Journey to Chile

Now we are continuing our journey to Chile. About 700 kilometers mostly on gravel roads, which takes a damn long time. In the evening, we drove into a huge cloud of smoke, which was probably caused by a large fire. Originally, our plan was to stay overnight in the next town, but it was getting late. Well, the 'town' was a police station, a snack bar, a hostel, and 5 other houses. Since we were not sure about the fire, we asked at the police station if they knew if the fire was under control or if we should drive on. The two police officers were a bit overwhelmed by the question, until we told them about the fire, they knew nothing and said they would check. Well, we weren't any wiser afterwards, but we decided to drive on.

The next day, our gas station attendant told us that there were major forest fires in Chile, strange that he is better informed than the police. Especially since the smoke clouds could be seen over 300 kilometers away.

Chile and Argentina have a pretty fierce rivalry, mainly coming from the border dispute. Therefore, the roads to the border posts from both sides are always very bad, long and unpaved roads, we think this is the measure to deter people from crossing the border. Here you only see trucks driving around again. From the highway from Argentina to the Carretera Austral (Southern Road) in Chile, it is 300 kilometers of very bad gravel road, including two border crossings that seem to be from the Middle Ages. At the Argentinean border crossing, the policeman told us emphatically once again that everything is better in Argentina, so that we know what to expect. Let's see when the countries settle their rivalry.

The Carretera Austral stretches over 1200 kilometers to the south of Chile, through the Chilean rainforest and has been 'under construction' for 40 years. Previously, people who lived there could only reach the nearest town by horse or boat. In addition, with the Carretera Austral, the internet is slowly reaching the towns, that's something. Additionally, the Carretera Austral is THE road that many tourists travel along. Many can be seen here, on bicycles, on foot, and a bunch of European trucks. It's crazy that 300 kilometers further there is the Argentinean Patagonian steppe and here everything is mountains and rainforest. But for us, it's a welcome change.