ODO: 336,243
Oh boy the ranger was right! We wake up to Mt Fitz Roy on full display, very clear and sunny skies. There is still a hint (gust) of wind from time to time, and it is still very chilly, but generally pleasant compared to recent days. Once we have our fill of the amazing view its time to move to a new spot where we think (hope) we will be out of the weather because someone has suggested a friends potluck tonight. And we do! There is a giant pot roast, real mashed potatoes, roasted peppers, and some coconut cake and cocadas for dessert. Its quite the feast. The weather is as predicted, and we even get a beautiful sunset.
And we’re back to morning rain, but at least there is no wind this morning. This is a sad day, we go from a group of six down to four. A hard part about this lifestyle…very fast very short term in person friendships. But we still get to follow and cheer them on via the internet, so there is that. We wait out the rain before starting the chores we’ve been putting off for several days, including some dishes and showering. Something in the well water makes KoKo break out in hives after her shower. We’re starting a theory that KoKo has bad shower energy… Our remaining two friends make us a delicious dinner of chicken, rice and broccoli in their instapot, which ends with us becoming obsessed with getting a small instapot for ourselves. We’ll see if our inverter can handle that much power draw.
It’s official monthly truck maintenance day! It’s also semi-regular garbage bag washing day. We lay the bag out to dry, and immediately forget it exists as we leave the campground for groceries. Once we do remember, we hustle back to the campground, and thankfully, it’s right where we left it. Our garbage bag is a custom piece, like everything else on the camper, so losing it would be a big headache. Happily reunited with our garbage bag, our smaller group heads off in the direction of Cueva de las Manos. Being late in the day, this will be a tomorrow adventure. For tonight we find camp on the rim of the canyon the cave is in. Initially the weather cooperates, and we spend the early evening enjoying the sun and each others company. And then….the Wind. Especially aggressive and cold, it comes out of the west and drives everyone indoors for the rest of the evening.
We weren’t entirely sure we wanted to see Cueva de las Manos. It’s hard for us to tell if this is going to be a fun activity, or if there will be much art to look at, based on our very small amount of research. But we’re in the area, and it looks like a nice walk, so why not? We made the right choice, it is AMAZING! We are the first two vehicles in the parking lot, and only one additional vehicle shows up for our tour slot so we almost get a private tour. Our guide leads us down along the canyon wall, telling us the first set of paintings are only 300m down the path. And then more paintings just past those, and another set just past those for most of the 1km trail! The theory is this is a scared place where people leave their hand print after some kind of rite of passage. There are mostly right hands and a small number of left hands, as well as a couple three and six fingered hands. Oh, and one “hand” print from a rhea. There are also other cave paintings of guanacos, lizards, people, and one unicorn.
This is a double adventure day! We drive over to the other rim of the canyon where we head out on the Tierra del colores hike. It’s two and a half miles around VERY colorful hills. The first set of colors are very saturated earth tones, impressive, but not mind blowing. The trail takes us up a small hill and around a corner to overlook a small hill that is bubblegum pink and bright yellow! Not normal colors you find in nature, and not in these concentrations. There is a nice campground next to the trailhead, so we set up there. The weather is perfect, and we are finally able to sit outside and visit until dinner time.
The morning explodes with a most dramatic sunrise. The weather is still pleasant, so everyone takes advantage to use the showers. Once everyone is clean, the cold west wind comes on hard. This is our cue to pack up and leave. This is also where we head back out on our own, with plans to reunite with our friends in three weeks for a birthday weekend. After some gas, we head for the Chile border again. The road in is very scenic, but we battle the forty four mile per hour winds the entire way, especially when we stop to make sandwiches and the wind tries to roll the truck away. Being so remote, this border crossing is only physical paperwork. The electricity is out so they need to photograph our passports to enter into the system “later”. On a very random note, we run into a couple with a small child at the border who turn out to be the people our friends were traveling with before they met up with us! Small world.
We are headed for the Carretera Austral, a road that winds through part of Chilean Patagonia, and was supposed to connect to Argentina, but Argentina didn’t finish their side. Fun fact! There are significantly fewer guanacos along dirt roads than paved roads, no idea why. Also! The southern section of this road has only existed for twenty years and is still gravel. We find a large gravel lot for the night with a great mountain view. Overnight a big storm blows in, and we learn the tent will start to close on us when wind speed reaches 50mph. It’s a long night.
Calm skies welcome us to another day and we are so grateful we get a very late start. The road from this point south drops down to a single lane, and oncoming traffic does not move over for us. It’s a little sporty. We have one ferry to catch to make it to the end, and when we arrive it’s unclear how often is runs. It could be ten minutes away or three hours. Turns out it was only an hour away! After crossing the lake we drive more single lane dirt road to the end of the Carretera Austral. It is similarly anti-climactic, but we are more emotionally prepared this time. The town at the end of the road, Villa O’Higgins, is where we spend the night before starting the drive to the northern end.
Up and on the road, we have 2000km of, hopefully, scenic road ahead of us! We put down some miles to get back to where we started the road at Cochrane. After a quick grocery refill, and a long wait for gas, its back on the road to a camp spot sandwiched between the road and a river gorge with mountains in the distance. The road isn’t busy, and the weather is calm so we have a very restful night.
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