Is Travel life ?

May 3 1998


Civilisation, yes yes yippeee yes Sitting on my bed at robs house I am a long way from the relative hardships that I experienced travelling up to Mendoza. Not that it wasn't great fun, but my body is certainly feeling the 26 years that I turned a couple of days ago. I finally left Punta Arenas in late March, after being in and out of that town since the beginning of the year. Hitching in Patagonia is relatively easy in terms of then number of vehicles that stop for you. Obviously the silly horror stories that we all know from other first world countries have not filtered down to these insular lands, and almost anyone will stop, especially in Chile. However, there is at the same time a lot less traffic than in other Western Countries, and the weather can be bleak. Hence waits on the side of the road can be long and very unpleasant. My first day out of Punta Arenas saw one such wait, in a howling gale. However to more than compensate for this I got an overnight lift with a truck driver. Aside from 3 hours sleep, where I crashed next to the road in my sleeping bag, we drove ceaselessly to Comodoro. Here I quickly picked up another lift, and after only a day and a half was in Sarmiento, over 1200km from Punta Arenas. Sarmiento, with its relic Afrikaner population proved interesting enough to spend a couple of days, and I abused their hospitality a bit by getting to see the petrified forests for free and visiting the lakes. Moving on however proved a touch difficult, and a long days hitching only got me 50km away, of which I had walked ten. 50km from Sarmiento is absolutely nothing, and I had the pleasure of pitching Sinead in the desolate windswept plains that make up 80% of Patagonia. It’s something that I have always wanted to do, and that night with its magnificent sunset, and utter nothingness in the surrounding lands is a rather good memory. The next day got me into Coyhaique in Chile, late at night. I had to walk the close on ten kilometres between the two countries as traffic simply did not exist on the obscure route I chose to cross the frontier. I left to travel the Carreterra austral the next day. The Carreterra Austral (literally translates to Southern highway, but is in reality a poor dirt road.) is a 1000km long "road" through some of the wildest and inhospitable country on earth. Some regions of it receive 8000mm of rain a year, while others are closed due to snow and ice for 4 months of the year. Volcano Hudson laid waste to sections of it in 1991, and flooding regularly makes sections impassable. I chose only to try heading south. The 600 odd kilometres to the north require a couple of long ferry trips, which only run for 3 months of the year. Traffic on these sections in April is thus very sparse. Traffic going south is also a little sporadic. It took me 4 days to get to Cochrane, 345km from Coyhaique. I walked over 50 km of that distance. Although the road still continues some way further south, a few nights on the roadside and very long waits (in stunning locations mind you) were enough to persuade me to give up trying to go further South. Besides, everyone I asked about transport heading to the roads end merely laughed, and told me I'd walk all the way. So I trekked up into the local national park instead and spent a relaxed few days on the side of a little lake in an autumning landscape. The park is almost unvisited, and I never saw another soul, which after the hecticly commercialised parks of the south was a pleasant change. I set up camp in a central spot, and did a lot of day walks to the surrounding peaks and lakes. The entire area is forested, and completely without trails (other than numerous misleading cattle tracks). Hence for the first time I actually got to use my compass. It took only 2 days to hitch back to Coyhaique, and there I spent a few days, cleaning up after a week or two of dirty clothes and only the odd icy dip. Soon big city bright lights of Santiago started to draw me after four months in provincial backwater towns. However, Coyhaique Santiago as a bus trip was along a route that I've already done, so I opted for the cheapest ferry going north from the port of Chacabuco. Turned out to be a rather good choice really as the ferry took an obscure and circumlocutive route through archipelago Chile. I had the privilege of seeing amazing tiny fishing villages. Some were on broad floodplains, but others were in more exotic locations. One in particular sticks in my mind, It was mid sized of maybe 200 inhabitants. Yet is location was surreal. Small steeply sided granite isles formed the location, and the houses were plastered up against the near vertical rock face. There was no such thing as a road or even paths. The inhabitants went everywhere by boat. Even visiting your neighbour would involve a boat. The ferry "docked" on a small islet with a flag and some saintly statue and all the locals came out in their various launches. They sold fish to the people on the boat, who in turn traded live sheep with them. Amazing experience. Dolphins and penguins abounded, and my first sight of pelicans reminded me that finally I was heading for warmer climes. After 30 something hours at sea we docked at Quellon on the island of Chiloe, where I got off and hitched through to Puerto Montt, and on to Santiago by bus with a short stop in Valdivia to see that historic rainy town. I mistimed things a bit, getting into Santiago over the Easter weekend. Hence it took a few days to get all my film processed. I lurked around the Museums and galleries, and popped in at the zoo, before heading out here after 5 days. Since getting to Mendoza, I've mounted 500 slides, and packed away all but 150 acceptable quality ones (by my occasionally high standards). I'm getting a bit of exercise, as Rob and I have been playing paddle daily and the bicycle is back together, and I've gone for a couple of gentle rides in the lovely park here. I'll still be here another few weeks, and am loving relaxing. The poor CD player has been spinning non-stop since my return, and Rob gets no sleep as we chat to silly hours each night. Rob's presently on Easter island for a week with a lot of my gear. Apon his return I still need to do a few running repairs on my equipment, and then his Mom and sister are coming out, who I haven't seen in ages, so I'll wait around for them. I'll probably be moving north again around 18-20 of May, getting into La Paz within a week. Then its jungle time after I've found a decent home in La Paz.