town and had built several of the roads around, etc. We felt very privilege to have reached such an international stop at the end of the world.

Marveled with that incredible nature, we started our return to Argentina. We drove back to Bariloche and spent the night at our favorite and most beautiful Hotel Llao Llao. Enjoyed a bottle of Argentinean red wine by the porch of the hotel overlooking the dark southern sky. Early in the morning, saw the most beautiful sun rise where the sky was full of clouds with pinkish, reddish, burgundy colors, an impressive sight giving energy to a new beginning.
Gunnar drove 1927 Km and again we were happy and thankful for the opportunity of seeing such majestic nature so close to us and still unspoiled.