The Carretera Austral – Part 2
The northern stretch of the Carretera Austral continues to be very scenic with green forests, rivers, lakes and snow-capped mountains. One has to be careful not to become blasé about it all! From where we left you in Part 1 (Queulat National Park) we headed north towards the finish of the Carretera at Puerte Montt.
We visited Villa Santa Lucia a fairly non-descript town, that was unfortunate to be in the way of a huge mud slide on 16 December 2017, resulting from a mountain landslide after exceptionally heavy rainfall. A small museum there described this catastrophic event that killed 22 people.
On the way we climbed Volcano Chaiten – a very steep and relentless climb to the top of the volcano where we admired the views, watched sulphur fumes bubble from the ground and swatted the really annoying horse flies.
Next we visited the immaculate Parque Nacional Pumalin Douglas Tompkins and again climbed to a mirador to view (another) hanging glacier.
From here we called in at Chaiten to book our five hour ferry that would take us north and bridge an area with no roads. The ferry journey started in sunshine, but ended in driving rain. One more short ferry ride and we arrived in Puerto Montt – the end of the Carretera Austral.
Wow the scenery gets better and better!
I had no idea that it was such a beautiful country.
Loved the video.
Roll on the instalment.