Patagonia‘s Carretera Austral

for Old Farts, Wimps, and Road Trippers–in short us.

Google Patagonia and your main hits will be of mountains and more mountains with a tiny colorfully clad hiker or two looking to the horizon.

So what is a couple of wimpy old farts to do? Plan a road trip and pick up any and all hitchhiking hikers on the way.

If there was ever a proof that 3rd time is the charm just look at our Patagonia trip. After we had to run from the initial Covid outbreak that caught with us in Argentina en route to Patagonia we had to cancel plans again when Ksenija contracted a mild Covid case in Benin, West Africa a year later and her tests kept showing positive long after.

But as another saying goes, after having had a door slammed in our face twice, we were able to find not only a silver, but gold lining to our Patagonia cloud.

In January and February of 2023 we were able to allocate a whooping 8 travel weeks to Patagonia both in Chile and Argentina and add on additional fascinating destinations, we never thought we will get to in our wildest dreams.

The first half of our Patagonia and Beyond adventures was spent on the road trip on Carretera Austral (= Southern Way) also known as Ruta 7 – an ultimate driving route in Chilean Patagonia.

It has everything an ideal road trip should have: Scenic winding roads, expansive vistas, small towns, tall mountains, deep lakes, icy glaciers and adventures calling. We drove it nice and slow all the way from Puerto Montt to Villa O’Higgins and then back with plenty of detours on the way. All in all instead of a straightforward 2500 km (1550 miles) we clocked 4000 km (2500 miles) on our rental car. Most all of it on unpaved surfaces. With only one tire busted. On the way we met interesting locals and fun hitchhikers, both enriching our Chilean experience tremendously.

The official start of the Carretera is in Puerto Montt and that is where we picked up our rental car. Here was our first stroke of luck or good travel karma. Ask and you shall receive, ask nicely and you shall receive an incredible upgrade. Picking up our reserved compact rental in a small, empty car rental office we noticed a new 4 wheel drive parked out front. With the help of Google translate we asked the friendly lady at the counter if she could upgrade us to that car. A quick phone call to her boss later she beamed a happy yes. And we sure needed that high clearance vehicle for all the dirt roads we bumped along.

Our second travel karma was even more incredible and highly appreciated. The Travel gods conspired with the Weather gods and gave us sun and more sun and minimal rain and winds. Winds are a huge challenge in Patagonia, people on hiking trails and vehicles on roads are easily overturned by gusts of up to 120 km/h (74 mph).

Right off the bat we started making detours and even backtracked a little to enjoy the gorgeous landscape of the Chile Lake District.

Then it was to the first of the many ferries. January is of course South America’s summer, but after our freezing Norwegian summer trip the year before we knew to come prepared.

I am not sure which toad trip saw us on more ferries, Norwegian or Patagonian. The Patagonian ferries were definitely much much cheaper, but also much more nerve-wracking as they were fewer in operation and it was either difficult or impossible to make reservations ahead of time.

Big chunks of the Carretera were connected by ferries, many quite small, affording a nice opportunity to chat with the few travelers making their way on foot, bycicke, motorbike or car in those backwaters.

As a matter of fact the Carretera road trip made us really nostalgic for the traveling years of our youth. Patagonia is probably the last place on earth where hitchhiking is a safe and accepted mode of transport. What is more people still talk to each other, comparing travel notes instead of hiding behind their smart phone screens.

With lots of space in our comfortable car we made it a rule to always pick up hitchhikers, though at some (very smelly) point Mirek amended the rule that we only pick up girls or couples. The idea being that showers are more frequent when girls are present. We even picked up some couples multiple times and took them to places they couldn’t get to other ways. Or drove them around different campgrounds to settle in a decent one with warm showers. There were fun conversations to be had with young Israelis just out of their mandatory army stint, and less fruitful hand and foot communications with local youth who by and large did not speak much English.

The best times were with seasoned travelers who travelled for a long time and long distances. We also always offered a free coffe break, a drink or a dinner. It didn’t make a huge dent in our budget, but made a difference to the camping hikers living on trail mix rations. We were once those hikers ourselves.

While some other Patagonia destinations are becoming very popular (and expensive) Carretera Austral was just perfect for our taste. Remote and difficult enough for a limited amount of visitors, yet civilized enough that a gas station, a decent bed and warm food could be found without too much trouble, and without breaking the bank.

So don’t believe the over-exaggerated internet posts or pay for hyper-inflated travel agencies. You most certainly can drive it yourself. And you also don’t need to take a crash course in Spanish. As everywhere in the world the locals appreciate an effort to string along a few Spanish words and they will reciprocate with a valiant effort to string along some English words or call over someone that can. Smiles and fingers are still a recognized international language.

Seeing that indeed we are old farts and wimps with bad backs and knees we didn’t do much hiking and lived vicariously through the hiking adventures of hitchhikers we drove long distances.

The one hiking exception was the tortuous unexpectedly long search for Cueva de los Manos (cave with ancient hand prints). The cave itself might not have been worth the climb but the otherworldly landscape and views with the addition of some flying saucers certainly was.

We would have probably given up if it wasn’t for our Dutch hitchhiking couple that kept their pace slow and encouraged us all the way up a and down.

Even without hiking we did get quite close to the tall mountain peaks and admire many a spectacular mountain view.

A few times Ksenija managed to find a horse to take her up the mountain trails.

That is always so much fun. Even more so when one gets to visit the local homesteads.

The wonderful combination of lakes and snow-clad mountains we are well familiar with from the Alpine regions is on steroids in Patagonia. The blues and greens of the lakes in combination with the high snow clad mountain peaks is just breathtaking.

What is more we absolutely feel under the spell of glaciers. They are massive and not marred by the gray film of dirty pollution so often found in other places.

The milky green of glacier water is quite a unique color.

The clean rivers of Patagonia are also fascinating with their fantastic colors in powerful currents.

If the river happens to be less colorful and hence called White River the swaths of purple lupines give it the necessary punch.

Too old for serious class V rafting on the famed Futuleufú River we instead tried our hand at flyfishing for trout with a private guide.

Despite seeing plenty but not catching any, we had a wonderful day.

We might have not caught fish ourselves but we ate plenty, especially salmon.

We would be remiss to not mention that many of these dazzling sights were part of a chain of national parks established by an extraordinary individual Douglas Tompkin. American businessman, conservationist and founder of outdoor equipment and clothing company North Face.

In the 1990s Tompkins and his second wife, Kris bought and conserved more than 2 million acres (810,000 ha) of wilderness in Chile and Argentina. Subsequently it became the largest gift of private land to Chilean and Argentine people and biggest philanthropic land conservation project in the world. This donation became the core of National Parks in Patagonia. The last phase sadly was completed by his widow after the accidental death of Douglas from hypothermia in a kayaking accident on Lago General Carrera close to his home.

We tried to visit as many of their parks as possible even if we just drove a short distance from the entrance.

For old farts like us short educational trails were god sent to get a taste of diverse nature from giant ferns to giant burdocks

to giant trees.

Even for non-bird-watching people without binoculars the frequent encounters with woodpeckers were fun. Sadly we did not manage to see any pumas, but guanacos were often loitering close to the road.

As impressed and inspired as we were by the work of the Thompkinses, we were also disappointed and worried about the future for lack of upkeep and continued government involvement. An interesting new documentary Wild Life is just out that sheds more light on the inspiring couple, and the long difficult fight to reach the goal.

For a very different and a bit more touristy experience we stopped at the Marble caves, swarming with young crowds, beer joints and restaurants. A little taste of what we could expect when we fly out to the second part of our Patagonia adventure.

Initially we were not planning to push all the way down to the last outpost on the Careterra Austral. But we were glad we did. It is a tiny little town with very few visitors, but those that come are young adventurers share fascinating stories of crossing by land and boat from Argentina.

Time to turn around and retrace our steps with different detours and a 20 hour ferry ride to Chiloé Island.

Did we sometimes wish we had a magic broom instead of a car? No, we really are ultimate road-trippers and enjoyed every bumpy mile.