Retroactive Ramblings
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2004
1
58
164
Trip End
Ongoing
Coyhaique,
Chile
Saturday, March 12, 2005
While we are waiting for the van, we thought it would be a good opportunity to fill you in on our travels of the week prior to 'The Accident'. The road south from Coyhaique is decent tarmac for the first 95 km and it was a great feeling to be riding smoothly on our new shocks. The frosted basalt peaks of Reserva Nacional Cerro Castillo were soon towering over us on both sides of the highway with several impressive glaciers shrouded by low lying cloud. The lower slopes of the mountains were swathed in large expanses of wild yarrow and forests of southern beech. All too soon the road reverted to gravel - in parts very good, but very often bone-rattling washboard. Our first sight of Lago General Carrera was quite stunning - a spectacularly brilliant turquoise blue lake shimmering in the sunshine.
01 Majestic frosted peaks of Cerro Castillo
It is fed by many glacial rivers and has a very high concentration of 'glacial flour'. This ground-up rock stays suspended in the water and diffracts light to give the lake its amazing colour. It is the largest lake in Chile (and the second largest in South America after Lake Titicaca) and is shared with Argentina, where it is known as Lago Buenos Aires. At Puerto Tranquilo, on the eastern shore of the lake, we decided on a detour northwest in search of the San Valentin Glacier. This is located on the margins of the Northern Ice Field and lower slopes of the highest peak in the southern Andes. A new access road is under construction up through the valley, but it does not yet connect to the Parque Nacional Laguna San Rafael so there is very little traffic and the area is quite isolated. We were surprised at the amount of destruction still evident on the hillsides from the fires of the 1940s and 50s, which destroyed much of the forest of the area. Chilean law at that time required clearing of trees by whatever means possible in order for settlers to gain title to their land, and very often fires got out of control and swept through hundreds of thousands of hectares. The slopes are still littered with the gnarled and bleached trunks of thousands of decades-old trees.
We stopped further up the valley to buy 'amasado' (homemade bread) for supper from a young German couple who for the past four years have been painstakingly clearing a smallholding, building their log home and setting up a guest house.
02 Achilles 'hill'!
Their efforts will likely be rewarded once the road is finished and there are more travellers heading up to the Bahía Exploradores. Most of the surrounding area was obscured by a dense layer of mist and cloud, and it was not until our return trip down the valley that we were able to appreciate what a spectacular setting Thomas and Katrina had selected for their homestead.Once we had reached almost as far as the road crews had penetrated, we set off on a short hike through the forest and rocks of the moraine to a good lookout point for the glacier. However, this was not the day for grand vistas as the whole area was blanketed under heavy cloud, and it was not long before the light drizzle turned to rain. We decided to hunker down in the van for the rest of the day, and soon had a pot of soup on the stove and were immersed in a exciting game of Scrabble! It rained all night, but eased up enough next morning for us to make another excursion before breakfast. Although the cloud hadn't cleared completely (apparently it rarely does) it was enough to give us a pretty good appreciation of the splendour of Mt. San Valentin and one of her many glaciers.
Back at the lake later in the afternoon we enquired about boat trips to the 'Cavernas de Marmol', an astonishing series of water-sculpted marble and limestone caves that include imaginatively named formations such as the Cathedral, the Chapel and Dog's Head Point. The lake was studded with whitecaps and was judged too rough for a trip at that moment, and anyway it would be better to wait and see if any other visitors wanted to make the trip as well.
03 Spectacular turquoise waters
By six the lake was somewhat calmer and we had been joined by a German couple and a pair of Israeli lads. The caves certainly lived up to their reputation of weird and wonderful shapes, colours and patterns, and elicited an endless series of 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' accompanied by the continuous chorus of camera shutters. We all agreed that it was well worth the somewhat cool and spray-soaked trip across the bay. After the outing we joined Heinz and Maria in preparing a dinner of freshly-caught salmon purchased from a local fisherman. Scrumptious!! The next day we followed the Río Baker (also an astonishing turquoise colour) for many miles, and at one point were able to watch five world-champion kayakers from Canada, the United States, Nicaragua and the United Kingdom effortlessly tackle the turbulent rapids at the confluence with the Río Nef. The Baker River is famous for whitewater rafting trips and attracts fly-fishing enthusiasts from around the world. We were fortunate enough to meet a delightful couple from North Carolina, Gus and Mary, who have been coming here for the past ten years. They escape the worst of the northern winter and rent a cabin on the river for three months of fly-fishing and trips around the area. After a stop in Cochrane to visit the old fashioned General Store which seems to carry just about anything you could ever think you needed, we set out south again - unknowingly heading for our disastrous encounter with a speeding red pick-up truck.
So, what progress on the van so far? Surprise, surprise...the windshield turned out to be the wrong one, so now we are having to get one sent down from Santiago. There are apparently only two in stock in the entire city, and it will take an extra week for ours to get down here by truck. Apparently it is not unknown for fragile items such as windshields to arrive here in pieces due to the bad roads, so keep your fingers crossed for us!
