Still cruising…

Before going up further north of Patagonia, we spend a couple of days relaxing in the National Reserve Jeinimeni. The campsite of the very friendly ranger where we stayed was called ´El Silencio´, a very suitable name as the park is very remote, no tourist bus services go here and we were the only ones staying here. We saw flamingos and huge condors in the mysterious Valle de Lunar (Moon valley). A bizarre scenery with big rocks in different colors and an amazing view over the the whole area all the way until Lago Buenos Aires.

Via Chili Chico we (together with our Brazilian hitchhike friend Caio) get to Puerto Rio Tranquilo where we started our adventure on the famous Carretera Austral. The route to Puerto Rio Tranquilo is already so beautiful, all along the super blue lago Buenos Aires, but Carretera Austral is a new experience in itself. It´s the ´highway Route 7´ through rural Patagonia, an incredibly ambitious infrastructure project. It´s construction began in the 70s under Pinochet´s dictatorship to connect all the remote communities in this thinly populated part of Chile, it´s only fully open for traffic since 2000. A 1200km (mostly) gravel road with rocks, huge potholes and narrow passings through the beautiful thick forests, fjords, glaciers and steep mountains…some parts even require ferry crossings. If it rains a lot (which it does in this part of Chile) it gets very slippery and some parts become unattainable. There are still lots of ongoing roadworks to improve/asphalt certain parts, so it was not unusual that we were stopped a couple of times on a roadblock for hours when dynamite explosions are taking place. Insane driving at some points, we are impressed that our Tutti Frutti whitstanded all of this!

Cerro Castillo was our next stop, where we stayed on a campsite of a very chilled hostal with a cozy communal space….really nice that we could cook inside as temperatures are still quite cold here (freezing at night). An interesting observation is that the concept of ´siesta´ is alive in all parts of Chile and Argentina, even here when it´s cold and rainy. Luckily the day we hiked up to the top of Cerro Castillo was a clear dry day, still cold – some of the paths were frozen, but beautiful with all the autumn colors in the forest.
The next couple of days we drove up further north, where the cold seemed to dissappear but only to be replaced by ongoing rain… This is normal for this time of year in this part of Chile, so we could knew, but guess we´d probably underestimated the limitations from it… We notice it´s really low season now, which means lots of campsites/refugios are closed and some activities aren´t taking place anymore due to bad visibility. As a consequence we had to skip some things which in return helped us to create a bit more flexibility in the rest of our schedule (which was too tight anyway).

Since we got to Puerto Varas we feel we stepped into a different Chile, it´s more populated (90% of Chile´s population is concentrated in the middle of the country) and it feels European, great cappuccino with superdelicious brown german bread is making us happy 🙂

From Puerto Varas we cross the border to Argentina again to go to San Carlos de Bariloche. We see a lot of Alpine influences here so we can totally imagine that this is Argentina´s winter wonderland in a couple of months from now. We visit some local microbreweries and the Colonia Suiza. The landscape here is packed with lakes surrounded by snowcapped volcanos, the 7 lakes route is starting here and supposed to be one of the most beautiful roads in the world. The weather couldn´t be better,  mirror lakes, snowy peaks in the background and forest in autumn colors, gorgeous!

Back in Chile again we visit Pucon, a true paradise for outdoor adventure. Equipped with an ice axe we make a very special hike here on the active Villarrica volcano. In the evening before we see the crater of the volcano glowing in the dark while the whole mountain is full of snow. It was cool and a bit scary at the same time, to reach the top the next day and see lava boiling down in the crater! Descending the mountain (2800m) was the most fun part of it, as we slide down on our buts, protected by some sort of diaper 😉 this was hilarious and felt like a never ending rodel experience. After the active hike we deserved to chill out in one of the many natural hotsprings, feeling completely zen again 🙂

We continue further north, where better temperatures are awaiting us in the Colchagua Valley. Mountains protecting this area on all sides which makes it perfect for wine production. Great to wake up and be able to have breakfast outside. We enjoy excellent wines here and marshmallows from our own campfire, this is how ideal life in a campervan feels like!

Next stop is the city of Valparaiso which appears unpleasant to us at first; chaos, trash, traffic, noise and smog…but up in the hills we got the see the nice views of the colorful houses and the impressive street art. Small streets that are full of trendy coffee bars, cafes and restaurants.

It´s crazy to see how things have changed over the last weeks, the landscape, the people, the environment. We started in the peaceful but rough Patagonia and are now in the north of Chile, where we see pollution from big factories, lots of nitrate and mineral processing takes place here. We start seeing McDonalds and Starbucks here and there. It´s in extreme contrast with the pure nature we saw in beautiful Patagonia. In some aspects Chile looks like any other Western country where people have iPhones and big TV flatscreens, but on the other side they still seem far away from being a 1st world country if you look at service levels and caring for the environment.

We´re now in Iquique, north Chile, a surfers walhalla and beach town in the Atacama desert, which is apparantly the driest desert in the world. A few days of relaxing here before we head to San Pedro to hand back in our Tutti Frutti 😦

View on Lago Buenos Aires

Our campspot in Jeinimeni National Reserve

Cooking by the fire

Landscape in Jeinimeni National Reserve

Valle de Lunar

Big condors in the sky

Amazing view from Valle de Lunar

Small holy gaucho places on the side of the road for safety, we see them everywhere

Road to Puerto Rio Tranquilo

Carretera Austral

Roadblock, waiting for hours…

Cerro Castillo

On top of Cerro Castillo; glacier, lake and red forest

What a view

Lots of rain so many waterfalls

View on Osorno volcano

Twilight from our campspot in Puerto Varas

Berlina microbrewery in Bariloche

Trying out the local drink called mate – hot water with herbs

7 lakes route

7 lakes route

Sunrise at the start of our climb on volcano Villarrica

Halfway – making our way up to the top of vulcano Villarrica

Chilling in the hotspring

Waking up on the beach in Pucon with one of our many dog friends

Banana pancakes for breakfast with view on the vineyard

Tour in the Lapostolle winery

Colchagua valley

Marshmallows are soooo good

Gauchos at work

Evening fire on top of a hill with sea view

Valparaiso streetart

Valparaiso streetart

Valparaiso streetart

Valparaiso streetart

Valparaiso

Inca gold fruit

Our campspot in Iquique

Coronitas – living the good life