Wind, mountains, glaciers and wilderness are probably the first thoughts that cross one's mind when mentioning Patagonia - apart from the clothes brand :) In reality, the Patagonian region includes so many different landscapes and climates that a brief description or idea is practically impossible. We have been looking forward to this part of our trip from the very beginning. Around two months in our trip (and still thinking we would only stay for half a year) we had to make a difficult choice between the Amazon and Patagonia. At that time we were just a click away from buying flight tickets to southern Argentina in order not to miss the appropriate climate to see this part of land. In the end we stayed travelling long enough to spend the southern winter in more appropriate places and started the Patagonian adventure with spring in it's full swing. Our next couple of blogs will be all about our Patagonian experience. But let's begin where we left our story the last time. Southwards from Puerto Montt, Chilean coast becomes increasingly complex with large fjords cutting deep into the continent and thousands of islands being scattered all around the place. Connecting these remote places with roads proved to be extremely difficult and expensive. The ongoing and grandious project of the famous Carretera Austral is still under way - for now more than half of the road is still unpaved and several ferry transfers are necessary to cross the larger fjords. We decided to skip the first ferry ride and chose detour making a stop in the valley of Cochamo - a paradise land only accesible by foot or horse ride. The trails lead through lush forests following a beautiful cristal clear green Cochamo river. During our stay, the snow in the mountains disabled us from some additional hiking, but just reaching the campsite surrounded by massive granite peaks was worth the hike.
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The "heavy snowfall" in the Andes had stopped and the mountain passes were open once again. When crossing the mountain range, we saw around 30cm of fresh snow - in Europe it would probably have been cleaned out in a matter of hours and the international border crossing wouldn't have been blocked for multiple days. We crossed the border and went back to Santiago to pick up some of our gear we had left there for the time of travelling with Manca's parents. Most of Chile we had seen so far was pure desert. The expensive prices of gasoline, tolls and campings and the great time we had had in Mendoza almost convinced us to return and continue through Argentina. But since this also meant a more than 500 kilometer detour we reluctantly decided to continue our way south through Chile. And what a great decision this was! If you look at the satellite picture of Chile you can see that just around Santiago there is a pretty sharp colour change from sandy brown to lush green. Our experience on the ground was pretty much the same. The landscape south of Santiago is full of fertile lands that are filled with dairy farms, wineyards, fruit and vegetable greenhouses and all of it in immense proportions. To top it all, there are forests, beautiful lakes and green grasslands that finish just at the Pacific ocean where we spent some days among the pine-trees and sounds of wild ocean waves. |
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February 2019
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