"Racing" is not something we really do, but going down a perfect and not much travelled highway at a steady 100 km/h allowed us to progress a few thousand kilometers in just a couple of days: a record for the SnailTrails team!
After our extensive off-road adventure coming from Uyuni and a good rest-stop in San Pedro (we indulged in the Gringo creature comforts), the decision was made to use the well-developed Chilean highway system to make good progress towards Patagonia.
Reconnecting with the Pacific was a welcome event, after so many weeks of mountains and deserts.
The Argentinian wine region of Mendoza was not to be missed though, which explains our little "detour" from La Serena, over the Agua Negra pass towards Mendoza.
A rather tranquil little town dominated by the nearby Andean peaks, Mendoza was the place where a serious steak-dinner had to take place: a bottle of Malbec and 500g of sirloin later, we happily reverted to our campsite for digesting!
Another pass and another Chilean sanitation check later, we were back on the road to Santiago, the outskirts of which we reached at night.
Santiago was a welcome surprise, we were not looking forward to another huge South-American city. Very European in architecture and character, pedestrian zones and efficient public transport, the city was very welcoming, except for its air pollution problem.
A night in a simple but nice hotel (at the corner of Calles Paris and London, no less) broke our "sleeping at the gas station" routine.
Before barreling down another thousand kilometers, we stopped over to visit the Concha y Toro winery just outside of Santiago. Big and commercial, not unlike the Mondavi winery in California, it is nevertheless an instructive spot.
They produce the widely exported Casillero del Diablo line of wines, a sample of which is now accompanying us on our trip (not for long, I guess).
The rest of the trip down to Puerto Montt was largely uneventful, we enjoyed our music collection and spent the day counting down the kilometers, celebrating every hundred with a high five.
When we reached Puerto Montt at nighttime, the city was shrouded in a mixture of fog and smoke from wood burning stoves. Not very inviting. Because of discrepancies in our guides about the ferry departure times, we went straight to the terminal to make sure we wouldn't miss it in the morning.
Surprise, surprise, our ferry was scheduled to leave in another three hours, arriving in Chaitén on the Carretera Austral at dawn. Well then, after stocking up at a local Walmart, we get on the boat and sleep through a quiet passage.
Not much left of Chaitén, devastated by a volcanic eruption in 2008 and declared unsafe by the Government, to the dismay of its remaining few inhabitants. The Carretera Austral, the strip of mostly gravel road that will bring us about a thousand kilometers to the border crossing at Chile Chico, is a marvelous drive: cold rainforest, dark clouds, snow-capped Andean peaks, glaciers and ice-cold rivers and lakes (full of trout and salmon...), all of it in an autumnal mood.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves: pausing at Coyhaique for a much-needed fuel pump replacement, we're gathering strength to confront the ever-colder climates down South. More about that soon!
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