I’ve considered this a bit and I’m pretty assured once I say the drive to Punta Arenas was probably the most boring of the journey. Legendary Patagonia was boring I’m embarrassed to say.
Ruta 9 from Puerto Natales is a cement slab freeway and often they’re ghastly as your heavy van bounces from seam to seam like an obese pogo stick. In Chile they appear to have figured this method out and it was a easy trip. They do construct fairly bus stops alongside the route. One bus cease on the entrance to every ranch (“estancia “) alongside the in any other case empty street. We traveled bus cease to bus cease with not a soul in sight and just some vehicles.
There was some site visitors once we drove it Sunday afternoon, however it was not all the time seen. Principally we have been alone.
E stands for “estacionamento” which suggests parking.
Chile is good in that they construct a number of roadside relaxation areas identical to this, no services and never fancy however all it’s good to cease safely off the street, and round right here stopping to let Rusty out breaks the monotony and provides you an opportunity to take your fingers off the wheel. I wished a sailboat autopilot right here.
Most of Patagonia is treeless however there are some plantations and some lonely cypress bushes. The street indicators look fairly critical. That is the “finish of the world street” and it’s not each day you end up driving to the top of the world.
Vicuña are one thing to look out for. “I spy with my little eye one thing starting with vee.”
And naturally on a Sunday you’re sure to return throughout some locals in spandex. Even out right here they pedal alongside, ignoring the twenty mile per hour winds which fee as a relaxed day hereabouts.
After which we began crossing paths with a complete bunch of RVs. That they had large blue circles caught on them within the again so I feel they have been a tour group. You are able to do that and tour South America in a matter of weeks with the main points organized for you and mechanics close by when you’ve got an issue. It should price you although.
We had spotty cell service a lot of the approach however I nonetheless acquired to take heed to the BBC radio app whereas Layne took forty winks on the mattress. Donald Sutherland was deciding on his eight favourite music tracks for a protracted working interview program. I used to take heed to Desert Island Discs once I was a child in boarding faculty half a century in the past. The miracle of know-how, channeling my childhood, my youth, my previous into this barren wilderness. Patagonia I dream of thee.
An indication stated we have been coming to the monument to the wind. In typical inscrutable South American fashion there have been no explanations, no pull out or secure place to park. The monument was simply there so we stopped on the shoulder.
And that’s all I’ve acquired for you. The monument, no clarification on the website or on-line that I may discover. And it’s not the monument to the wind positioned in Puerto Natales.
After which we have been in Punta Arenas (“sandy level”) the capital of Chile’s Magellanic area. It’s a giant metropolis and fairly unfold out and never essentially too touristy.
It sits on a protracted curved waterfront overlooking the Straits of Magellan. Twenty miles throughout the straits is the island archipelago of Tierra Del Fuego (“land of fireplace”).
First cease was at Lider, the chain bought by Walmart. There are not any Jumbo shops, Layne’s favourite, this far south so this was the place we got here to inventory the fridge. Rusty and I walked the block and once we acquired again to GANNET2 I seen we have been surrounded by exhausting core 4 wheel drives. Wager they haven’t gone so far as we’ve got. Ha!
We had this concept we would wish to take a 36 hour ferry trip to Puerto Williams a Navy base and small city on an island south of Ushuaia. The boat was leaving Sunday and we thought we would try to catch a trip. Boy have been we mistaken. We drove to the port and waited for the ferry service workplace to open.
We met the man within the picture above and began chatting. He’s been throughout South America in his RV however his daughter has produced a grand youngster and his spouse not needs to journey. He was actually thrown for a loop and making an attempt to determine what to do and he admitted to contemplating leaving his sidecars taking to the street in a van like us. I felt for him and I had no clue what to say as I used to be reminded how fortunate I’m with Layne and Rusty ready aboard GANNET2. Beneath we see a monument arrange by the Navy to honor the early settlers who largely got here from Isla Chiloé to farm the inhospitable southern areas of Chile.
To chop a protracted story brief the ferry to Puerto Williams isn’t actually arrange for vacationers. They need $2000 to move GANNET2 and Rusty must trip in a cage. And it’s not clear when there can be room for our van as we needed to get in contact with the scheduler by e mail to kind out dates. It appeared like they actually didn’t need us and we acquired the trace. Our fall again plan is the potential of a passenger ferry from Ushuaia throughout the Beagle Channel.
We discovered our approach north out of town alongside the waterfront…
… which jogged my memory a little bit of South Roosevelt Boulevard in Key West. Besides it was 50 levels and never too terribly tropical.
And guess what we discovered: an enormous metropolis park, a bit untidy however full of nice spots to park for the evening at no cost.
Time to bundle up for an additional 40 diploma evening. Tomorrow we discover Punta Arenas.
Thanks all for the messages of encouragement and there may be far more to return I hope. Extra ferries, penguins, and extraordinary views. And likely complications and issues too.