After spending new year staying in a hospedaje in the town of Coyhique we headed south down the Carreterra Austral, one of the few good legacy's that Pinochet left the country. This road covers over 1300km of the sparsely populated Aysen region, a huge area so far untouched by man though the Chilean government has plans to build a huge dam on the Rio Baker!The Hydro-Aysen project has the country divided
Huge spaceship clouds above Villa Castillo at the end of the paved road going south on the Carretera Austral, only another 300km of dirt track to the bottom. Chile is one country where the people actually use there 4x4's for their intended purpose, and not just for mounting the kerb in Sainsbury's and running down children.
Rio Baker
300km of the Carreterra Austral is dirt track which makes for quite a shaky ride.
A typical Gauchos mount, though you seldom see them dressed in the full regalia, most of them wear jeans and Exxon baseball caps.
A gaucho checking the gringo's out as we drove past.
Another massive mountain
Rounding up the asado as they'd heard Senor Carne was coming to town!
Typical views on the 8 hours of dirt track driving at every turn was another spectacular vista and the occasional condor or gaunacho in the distance.
Looking down the road towards Rio Tranquillo and Lago General Carrera
A flood plain on the way south, mile upon mile of ghost forest.
The mighty and imposing Cerro Castillo
No comments:
Post a Comment