The drive started by 8:30 AM. We have to pass Cerro Castillo before 2 when construction will close the road. We will be on pavement until there – about 90 Kms but dirt the rest of the way – 315kms it will be to get there.
The road turns to dirt, bump bump. The truck 6 speed copes well, but I hold the gear shift in place so it won’t bump into neutral. We pick up 2 hitch hikers in the paved section of the park. They choose to hop out just as the road turns to dirt, before the construction.
In Cerro Castillo, we take on 4 more hitchhikers – 2 girls and 2 guys who explain that they met down here and they go to the same Santiago university! Their weight makes for plenty of ballast on the wash board surfaces. They are so grateful for the ride -Thank you thank you times 4.
We stop to wait for construction delays 3 times today – at least 20 minutes each. The road work is impressive – inconvenient, but well organized. We see signs thanking drivers for having to the patience to build a better Chile – Mejor Chile! Is a frequent billboard. They are carving, blasting, cutting, scraping and hauling huge volumes of earth up and down the river banks through mountain ranges, lakes and steep, steep terrain. For 12 hours, I am focused on washboard rattles, odd stone clunks, shoulder drop offs, oncoming traffic and of course the well known sometimes visible pot hole.
Meanwhile the views are extraordinary. Ranges of unnamed glaciers, huge skies, variable rivers and ginormous lakes come and go. As explained in the guide book, there are no road side features except unmarked pull off gravel patches.
We plan to stop for sure where gas is available in Puerto Tranquillo – half way there – where we happily wait in line to fill up the tank. It is 15,000 pesos only as diesel is cheap here. The Carreterra road is full of kids lingering by small camping sheds. There is a marble cave to explore by boat that is an attraction on the huge lake General Carrera. Our hitchhikers burst out of the truck with a happy whoop to hug a whole new set of friends they did not expect to see. It is an impromptu summer break party! (The girls are going to the hostel, the guys are going camping they say). Another quick and well meaning thanks – and they are off!
We are soon looking in a different direction with a different expression.
Our front left tire is very low on the left, so we fill it up – checking inside the door for the tire pressure recommendation – looks like the same as the US. We balance all of them with more/less air. The back rear right is in question!
I pick up some food at a market around a corner – that is open at 3 pm during siesta – apples, bananas, and at another small house I find some fresh local bread. A third store has nothing we can use – packets of tang and cans of weird food. But they do have a big bag of fresh carrots and potatoes. The carrots look dirty, but could be tasty so I get those, too.
Driving out of town, a girl is alone and waving for a ride. OK, MP says. Then a guy comes up. OK we say. Only 2 because of the tire. The rest of them know they have to wait. (This system must take a long time because there aren’t nearly enough cars on the road that we see to pick them all up!)
Hale and Sebastian meet each other in the open back of our truck. She turns out to be from Turkey. She’s been on the road for 3 years. Sebastian is from Conception on break for 3 weeks. Two sweet souls we are to learn as we hop out during road delays.
The right rear tire goes very low somewhere along the way that I notice on a quick photo stop. We continue on with Hale’s urging as it “has a little more in it”. When she hears it flapping, about half an hour later, we really have to stop. Turns out that Sebastian has just learned how to change a tire just like this one two days ago! We pull out the jack and as instructed back at the rental car place at the airport, we/ Sebastian lowers the spare from the bottom of the chassis by cranking it down. In 15 minutes or so, the spare is on – but IT is LOW!! (I am fuming at Hertz under my breath).
We go slow, we push past the unmarked entrance to Valle Chacbuco to get the tires – now 2 of them- repaired in the next town of Cochrane that is 18 more Kms. Hale knows the way to the town square as she has been there before. This is where Sebastian can ask one of the locals where to fix the tire. (The gas station can’t do it). ((And Don’t go to the Neumatico place you saw coming into town – they are not good)) Sebastian’s new friend says “Follow me” which we do. A quick good bye to our helpful hitchhikers. He is in an old white truck. Another Thank goodness! The place is way off any pavement down another kilometer of dirt road to a large steel shed. Anther quick and heart felt Thank you to this guy who showed us how to get here.
Here we are – at Los Hermanos! A large tin shack of corrugated steel. It is beautiful. One brother does all the work. He nods, smiles, stops working on the car on the lift and takes tells his brother to get the spare tire off the car. He is in control! The tires are on and off the rim, flipped back and forth. This one is better than that. They are patched and popped back on the rims. The spare has a nail in it. The other tire has a slice on the side. He balances all the air – don’t drive with full air on the pot holes – not full is good here, he says. The bill is 10,000. Machismas gracias!!
We drive back to Valle Chacabuco, waiting again for a construction Pare sign to switch to Siga and finally turn in to the route to the valley. It is 8:30 PM The sun has another hour before it sets. We are coming for the first time to this place we have been getting to for 3 days…well maybe it is 4 by now.
It turns out to be worth the wait.
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