Third Stop: Chile, Part 4: Always Stay Flexible

Long time no see - you may be wondering why we haven't written a blog post since our hike on the O-Track. The answer is that on any long journey, there are unforeseen and unfavorable circumstances that force you to change your plans. Spontaneous plan changes accompanied us throughout the rest of our journey back to Santiago. There were three reasons for this: Natalie's worsening cold, the weather, and most importantly, the explosive increase in the number of tourists.

About the latter: We had heard that the country's peak vacation season is in January and February, as the weather is supposed to be the most stable and the locals themselves have vacation at this time of year. However, we did not expect such masses of tourists, especially since in December we were mostly alone on hiking trails and campsites. The distinction between local and foreign tourists is easy when camping: Chileans settle in for a week at the same campsite, which must always be located by a lake or river. They arrive with about 10 people and set up a whole palace of huge tents and stereo systems. Because if Chileans love one thing, it's to entertain everyone at the campsite with their loud music. Then they open the barbecue season with kilos of meat that they can never finish, and their family-sized quincho, the traditional grill made from half oil barrels. We probably don't need to mention how different this is from our idea of camping.

But back to our journey, because despite or perhaps because of the plan changes, we have a lot to report. First of all, we celebrated Natalie's birthday in Punta Arenas on January 13th after the O-Track. We had rented a small apartment where we could rest, cook, and do laundry for 3 days. Fortunately, Nat and Brie, our friends from the O-Track, were also in Punta Arenas and were able to celebrate Natalie's birthday with us in the apartment. So we prepared everything for a good dinner with burgers, and our guests brought wine and a big birthday cake. It was an all-round successful evening with good food, good company, and above all, good spirits!

After Punta Arenas, which doesn't have much to offer as a city, we continued south because we really wanted to explore Tierra del Fuego. From Punta Arenas, we took the ferry to Chilean Tierra del Fuego and drove to an absolute highlight: the only king penguin colony outside of Antarctica. Seeing these 1.2-meter tall penguins breeding between green grass and blue ocean on the beach was simply surreal and fascinating. We could have easily spent hours there if it hadn't been for the frantic wind. Especially in summer, Tierra del Fuego is often hit by very strong winds that frequently reach 100-150 km/h, and of course we chose such a day for our arrival there. Somewhat desperate, we quickly got back in the car and held a crisis meeting: What do we do with a tent and a sick Natalie on an island with no wind protection when there is a constant 100 km/h wind? The unanimous result of the meeting: Get off the island! So we spent the rest of the day exploring the Chilean part of the island by car - to be honest, there's nothing there except pampas - and in the evening, we took the ferry back to the mainland. It turned out to be a very good decision, as the winds in Tierra del Fuego increased significantly over the next few days.

So we returned to Puerto Natales earlier than planned and were delighted with its Cueva del Milodon, a huge cave formed by glaciers and water, where researchers found the remains of a prehistoric horse, the milodon. Jan was somewhat disappointed that he couldn't see a real milodon in the cave, but since these animals were about 3 meters tall, it was probably for the best.

Originally, our plan for our onward journey to the north was to drive through Argentina to Bariloche and cross the border into Chile from there. However, after experiencing the conditions of Ruta 40 on the way there, we decided to drive this road as little as possible and cross back into Chile at Lago General Carrera (called Lago Argentino in Argentina). This time, there is nothing interesting to report about this stretch of road, except that we were once again delighted by a small armadillo that sweetened our long drive, and we helped two Argentine women change their tires in the middle of nowhere. The two had absolutely no idea how to do it and still ventured onto Ruta 40 with a small car. Arriving in Puerto Ibáñez, we spent the night at the shabbiest campsite the world has ever seen, with showers like something out of a horror movie, and made our way out of there as quickly as possible the next morning.

The Carretera Austral also brought us back earlier than planned and delighted us on our way up with a wannabe gaucho who introduced us to the art of drinking mate tea. We had to stifle our laughter at how seriously the Patagonians (he was actually Spanish) can take their tea drinking, while they are rather laissez-faire about everything else. After that, we wanted to leave the Carretera at Chaitén and take the ferry to an island called Chiloé, as it would have been new territory for us. However, as you may have guessed, this plan also went up in smoke when we arrived in Chaitén and found out that the ferry was fully booked for over a week. Waiting a week in Chaitén for the ferry? No thanks. So we went to do the last hikes in Parque Pumalin that we hadn't done yet and then took the ferry to Hornopiren. These final hikes were beautiful, and a waterfall at the end of the "Sendero las Cascadas" particularly impressed us. So we were unexpectedly happy with this change of plans. Unfortunately, the hikes were a bit too much for Natalie as they were very steep and sometimes more climbing than hiking, and they also went through rainforest, which is certainly not helpful with a severe cold.

Song of being flexible: A to B - Matt Hires