Blog 17 / Lago General Carrera & Marble Chapel

In Puerto Tranquilo we book a boat tour to the main attraction at Lago General Carrera - the "Marble Chapels". The nearly 2-hour ride takes us to the amazing rock formations - with names like "the chapel" or "the cathedral" - the water has washed out rock caves from the light, multi-threaded marble over thousands of years, the turquoise water leads to beautiful color plays. The boat can enter some caves and there is even a tunnel that you can pass through.

The boat perspective also allows beautiful panoramas of the surrounding lakes and mountains, such as the San Valentin group with its glaciers.

After that, we continue to enjoy the gravel road Carretera Austral, with the "Golden Gate Bridge of Patagonia" over the Rio Bertrand. From now on, we follow the southern shore of the lake to the west - once again towards Argentina. The over 100 km of gravel road to Chile Chico are described in a travel guide as "highly dramatic" - partly justified, on the left steep, unsecured abyss to the lake - one lane for both directions - on the right rock walls with prominent noses, always a challenge with the height and width of our camper!

After Chile Chico and the Argentine border, not only the name of the lake changes - very patriotic Argentine is now called "Lago Buenos Aires" - the character is also completely different - a dull sight between flat Pampa shores.

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In Puerto Tranquilo we book a boat tour to the main attraction at Lago General Carrera - the "Marble Chapels". The nearly 2-hour ride takes us to the amazing rock formations - named "The Chapel" or "The Cathedral". Over thousands of years, the water has eroded caves into the bright, veined marble rock. The turquoise water creates nice color plays. Some caves can be entered by boat and there is even a tunnel that can be passed through.

The view from the boat offers beautiful panoramas of the surrounding mountains - like the San Valentin group with its glaciers.

We continue to enjoy the gravel road Carretera Austral, passing the "Golden Gate Bridge of Patagonia" at the Rio Bertrand. Now we head along the southern shore of the lake to the west - once again towards Argentina. One travel guide describes these over 100 km of gravel road as "highly dramatic" - partly justified. Left hand side: steep, unsecured abysses to the lake - one lane for both directions - right hand side: rocky walls with protruding noses - always a challenge with the dimensions of our truck camper.

After Chile-Chico and the border, not only the name of the lake changes, now perfectly Argentine "Lago Buenos Aires", also the character is completely different - a boring view in the flat pampas.