On the Carretera Austral in Chile
February 2007
At Queulat National Park
Kawi towing service
We were camping together with other travellers on the outskirts of El Chaltén and enjoyed the wonderful view over Fitz Roy. After a Kawi excursion to the Lago del Desierto, we stopped next to a Subaru, which was standing in the village, with its hood open. Jonathan and Macarena have bought this car in Santiago in order to travel through Argentina and Chile for three months.
Jonathan explained the problem with the ignition to us in Swiss-German. Since we did not have any tools with us, we could not help. We therefore towed the "Subi" with our Kawi through the village to the place, where we were camping with Robusto.
The ignition system was dissassembled, cleaned and re-assembled. Hurrah, the car was running again. After Macarena marvelled at the tool and spare parts store of Robusto, she said, when saying good-bye: "Robusto is like a Solidmac, a Chilean construction and workman market".
Later we met the two of them in Chile Chico. Their Subaru was still running and we hope, it has been ever since on their trip.
"Little Monster"
We had met Bruno and Renate, a Swiss couple, on our trip to Morocco in January 2006 in Agzd. At that time, they were travelling in their enormous motor home called "Monaco".
They told us that they had ordered a MAN 4x4 chassis, in order to build a structure on it themselves. Quite obviously they were very curious and interested in Robusto.
In the meantime, they had build a great vehicle called "Little monster", had sold her former big motorhome, gone on a test trip to Morocco and had then shipped it to South America.
One year later, we met again on the carretera austral and spent some eventful and interesting days together.
We will probably meet again in some months in Altiplano.
Carretera Austral
Construction for this road was begun in 1976. Twenty-three years were needed to complete its gigantic length of 1200 km. Pinochet spent - of course for military reasons - some 300 million dollars on it. It is a lane through the rain forest, along glaciers, snow-covered mountains, volcanoes, rivers and lakes (including the second most longest lake of South America, the Lago General Carrera).
It is a region with high precipitation. After all, this is the area of the cold rain forest. The tarpaulin that we tied to the horizontal fixation rail on the sides of Robusto, provided protection against sun and rain. Relaxing in our camping chairs underneath, we could observe the vicinity. Thanks to the Bluetooth outdoor loudspeakers, that we bought in Santiago, we can enjoy our sundowners with suitable music (we now have a collection of some 1300 digital CDs) or some chapters from an audiobook.
Edy had caught some fish and at dinner we almost felt as if we were self-sufficient ... with the exeption of wine, maybe.
Will Amigo take this dog as an example? It belongs to other travellers, with whom we spent a few days, and caught a bird (we don't know the name of the species, but it was an enormous bird looking similar to a chicken), which we fried and ate.
We used our wet-pit pump to fill our tank with water from the crystal clear and clean water of the mountain streams - enough water to wash some washing machines full of clothes from time to time. When hanging out the clothes for drying, however, we had to fix them very well, so that they would not be gone after a while in the strong Patagonian wind.
Argentina vs. Chile
Argentina with its 39 millions inhabitants and Chile with its 16 million share a common border of some 5000 km in length, but nevertheless keep cold-shouldering each other. The Chileans are the cool and silent northeners, whereas Argentinians are rather extrovert and noisy as southeners generally are. Argentinians have a reputation of not being very modest, nor very quiet.
Where is life better?
For Argentinians, the answer is obvious: Their neighbours cannot stand their life at home! Based on studies, eight times as many Chileans live among Argentinians than vice versa. There is no other country in the world, that is so much engrossed in navel gazing as the Argentinians - and yet, they hardly know themselves.
Argentinians were squandering their wealth and became poorer and poorer - no other nation ruined its wealth so thoroughly within just one century. The Chileans, however, saved their money and became richer and richer. Among all the South American countries, Chile has the highest savings-to-income ratio and is nearly free of debt.
For us travellers, both countries are fantastic and problem-free travelling countries.
The ten border stations between the two countries have proven to be uncomplicated and we usually had crossed the border quite quickly.
One finds good camping sites in wonderful landscapes and is not molested or hassled by the locals. Interest in Robusto and in our itinerary, however, never ceased and remains enormous.
The inhabitants of both nations are very proud of their country and frequenly give us hints on very special places that are particularly nice.
Chile is more expensive to travel in, but prices are still very reasonable compared to Switzerland.
We are looking forward to continue travelling through these two countries.
A globetrotter's question: „Are you the ones with the Stabilo?"
We answered: „Yes, Robusto is also a stable vehicle".
Photos
Chile - Argentina: February 2007
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 01
Fitz-Roy-massif with the "fire peak"
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 02
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 03
El Chálten at sunrise
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 04
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 05
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 06
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 07
stony place to stay overnight
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 08
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 09
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 10
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 11
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 12
Roli from Vienna is travelling since 3 years in South America.
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 13
122km on adventurous gravel road along the Lago General Carrera.
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 14
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 15
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 16
Meeting at the Rio Baker with Bruno and Renate from Switzerland.
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 17
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 18
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 19
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 20
fish or meat for dinner?
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 21
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 22
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 23
Co-user of the Carretera Austral "Rn7"
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 24
excursion in the national park "Quelat"
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 25
cold, Chilean primary-rainforest
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 26
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 27
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 28
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 29
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 30
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 31
"Ventisquero Colgante", the hanging glacier
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 32
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 33
Carretera Austral, a single-trace gravel road
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 35
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 36
Fabian sells homemade cheese.
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 37
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 38
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 39
Suspension bridge over the Rio Yelcho
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 40
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 41
waiting for...
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 42
Dolphins
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 43
We enjoyed 4 days at the beach of Santa Barbara.
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the fantastic, wild Pumalin Park
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 46
Alerce, the Patagonian cypress
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 47
up to 3′500 years old
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 48
in 3 years the diameter increases approx. 1mm
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 49
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 50
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 51
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Pangue-plants
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 53
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 54
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 55
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02.2007 Chile Argentinien 56