Aisen Province, Chile – Region XI
Trying to find the freeway from the back seat of the taxi en route to the airport!
Destination – Patagonia National Park in the Chacabuco Valley.
We fly from JFK overnight to Santiago, check in to a hotel near Center City for one night. This gives us enough time to catch up on sleep, find the Museo del Arte PreColombino to orient to the variety of ancient cultures through the geographically diverse narrow country. The weather is warm, dry at the height of summer. People of all ages walk in parks, across the Plaza del Armas and through the colorful Lasterria district where musicians play in the streets, book sellers have tables of their wares, and cafes line the streets – a lively community in a huge city. Thank you Santiago.
Refreshed after segments of sleep, partially adjusted to the 2 hour time change (earlier) we head back to the airport for a 4 hour flight to Balmaceda airport.
Lots of wind and stormy weather to fly through in these northern Patagonia plains.
We are going to rent a car – it is a camionetta, a small pick up truck to that will transport us the 9 hours to the Valle Chacabuco. (We learn that only the engine is covered by the insurance policy! so we ramp up the contract and change to a small pick-up truck. This little red truck has big tires! We take pix of each side, noting all sorts of dents and scrapes – the windshield has two cracks.)
The Carraterra Austral 7 – this is the newly “paved” part of the road. Services still to be added. The only gas station will be in Puerto Tranquillo 150 kms from Balmaceda Airport.
The road runs straight north/south – the Carrera Austral 7 that has been paved up here. The guide book says broken windows are as common here as parking tickets in NYC!
The red Nissan pick up comes with 53,000 KMs, a diesel engine with six forward gears. We have a 3 minute lesson on how to change a tire, where to call in case of an emergency (from 10 am til 6 pm) and a thin receipt that says we paid for the truck.
We head out of the airport in the wrong direction on the only road.
There is no sign until 100 yards where the road is blocked. We have to pull off the road to the Chilean Aduana. Well, customs? In each province? They take our PDI piece of paper (Police Department of Information – not investigation!). We have just crossed into Argentina! NO Hey! Turns out our passports are stamped again so we are legal, but they won’t give us the paper back.
We leave in time to move our truck out of the way of a huge 18 wheeler that is mighty interested in getting down the road. Reverse works. It is way off on the right side of the gear box. The rear view mirrors are terrific – and clearer than the windshield.
We are on the way – this time in the right direction.
You can’t get to Valle Chacabuco from the airport in one day, so we recommend doing what we did – go the other way – north to Coyhaique. It is an hour or 52 KMs – assuming you start off in the right direction!
The Coyhaique Hotel has a huge bed with terrific showers. Aisen Province has clear water from the tap. It is very quiet. They say others are staying here, but we don’t see them. Antlers, hides on the bed, photographs of Mapuches from days past with letters in longhand super imposed in double negative printing – frames of old weathered wood reused again. Nice. There is a young girl who welcomes us, a guy outside who seems to take care of everything. We are here. It is Sunday. The restaurant is closed, so they suggest we walk to the Dream. It is a gambling casino on the other side of the 6 – 7 block town. Buffet is not bad at all. Several people are dining there. They seem to be travelers, probably Chileans.
We drive through two regional parks today.
There is one mountain range after another that continue the whole 350 km way to Cochrane.
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