The Start of Patagonia and the Carretera Austral by Motorcycle
Update 2 (December 2022)
Puerto Varas to Coyhaique, Chile
I’d had a rainy and relaxing time in Puerto Varas and eventually my ferry booking to the south was upon me.
At the time, the ferry from Hornopirén to Caleta Gonzalo typically ran twice a day. Once about 10:30am which is a cheaper subsidised service and then the night time commercial service that was leaving around 10pm. During summer it’s very busy and the daytime service was booked out 2 weeks in advance at the time. I can’t plan that far ahead, so the night time service it was.
Just down the road is Puerto Montt and the start of the Carretera Austral, the famous highway that goes for 1240km through to Villa O’Higgins. Some of the road is paved but the term highway is a rather loose description and the road condition deteriorates the further south you go.
Before the main ferry, there is a short 20 ferry minute trip across from La Arena.
It seems to be mainly about fishing after leaving Puerto Montt, including some fish farming, of salmon I believe.
A short wait as the La Arena Ferry arrives in the distance.
There were a couple of bikers at the front from northern Chile. They were better organised and had booked the Hornopirén day time ferry for the next day.
Around Hualaihue area.
Along the way to Hornopirén I took a short detour to the village of Pichicolo. I stopped at this refurbished bus, selling lunch. It was all about Empanadas in many different varieties. I ended up asking the lady to just choose something for me and that I was moderately hungry. They were delicious, one with carne (meat) and the other pollo (chicken) and some type of fish flavour.
On this trip I’ve had two days that I think of as character building days (in my context at least). This day and night was about to be the first, the second will have to wait for a later update – shortcut.
The days weather was pretty ordinary by 4pm when I arrived in Hornopirén. Still some 5 hours until the ferry loading time. I had a look around the town, bought a few things at the supermercado. Right, 4:30pm, now what?
I checked out the ferry landing. There were a few cars and vans waiting already. So I snuck into poll position where I could sit out of the rain at a small café, and still keep an eye on my bike and stuff. After a while a Brazilian biker turned up. He was doing it tougher than me, with his wait being 11 hours. We chatted a bit, trying to talk in English or Spanish, as I had no clue on Portuguese.
Hornopirén from the ferry stop.
My view for about 5 hours while waiting for the ferry.
It rained harder but eventually the ferry arrived. It was our time at last. I jumped on my bike, all ready to get on. As it turns out on this ferry, motorbikes go last, so I got out of the way and sat on my bike in the pouring rain until every car and truck was on board, oh well. I do have wet weather gear but its not very effective. Normally I try not to ride in the rain. So now for a 5 hour trip.
There was a passenger “lounge” where I tried to get some sleep and probably got about 1-2 hours in my wet gear. Luckily, maybe because of the rain visibility we went the long way around, which meant avoiding the usual two part ferry ride, with a 10km drive in between, as per the map.
So we disembarked into the darkness. Mmmm 3:30am, now what? I already knew there was nothing much at the landing. There seemed to be some sort of camping area, but it was chained off. I carry camping gear, but the idea of setting up a tent in the pitch black, pouring rain and the high chance of upsetting people wasn’t appealing.
So like everyone else, I moved forward. By the time I’d found my heated jacket and got organised, everyone had scattered into the darkness. Well, there was actually only one narrow dirt road, with occasional roadworks in the middle of a forest. The ride actually went quite well and was kind of exhilarating. There’s nothing like blasting through a forest at 4am. Animal alert aside.
I arrived at Chaiten. The Brazillian biker from the ferry was there also, and at a loss. He was determined to find somewhere to sleep but I wasn’t convinced and didn’t have the patience for that. So I did a lap of the town and found a park to wait out the darkness. Luckily it gets light about 5:30am.
Waiting for the sun to come up at Chaiten, so I can continue/start the day.
So I kept riding. But there isn’t much around at all and you can’t check in until 2 or 3pm anyway. So I resigned myself to getting through the day. At some point I booked a hotel in Coyhaique, the next major town and 420km from Chaiten. I think I actually did fall asleep on my motorbike for a split second later in the day. It’s mind boggling how stupid it was, but I was lucky.
Chaiten to Villa Santa Lucía road.
Along the Chaiten to Villa Santa Lucía road. I’m calling this a glacier up near the top of this mountain, but of course I wouldn’t have a clue.
The day deteriorated for a while there, as the rain got heavier and it was to wet for photography. It’s a shame because there was some spectacular scenery. The map below shows one particularly intriguing section where the dirt road wound up the mountain. Mind you, I was following a semi trailer up this section. At the top of this section we met road works, where they were laying pavement from the other side. Sadly, I imagine this part of highway will be paved some time soon. Mind you, it is the right thing to do given the traffic.
Later on the waterfalls coming down the mountains below give some idea of the conditions.
Villa Amengual area.
The rain began to ease in the afternoon and I found a back road to my destination of Coyhaique. From memory I had about 40km to go.
I arrived in Coyhaique, still cold and wet at about 5pm. After a hot shower and a nice burger across the road, I was in bed by 7:30pm. I pretty much hadn’t slept for about 36 hours, so it was about 6:30am when I stirred the next morning.
The view from my Coyhaique hotel window into the neighbours backyard and their cool shed.
Australia to Puerto Varas, via Santiago, Chile
Update 1 (late November 2022)
Coyhaique to Cochrane, Chile
Update 3 (mid December 2022)