[Above: Todd talks to a Chilean gaucho along a river near Lake Yelcho.]

Journal by Todd Borgie

Nancy, Sebastian (my Chilean Brother), and I began the day sitting in a parking lot wondering if we were going to be able to catch a ferry with everyone else. We were all hoping the ferry would be full and if we would be able to set off on our own adventure driving south. We were the first to volunteer for solo driving duty, upon learning that there was only space for three more vehicles on the ferry. I think everyone was jealous that we had the prospect of driving for a day on our own.

Despite our hopes, the ferry people were able to fit us on the ferry. This made me a little nervous as my paranoia was raised by the thought of overloaded ferries. Oh well! We drove on and popped the tent. I think most of the passengers on ferry were jealous as we had the most comfortable spots on the ferry, despite the winds. Sebastian opted to sleep in the car so Nancy and I climbed into the tent and tried watching Monty Python’s Life of Brian on my laptop; however the wind was so loud that we could not hear so we just decided to hang it up and go to sleep.

We woke up the next morning well rested and excited to begin driving Chile's Austral Highway (austral means relating to the south). It is supposed to be one of the most scenic highways in the world; however it is reputed to be dangerous with all of its curves and crazy drivers.

Let me back up and introduce Sebastian. Sebastian is my Chilean brother. Chanda’s brother, Russ, and I traveled to Chile three years ago. During our trip preparation my "mother", who is a professor (both online and on site) at a junior college, had an online student from Chile. She asked him if it would be ok if I contacted him to ask him questions about Chile. He agreed to answer our questions and before we knew it he extended an invitation to us to stay at his house. Victor, my mother’s student, has three children, one of which is Sebastian. When Russ and I were in Chile, our new Chilean family took car of us and Sebastian and his brother Mattias took us all around. We have kept in contact every since, and Sebastian is joining us for the next week because he is on summer vacation, from his biology studies at university. (He has written up some information on wildlife in Chile, so be sure and go the education site and ask him questions!)

Back to our story: In the morning I met Sebastian talking to a couple of truck drivers who were transporting young salmon from the hatchery to salmon farms (fisheries). Each truck had about three tanks filled with finger-sized salmon. Apparently Chile is one of the largest producers of salmon, exporting 50% of their production to the United States. Another large producer of salmon is Norway. This made sense to me as I looked around. The southern Chilean landscape was carved out by large glaciers a long time ago. Glacier carving along the coastlines usually creates fjords which are large channels intruding into the landmasses. Norway, Chile and Alaska have fjords. The fjords are often zones where freshwater meets saltwater. For this reason I guess fjords are perfect for salmon production as salmon need to swim up to fresh water to lay their eggs, after the eggs hatch the young salmon will swim to saltwater where they mature. They only return to fresh water when they need to lay their eggs.

After our salmon lesson I spent some time watching the landscape go by. I saw ducks and even a pair of penguins fishing in the cold water. Sebastian and I were hoping to see dolphins and orcas. Snow capped mountains rose immediately from the waters edge and the sites were truly amazing.

For some odd reason, I thought the ferry would arrive at its destination very soon so I just continued to look around. Everyone I asked told me we would arrive at our destination in less than an hour. I kept looking around, not putting any sun block on, uffda!

Neil was playing his guitar so I joined him for about an hour. After about 3 more hours, around 3:00pm we finally arrived at our destination. The ferry ride took about 13 hours in total.

We went into town had some food, as we were all starved and picked up some supplies for the road. Chaiten reminded me of small towns in Alaska, it was an accumulation of buildings and not much more. It provided us food, respite, and gas; so what more can you ask for?

After taking care of our business we set out on the Austral Highway (La Carretera Austral). We quickly left pavement and the dusty gravel roads would carry us for the remainder of the day. We needed to get as far as we could as we are going to meet someone in Coyaique 400 km south of Chaiten. The drive was beautiful, but bumpy. This forced us all to take our noses out of our computers and look around at the spectacular scenery. I was pleased to see we were in a new ecological zone. After looking up some information we realized that we were officially in a temperate rainforest, very similar to the temperate rain forests in Washington state, characterized by very tall conifers, and an incomplete tree canopy (life tropical rainforest) offering opportunities for lower story broad-leafed plants and ferns to exist.

We drove until about 8:30pm (sundown is about 9:30pm). Scouting a place for camping we came across some land near a river. We were a bit concerned because we had to go through and open gate, but this place was perfect. It was only a stones throw from the road, it was completely invisible from the road, it was near a river, and it was really beautiful.

Soon, a Chilean gaucho arrived in our campsite mounted upon his horse. He just wanted to see who we were and he told us that there was no problem camping here. At this point we sent people to collect firewood and others began popping their tents. We saw a lot cool moss, it was red, and some interesting insects like deer beetles.

We built a campfire, cooked some grub, and enjoyed each other’s company. We all slowly trickled to bed knowing that we had to get up really early to make our next day's appointment.

Todd
todd@drivearoundtheworld.com

Logbook for February 4th, Day 96
Start: Puerto Montt, Chile
Time: 3:10 p.m.
S: 42* 54.732
W: 72* 43.079
Finish: South of Lago Yelcho, Chile
Time: 8:30 p.m.
S: 43* 31.471
W: 72* 20.571
Mileage: 53
Notes: It was touch-and-go getting D3 onto the ferry, and Todd and I were a bit disappointed when we made it. We had anticipated a day of driving and exploring on our own. But we were happy once we were aboard and sailing. It was a comfortable night's sleep in our Hannibal tents, and the view from the ferry when the sun came up was breathtaking. Patagonia's sunshine, snowcapped peaks, fjords, and wildlife (including penguins) made us all smile. (N.O.)

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