Day 11 - 218 KMs, Coyhaique (Campsite Northern end of town) Chile (09:00) to Lago Los Torres, Chile (16:35)

Feeding the belly before I
hit the road!

Well I woke up at about 9am as  it felt good to sleep in at a nice quiet wooded campsite.  I set up my solar panel to take advantage of the sun to charge stuff.  The neighbours in the large Mercedes RV did not appear to be awake.    I began cooking my breakfast in the little hut I had for my use.  I really wanted to get then F out there and away from that large town called Coyhaique.  I did not like it at all.

I hit the road and headed to Puerto Aisen, Chile.  It’s about 60 kms up a nice paved very scenic road.  Nice drive, but I am also keen to see the ferry port in Puerto Chacaboco, Chile which is just 15 kms away from it.  So I bypassed the city of Puerto Aisen, Chile to see this coastal town.  When I got there it was nice, reminded of a small Southeastern Alaskan town, but it was also dead quiet with no one really there..   There was a sea port there obviously.

The campsite owner's hand built cabin (work in progress) - I love it

The campsite owner's hand built cabin (work in progress) - I love it

I headed to back to Puerto Aisen and when I got there I drove around a wee bit.   I parked the car on a side street and then walked out on onto the main road.  Oh shit, like the rest of the towns in Argentina and Chile everything was closed now because it was past 1300!   There was only 1 restaurant open and no stores.  The 1 restaurant had only 2 items on the menu.  I left for my van.  I drove around a bit a stopped by a river port area where many small fishing boats were crammed into one small area.  Very interesting!

Puerto Aisen, Chile, a busy river access to the ocean. Traffic jams?

As I walked back to the van, I saw how girls where dressed here. It was a weekday, but they all look they were dressed for a night on the town to a club to meet guys.  Eg.  sexy skin tight clothes and high heels.  Oh well, whatever.    I then left for out of town,but first I stopped at the local grocery store.  It was crowded as hell, but a nice store the none-the-less.   I got some tomatoes, avocados, juice, crackers, fresh rolls/bread and few other small things.  While walking around I saw how all women dressed there.  Even Moms with there kids were dressed very provacatively (eg. borderline slutty with skin tight clothes – skin tight shorts and etc).  I am thinking what is so special about this town that Moms need to dress like this? Is there a shortage of good eligible single men?  Who knows, who cares.. LOL!  

Armarcelo- from France, but studying in Santiago.
He was a hitchhiker I picked up just East of Puerto Aisen.

I left the store and headed out of town. I fil up the petrol tank and turned north onto Rte 7 Norte.   Just as I got onto Rte 7 Norte, I picked up a hitchhiker named Armancedo from Santiago.  He was trying to get home to start class on Wednesday.

It was Saturday now.  During this ride, we stopped once for petrol.  I noticed that the petrol gauge is busted. It won’tgo above 80% on the gauge even though it’s filled.  Ooops!  Oh well.  At the petrol station, I noticed a car pull in.  It was a Google map type car that was recording roads. .  It was NOT from Google, but it’s the same idea though.

Can you see me on your GPS cam?  LOL!!  :)

 My hitcher gave me some good advice about what to do around Puerto Montt.  I took a lot of mental notes for that.   After driving for a while, I told him I was getting tired and the next waterside campsite I see I have to take.  About 45 minuntes down the road, I saw a lake and stopped there.  It was called Lago Los Torres.   It was perfecto.  I pulled the van into the farthest spot near the lake edge and said this is the one!   He has to get home, so we took some photos of us and he and I walked towards the road.  I paid the host 4000 CLP for a night and he shook my hand and said good luck, and see you later maybe.

The view from my campsite.

I went back to my van, and immediately pulled out my swim shorts and towel.  I ran over to the lake shore and jumped in!  Wow! It was not too cold or not too warm!  Just right!  I washed up with my environmentally friendly soap and enjoyed myself for 10 minutes!  Nice indeed.  I was so happy, that I went back the  van, and got my GoPro selfie stick and came back into the lake.  I made a few photos and videos.  I then got out, dryed off and then got ready for dnner.   For dinner I had leftover avocado/salami on those nice fresh rolls I got less than 12 hours ago.  During dinner I was also copying my photos and videos from my cameras to my external HDD.  

My little campsite with Laptop, paper blog book, solar panel,
dryingtowel & swim shorts.

After dinner, I wrote my blog from the 27th of Feb on this laptop.    That took  while because the sunset from my spot was nice as I was situated in the middle of the mountains.  I kept day dreaming of having a home up the hill like the owner of the campsite did.   As it got darker, I headed into the van to finish my writing.  Once done, around 10pm, I headed to bed to get an early rise so I could get on the road sooner vs. later.  

Planning my day for tomorrow..

Another good day, with nice scenery and nice, VERY NICE campsite!   The house above me was perfect..  Cape Cod stype mountain home..  nice..so very very very very nice!
zzzzzzz

Daily Summary:

Today was an awesome day.  Met a really cool backpacker, after waking up at a really nice campsite.  The drive was very easy with no gravel roads. Got to see the ocean or harbor depending on your point of view.  And finally the drive to my campsite at the end of the day was absolutely beautiful.  And the campsite well look at the pictures and they speak for themselves.  I really hope to have many more days like this.  I'm very excited for tomorrow!

Day 10 - 247 KMs, Puerto Rio Tranquilo Campsite, Lake Tranquilo, Chile (07:00) to Coyhaique (Campsite Northern end of town), Chile

 Rough Hot Dusty Roads Ahead - Again!?! - Yes AGAIN!

Some feed for the belly!!

 I woke up at a nice campsite at 7am.   I kept the door open so I could see the lake  at night.   It was  beautiful.   And it was beautiful in the morning too.  However I was tired from last night still so I went back to sleep to about 8:30am.   I woke up for good at 8:45am.   I made my standard porrag and coffee breakfast.  You know, I am getting very bored of porridge now.  

Pt Rio Tranquilo, Lake Tranquillo, Chilean Patagonia

I wanted to go boating today but I needed to be there @ 9:45-9:50am to get a place on the boat.  I ate, cleaned up and packed as best I could.  I drove into Pt Rio Tranquillo (2 kms away) and went to the registration batch for the boat. It was locked and no one there.  I was there at 9:50am with cash in hand (12,000 CLP). No dice. No one there.  So I drove to the boat ramp.  No one was at the boat either. WTF?  Oh wait, the guy told me yesterday that he needs at least 4 customers to go.  I guess he had none so far so he gave up for his 10am boat ride. This is too bad because the boat is a glass bottom boat and the ride would have been fun!   The other boat tours were zodiak boats that go close to glaciers but that did not interest me considering I was just in Antarctica doing that for 11 days!  How can I ever compare glacier viewing via boats after seeing Antarctica up close?  ;-)

Stopping the last turn off before I ventured off into dust!

Sooo there you go, I then left for the long drive to Coyhoique.   This was a hard drive, but not because any steepness problems as such was on day 9 of the ride when I thought I was going to get killed high on that ridge above the lake.  No this just HOT, very bumpy and flat.  No hiding from the hot sun in this van for all day.  When I got to about 56km into the drive, I saw a car on one of the few shady spots on a downhill area (blind from above).  He has a some sort of issue with his SUV.  He had help with him.  As I drove by I saw a hazard marker on the road but it had fallen over.  This guy and his car is going to get hit from a speeding bus or car.  He’s in a bad spot. It was too dangerous for me to stop and turn around to warn him so I kept going.  At 66km into the drive, I made a sharp right turn and saw a Mercedes tourist people mover van (smashed up) on the rocky wall to the right side of the gravel road. 

A tourist people mover that hit the side of the road earlier

I almost hit it, but managed to avoid it.  I stopped to offer help, but when I walked over to the bus, no one was in it.  I guess it has been there for a few days?   Both these incidents have taught me to take it easy on these treacherous roads and if someone wants to pass me going too fast then they can just go F themselves because I am not risky life and van driving 80km/hr on a bumpy gravel road. ☺

I made to what seemed to the halfway point of the drive to Coyhaique and lucky for me there was a river/bridge with a turn off with SHADE under a tree. Wow!  So I turned around when back over the bridge to park the van.    I checked of the van and why the driver’s side washer fluid was not working.  It turns out that DUST got into the line and clogged it!  What?  How the f*ck did dust into a closed system like that?  I was unable to fix it. Will have to wait until drop off the van or stop in a larger to town to fix it.  I ate my lunch, a can of tuna, can of strawberries and some avocado with juice to wash it down. Not bad! I was so hot, tired, dusty and miserable that I forgot to taken photos.  Ouch!

A large cliff if in back of me makes for a nice viewing rest
stop

I kept driving the scenery got better,but so did the roads got harder to drive.  They were very curry and bumpy. Ouch.  Luckily this did not last long because at last I could see the next town and sealed roads.  I saw a lone hitchhiker sitting at a bus depot so I pulled over to offer her a ride. Her name was Melina, from Israel.  She was friendly and spoke good English—lucky me!    She was originally from Buenos Aires though.

WOW!  Sealed (not gravel!) roads!  Oh man
I am so happy now!

We drove along and hit some construction near the city of Coyhaique.  Once through it, we finally hit the “big city” 30 minutes later.     I was not impressed.  It was hard to tell  which direction each road went. Also there was no where to park and the local drivers drove like arrogant asshats.  

They were bad drivers - everywhere.  Anyway, I dropped off Melina and she wandered off to find a hostel for the night. Like the other hitchers, she gave me her name, email address for my blog.   I did however forget to get a photo of us together. Dammit.   My fault.

Van camping under a shady tree hits the spot after a
long hard day of driving on nasty dusty bumpy hot roads

So I then parked the van after 20 mins of trying to find a spot.  I walked around, got an ice cream cone!  Yummy.  It was an OK town, but I was tired, sweaty hot, and not in agood mode. So I went back to the van to find a camping spot.  I though I found one spot,  but the road upthen hill almost did me in. I had to turn around and try somewhere else.  I tried a cabin / B&B but it was $90 NZD a night. No way.  I drove around some more and decides to leave town and go North.    I got lucky and found a little campsite right off Rte 7 North.  I was only 4000 CLP. So I paid and got relaxing.

A Mercedes super custom survival van parked near me.
Yes the van is German, but the owners are French.
This is has solar panels, water purifiers, and is diesel. Nice!

I got a well needed shower, and made dinner – pasta and etc. And then sat inside a little make-shift cabin to do my blog.  However that blog entry work did not last long. The mozzies were eating me alive, so I moved into the van.    I then did some paper blog writing and soon went to sleep I was too tired. It seems I am a day behind the my MS Word blog each time. Oh well.  It’s now 2100 on 28/2 and I need to write the blog for the day bedore. Nope, I am too tired to do it.  Fuck it..  LOL..  

The Mercedes Survival van that travels the world!  How cool is this!??!

Daily Summary:


Today was a very difficult driving day. It was not because of the steep roads that did not exist.  It was because it was so fucking hot and dusty.   I couldn't roll down the windows otherwise the van would've been full of dust from oncoming vehicles and ones that I'm following.  Getting off the gravel road was nice, very nice.  Picking up a friendly hitchhiker was also nice.  The big city I drove through was miserable. I'm glad I found a peaceful place with trees to rest my van and my sanity.  I'm looking forward to another day of adventure, preferably on nicer roads. LOL!

Day 9 - 65 KMs, Lago Tranquilo, Puerto Guadal, Chile (08:00) to Puerto Rio Tranquilo Campsite, Lake Tranquilo, Chile (16:00)

Rest Day - Limited Driving with Magnificent Scenery


Woke up around 8am ish.  Nice camping considering its right in the township lake front ;  it’s free though!    I woke up to find Flio (the German guy from the 4x4 van) swimming in the cold lake.  How cool! (or how COLD!).  Anyway, that inspired to get my ass moving early.    I got up and peed like a racehorse.  Don’t  know what but I did.  Anyway, I got into my swim trunks, grabbed my sandals, and the organic lake-safe soap.   I walked quickly over the platform and slowly stepped in the lake; it was about 18” deep there.  By now Flio was already out of the lake and changed.

Everyone enjoying breakfast & our lazy morning at
Puerto Guadal, Chile

He looked over at me and laughed.  I was freezing.  I slowly braved the water after 3 minutes of being a chicken shit.  I dunked myself, but not my jumping off the platform into the deep water, but like sort of doing a push up in the platform 18” deep area.    I quickly washed myself with the soap and 3 minutes later I did 2 more “push” ups to submerge myself to rinse myself of the soap.  I dried off very fast and walked back to the van.  I changed and hung up my swim trunks to dry in the warm sun.  I then also rigged my 20watt solar panel to my solar battery.  The morning sun was blazing indeed and it provided me warmth, power and happiness.  The sun, while driving on dusty roads, can be a misery of a thing, but when not driving it's a lovely thing indeed. It's a love/hate relationship!

Sun is good. Charges gadgets and dries clothes fast!

Flio offered me a coffee with sugar and milk. All good to me! Thanks mate!  I then cooked myself a nice double packet of cinammon sugar porrage with a banana for breakfast.  Add to that some orange juice!   Once it was done, I sat over on then permanent seats and stared out at the lake as well as the dogs playing in/near the water. Everyone around was in a happy mood!

Barbara does a handstand with her dog licking her face
sometimes during the process - LOL.

One of the groups of van campers was about to leave so I suggested we take a nice group photo. Barbara the girl who looks like my friend Sandra, did a handstand for the group photo - so funny!  Anyway, we traded contact info with everyone, and then slowly people starting departing for their onward driving journeys.  I was not done my stuff though.    I washed my clothes in the lake with the same nature-safe soap I bathed wth.  I then hung up my clothes on the line I packed with me.

An hour or so just went by, so I had to rig up a way to dry clothes while driving on the gravel road.  So I did a MacGuyver thing and rigged a cool multi-line thing for INSIDE the van.  Worked out well!.   I then was thinking what else am I missing?  Oh yeah water!  The water I had in my tank was good, but it had shit floating in from Lake Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Not good. So I dumped out all of it, and filled up with fresh clear mountain lake water.  My mindset was that any water I use from this will filtered from my hand filter (bottle) or boiled.

Interior clothes lines for the van. It worked well until driving
on the bumpy roads eventually rattled them loose to fall over

I said good bye then to the older couple in the RV.  This was Claudia and Uwe.  They are nice people and their 5 year driving journey (retirement) story is amazing to say the least because they have a cumbersome RV and not like a survival looking vehicle.   Soon after they left, I then finally got the heck out of there for more driving adventure Northbound.  I drove more about 25KMs and then I found this place called, “Pared Sur Camp” run by a man named Pablo.   I just went there out of curiousity because this place seemed to offer every mountain activity under the sun.  It looked like a new lodge and etc on the lake side.

I took my laptop and blog book inside and ordered a coffee, but it was hot already outside & inside as well. I asked Pablo if I could get a cold Coke instead. He got me one pronto.   His place is amazing! All wooden cabins, views of deep blue lakes galore and a friendly/rugged views of the Central Andes Mountains.   As I was getting into writing my blog stuff, Pablo offered me to use his WIFI for free.  I accepted, but did not really use except to show him photos of where I am from (NZ).

Yes the lake is real and NO I didn't alter the image at all 8-)

He said it looked like Chile!  I agree!     So I was able to successfully finish my blog entries for 25/2, I packed up my stuff.  Before leaving,  I took some photos from his mountain / lake view deck and a few pics from inside his main lodge  I asked Pablo to come over to take a photos with me. He did happily and signed my travel diary as well.  Awesome indeed.  I departed for more driving.

About 25kms more, I was driving up a road and suddenly this massive digger machine was coming at me down hill (fixing the rocky/dirt road.  I backed up 25m and the driver of the digger/grater finally let me pass him on his right.  Damm.. that was a big ass machine!   I kept going for 15 km more on this windy  twisty mountain road.  I finally arrived in then place where I’d stay for the ight.  This was called, “ Puerto Rio Tranquilo”.  I was hungry and needed to fill the tank up. So I filled up the tank first before anything.

Most likely the best chicken, avo, mayom and tomato
sandwich I have ever had!!!  

I drove the van down to the main street in town and saw 20 hitch hikers begging for rides.  I waved off 6 of them saying I was staying here for the day sorry.   I parked and walked to a nice café where I had the best ever chicken, avocado, and mayo sandwich. I even got photos of it!     This was at like 5:30pm, so that was my dinner.  

After dinner, I walked down by the water / main road where all sorts of “excursion” companies are selling boat trips , glacier hikes, etc…    I asked one guy how much is boat ride cost,.  It’s 12,000 CLP.(25 NZD) is cheap.     I think I will do it tomorrow @ 10am.

I then went down the main town lake beach and saw Barbara & Flio again from the big 4x4 Van. They were just hanging out by the lake after a swim about go find a campsite.   I chatted with them for 10 mins then we split up again. I drove my van back up towards to main road to find a campsite like 70 KMs away. I looked at Google and saw that a campsite on the lake was just 1km South of this town.  I gave it a go.  Score!  This was is awesome.  It costs me $6,000 CLP (or $12.50 NZD) for the night and I have a lake front spot too.  I paid the friendly Spanish woman and she gave me a Austral Andes map in ENGLISH of the region and then pointed me where I needed to go.  Its too bad I did not know about this camp spot as I could have told Barbara and Flio about it before they went off an 70 KM drive for a campsite.

My home for the night

I drove down to the lake campsites, and this place was perfecto!  I parked, then saw the sparkling lake water. I needed another lake bath!  LOL!    

So I quickly got into my swim trunks, grabbed my hemp soap and jumped in.  I got a 5 minute long bath..  and came out nice and clean! I messed about at my van and kept to myself.  This van trip was inspiring me to get another van.   

I had a grand vision so I acted on it. I used my meager/slow 3G data and ordered from Amazing a 30-watt semi-permanent/permanent (mountable) solar cel with carry bag.  My goal is to built a new van with this on the roof of the van, and get custom wiring done with a deep cel battery.  I have seen all sorts of vans here in Patagonia which has given me great ideas!  

After ordering the permanent glass solar panel. I then begin writing my daily blog entry here. I stopped though to try some star photography,  but for some odd reason  I cannot get my remote to work or the “bulb” mode to work properly so it was not my night for photography.    I was also lucky enough to exchange some TXTs with Rebecca.  I miss her so, but I am also enjoying my time alone here.    

Its 0025 now, and I am now @ zzzz time.   Today was a very good day indeed...

Daily Summary:

This was a lovely peaceful day.  Let's hope I get more days like this.

Day 8 - 177 KMs, Eastern Side of Lago Buenos Aires, Argentina (08:00) to Lago Tranquilo, Puerto Guadal, Chile (16:50)

Dangerous Driving Days

I woke up at 8am.  The girls were already awake chatting away in their tent which was on it's last days of being useful.  They were just snacking.  I immediately said hello, when I opened the side van door nearest to their tent. I then asked them "what happened last night ? They said they got a ride into town, an then were showed the grand tour of the town by the guy who gave them a ride into town.  I said, “Well we were supposed to have dinner @8-9pm.  You left me here..  so  started the fire without you and ate tuna for dinner.  I thought you had been kidnapped or etc.  I was going to call the police and tell them you were missing if I didn’t see you this morning.  That was very rude of you. If you wanted to be late in town, then should have just say you’d be back late. That was very rude of you to do that.". I also said that if I had to report them "lost/missing persons" then I'd have to get my nearest Embassy involved as my name would have been on police missing persons report as the last person to see them.

The Jacqueline thought I was acting like her father.  I said, "no that’s not true, but I just want a  little courtesy that’s all".  She didn’t understand why a person who was offering them a ride for 3 days could be pissed off for that.  Anyway, I told her that I wouldn’t let them ride with me anymore and that it was my idea BEFORE their stupid stunt.  They seemed saddened by that. However I said, I don’t mind picking up people, but don’t want "travel partners" who don’t help me with petrol costs. I explained to them that to hitch a ride for a day is no problem, but the moment you're hitching a ride with someone for 2+ days you need to pitch in for fuel costs. Eventually I think Jacqueline understood that her and her friend fucked up.

Just on the Eastern entry of Los Antiguos, Argentina -
Got cherries?

Jacqueline, the English speaking girl, began to tell me her sob story of her parents and how they are poor and etc.  Well I can relate to that, but still being courteous to your driver doesn’t cost money.   I am a nice guy, so given her sob story and playing the "air violin" (which they did not know what that meant), I made me offer to drive to the the next town, Los Antiguos, near the border.  We didn’t talk much on the way as I was a wee bit tired from lack of good sleep the night before.

I stopped in town for petrol, and dropped them off.  They said good bye and thank you to me at the petrol station in Los Antiguos.  I guess they learned the hard way when they had 'worn out their welcome' so to speak.

Giant guitars in Los Antiguos, Argentina

I ran some errands in Los Antiguos including getting a very interesting pizza for lunch this town.  Its hard to explain what the pizza was, but it was plain cheese however the pizza began to make my belly not feel so good.  I felt pressure in my read end region building up slowly.  Not good at all It was like 1pm now. Not much happening here because everything closes at 11am to reopens at 4pm or so.

The big welcome sign/map in Los Antiguos, Argentina

So I left for Chile....On my way out of town to the border crossing, I saw the girls on the right side of the road hitching heading the same way I was going.  It seems once they say my van they immediately turned away in ‘embarrassment’ or so it seems.   I went into the Argentinian customs, got my passport stamped again, and then drove through 10kms or of no man's land to the Chilean Customs building.  Here, they confiscated my cache of fruit and veggies per law.  They were friendly -- very friendly as was they see I am from NZ. Very nice police officers!

I left the customs area for Chile and reached no man's land.  There were all sorts of religious artefacts near the road:

A cross / some sort of shrine at
the side of the road. it was about 3m
tall as well.  

A beautiful engraved religious landmark in No Man's Land
between Los Antiguos and Chile Chico

Then soon arrived in Chile Chicos, Chile.  A nice town with lots of needed stuff.  I stocked up propane cooking fuel, got some other supermarket items like a re-stock of veggies (avocados, apples, bananas) and etc.  I desperately tried to find a bathroom and a permit for fishing while there.  No luck for either.  No one wanted me to be able to use a toilet there; not even an official city building!  Ouch!  Strange indeed.    I could not also find the place where to get a fishing permit as I was being jerked around by everyone who gave me diretions to find the proper building to go to. Grrrrr!

I went down to Chile Chico's lovely water front to take some pics of the lake. So lovely indeed. I took many pics!  I also did some walking around this lovely little town, with continually increasing pressure in my rear side from that nasty pizza I ate a while back..

A pano photo of Chile Chico's lovely lake waterfront

I found this old boat with no tourist
 signsnear it. I wonder what
happened to it?

A boat on stilts in Chile Chico
town centre

As I left town to go back on the gravel roads, I saw heaps of hitchers looking for a ride.  I saw 1 pack of guys (4 of them with loads of gear each) and 1 solo hitcher.  I didn’t offer anyone a ride. I wanted to my own time thanks.

A beautiful, but unnamed lake just West of Chile Chico that was
nowhere to found on my map.

That pressure I was feeling in my rear side from that nasty pizza had sadly caught up to me.  So I pulled into an old abandoned viewing area for this beautiful lake.  I grabbed some TP and tried to find a spot with some sort of reasonable privacy.  I dropped my shorts and let nature do it's calling. I think I lost 2 KGs on that one. Yes I know TMI (too much information!) Ouch!  I tried to bury the evidence as best I could before I left the scene of the crime. LOL!   So I kept driving on this rugged lakeside road....

The beginning of what was going to one of the hardest non-snow driving days
I have ever experienced.. andI am comparing this to my older hard drives
 in Alaska and Canada. The "true colours" of Patagonian roads 
were now clear to me with Lago Tranquilo, Chile in the background...

I hit the long dusty mountain road and this was a special one. My GoPro seemed to have malfunctioned because it would not record video!  Uuugh!  Dammit!    I was driving on Lago Tranquilo (Chile).     Amazing views, but so very dangerous driving indeed.  I hope to never get that sort of road again!    At one point I thought I was going either crash into the rocky wall to my left or fall off the cliff and into the lake 200m below.  I initially went up about a 35 degree slope with rutts like 4" high filled in with large rocks.   To my left was a jagged wall like a meat grinder.  To my right was drop of about 175m (70 degree slope) to the glacial mountain lake below.  For the 1st time since driving here, I was very afraid.  For this day from here onwards, I really missed Rebecca and was worried I'd never see her again.    I somehow made up the steep slope in my ill-equipped RWD campervan.

A pano photo of Lago Tranquilo:  During this entire what many people would
call a "terrifying" solo drive was unimaginable scenery to soak the senses

When I got the top of this jagged crest and pointed the van downhill, I saw the road narrowed to just barely enough space for one vehicle with the cliff drop off to my right with zero room for error.  On the way down to engine brake it, I lowered the gear to 2nd then eventually to 1st first, but that was no help. I was fishtailing all over the place with the crappy rocky rutted road.  I now realise that I pushed this van passed it's operating limits and now I had surpassed my own driving experience / skills here. I was relying on lady luck to get me through this section of the road.  So I aimed the car towards to the rocky wall rather than risking falling into the icy lakes below.  The idea of sinking in a van in 590m deep Lago Tranquilo was not good way to die.  No would ever find me or the van. I would be lost forever as I was travelling solo with zero witnesses to help me.  I could not, I would not let Rebecca, my family and friends be saddened with no closure like this. Think of the true story and the movie called "The Perfect Storm" with George Clooney where these men were lost at sea forever.  I would not let that happen to me!!!

The van was sliding for what seemed uncontrollably downhill. The steepness of the road was about 37-40 degrees or so with barely wide enough for one vehicle.  The van eventually stopped slightly facing the jagged wall in a very precarious way. To the right, was the 175m drop off to the lake.  I was near the bottom / end of this very dangerous section. I literally stopped my mind panicking to compose myself and get a grip.  I took a drink of water, then reversed the van (RWD works well in reverse for traction!), and straightened the van up. I then rolled onto a wider, flatter, safer terrain road.  I was sweaty, mentally broken and inside felt beaten with no energy left.  For many minutes, I had tears in my eyes actually.   So I composed myself and got moving onward because the loose cliffs above made this entire route unsafe for stopping.

Notice the steep road sign -- good fucking grief!  This
does not help soothe my now broken nerves! 

I stopped for a few pics along the dangerous drive, but not many as I was still very jittery from taking this very ill-equipped RWD campervan on this mountain lake road. I just wanted to get this road overwith as soon as possible.   I kept driving and met some other adventurers driving a very appropriate vehicle indeed.

A customised Mitsubishi Delica 4x4:
This is vehicle I wish I had been driving the the entire drive.

After driving for what seemed forever hours, I finally arrived at Puerto Guadal, Chile (a Chilean Patagonia little lake town), I found what seemed to be the only free lakeside camp area at 6pm or so.  Soon after, I arrived, 2 other vehicles arrived.  1 of which I saw from the ride there.  I spoke to the people too who were having tea above a cliff view of the lake with my dream 4x4 van.  

Hey I see a place to rest on the lake!  Nope. the 2000m of rocks above
can comedown and smash you and your car. Keep going sucker! 

Soon after, all people from all 4 vehicles including mine, were chatting away. They were all Germans except 1 couple (Swiss), but lucky for me they all spoke English.   A few of them went into the COLD lake for a swim. I was tempted, but did not.  Others starting making dinner and sorting their sleeping areas out in their vehicles.  I cooked a simple, but nice pasta with sauce meal.   Yummy food with nice view.       

The very hard earned sunset view from the back of van in
Puerto Guadal, Chile

I spent an hour or so chatting with the other friendly road trippin' tourists and then hit the van for bedtime at 11pm or so.   I updated my blog from 24/2 (yesterday) and turned off the lights inside the van.

Today was a day of fear and loneliness for many parts I wish I could erase from my memory. However I cannot do that so those experiences are part of me forever.  I have grown in many ways from experiencing those solo moments of doubt and pure fear.  It was very nice with meeting very nice travellers to share experiences with in near real time. And even more important, it's very good to be in normal flat gravel roads.  I am exhausted, but I'm very much "alive" in Southern Patagonia living my dream!  

It's bedtime now @ 11:30pm ish….

PS. I didn't want to forget about the very cool travellers who I met here while camping this night:

1) Felix and Eva, from Germany (Wicked Van renters like me, but hired from Santiago)

2) Claudia and Uwe, from Germany (The are a couple in their very customised RV who are rigged for a 5 year journey in South America!)

3) Barbara and Flio (from Germany who have a Massive Diesel 4x4 van.. Awesome!

Daily Summary:

Everything that happened today definitely made me feel "alive". From telling the girls to get a ride with someone else to driving the steep gravel roads to meeting the amazing people at the campsite at the end of the day, I definitely feel very much alive today.  I really like this feeling and I hope it keeps going for the rest of the trip.

Day 7 - 257 KMs, Access Road for PN Perito Morenes, Argentina (09:15) to Eastern Side of Lago Buenos Aires, Argentina (16:00)

No petrol for close to 200KMs return except for paying hotel guests? WTF!?
This is major tourism "FAIL". 

Long Drives & Bad Decisions

Getting a good night sleep by a highway doesn’t seem possible but it was in Patagonia. Woke up to a very windy conditions though.    Ate a banana and then tried to figure out if I could make it down to PN Perito Moreno and back as well as well to the next town for Petrol.  The verdict is NO.  It’s 98 km one way to the park and only hotel guests can buy petrol according to the sign I saw. WTF is that all about ?   Anyway, the ride to the next town from my current location is 158km according to the map.   I’d run out of gas with (98KMs  x 2) + 158 KMs according to all maps I have. This desired side trip was not possible... Sadly the show must go on to the North!

Breaking up camp and getting ready to head
onwards up Ruta 40 Norte

After what became a very hot drive, I finally made it to the little town of Perito Moreno at at about 1300. The only things open were the visitor centre and the petrol station.   Boring-- boring and more boring.   I got the tank filled up and got the F outta there.   Oh by the way, did I mention the same hitchers are still with me?  I am thinking at this point that “I want my own space”.   They haven’t paid one peso towards to petrol and it’s beginning to annoy me.  They say they are broke with no cash,  but that’s not my problem.  There’s a saying I’ve heard a long time ago from my days hanging out in Vancouver, Canada.. The saying goes as “Cash, grass or ass, no one rides for free”.    That means cash, pot or sex, no rides for free. 

Vast expanses of nothing on Ruta 40 towards Puerto Moreno

I was not interested in hooking up with either of them as I have my loving Rebecca waiting for me at home, so then girls at that point had given me no cash (for petrol) or grass over 3 days. And to make it worse, they talked way too much together in Portuguese not allowing me to enjoy the vast expanses of Patagonian Ruta 40 desert in peace.   Not good.  Anyway, I digress.. sorry about that.  LOL!  I tried to be a good sport (a nice guy) and we did a manage to get lucky and find some wildlife.  Check out the wild foxes we saw on the side of the road here:

After driving 30 mins to the West towards the border or Chile. I saw a nice huge blue lake called Lago Buenos Aires   I am used to seeing fences everywhere, but this one did not have fences stopping people going down to it. I thought I was dreaming.  I was not because I saw a hidden campervan between 2 trees.!!!  WOW! So I stopped the van and turned around.  I went down then short gravel road.   The beach was nice, but a wee bit polluted with (like coke cans,  beer bottles, and etc. Typical idiots leaving rubbish.).  The girls got out and liked the beach and begin collecting rocks  I looked farther down the beach and saw a tree not being used by any vehicle as a shady area  I told the girls I was going there with the van and take your time here.  

The Eastern side of Lago Buenos Aires (Argentina) under the
hot Patagonian sun

After stopping the van and backing it under the tree facing the ocean-like lake, (ç), I then took out the water jug (20 L) and filled it up with the lake water.  It took a while to do it because the lake had massive waves of like .75m tall breaking on the shore.  Anyway, I added 10 pills to purify the water.  I then turned my van into a "basecamp" sort of.   

My "base camp" with solar power and all

The girls were messing around still down the beach some, so I laid out my solar panel and etc. I pulled out my tripod and DSLR; took some photos.  It was getting crowded though. It seems this is a popular place with locals!    I caught up with some blog entries from the day before and gathered some wood for the fire..   Eventually my fun-minded, but sort of flaky hitchhikers came back to the van.  One of them came back and just sat there on the beach. Lazy?  The English-speaking one went off and got some wood for the campfire for later.  They setup their tent that was on the verge of not being usable anymore.   

Once they managed to get their dilapidated tent up, they asked to use my natural soap to wash clothes in the lake.   I replied, "sure why not and smiled". Well to my dismay they used 1/3 of my soap. WTF?  Selfish? They had nowhere to hang there wet clothes either so they hung them in the tree in the shade.  

Bad planning?  So they asked to borrow my clothes like that I packed with me. (They saw it before).  So they hung up their clothes, tied to the van as an anchor, in a slightly more effective manner, but they washed clothes too late in the afternoon so it was hopeless to have dry clothes anytime soon. Here’s the where the day gets bad.  These very inexperienced travellers decide to hitchhike into town (25 KMs away) at 6:30pm to get some food (fresh veggies) at the market.  That was their only stated intention.

They said they’d be back ASAP in less than 1.5 hours.   As they walked away with no ID, just cash in their hands, I said, “if you don’t come back soon  I will called the cops for search and rescue…  Just kidding be safe! We’ll eat dinner when you get back”.  They never took their backpacks or IDs (passports). They never came back within 2 hours.  During this entire waiting period, I used the peacefulness to do some evening photography with my Canon DSLR. It was very beautiful outside to say the least:

Just 20 minutes after the sun just dipped below the horizon past
Lago Buenos Aires

The moon high and medium level visible light during sunset over
Lago Buenos Aires

In FULL-ON manual DSLR camera settings mode to get this photograph...
Last visible light over Lago Buenos Aires, Argentina

Four hours past by and it was pitch dark as the above photo illustrates clearly. I had started the campire earlier at 8:45pm.  By 10pm I was running out of wood very fast.  




The girls were still not back to their tent yet?!??!?!  Are they dead, did they get raped? WTF?    This was pissing me off because I was forced to eat a can of tuna for dinner over a dying camp fire and face the realisation that I'd be involved in a possible missing persons report. I was able to TXT Rebecca and she gave me the numbers to the NZ Embassies in both Chile and Argentina just in case I had to deal with the local police for a “missing persons” report.    I decided to work on my blog for a while.

I was dead tired, so I went to bed at 11:30pm.  Around 00:30 I was awoken to hear a car outside the van.  I hear voices and etc outside for 5 mins.  It’s the girls….the flaky…no experience traveling girls who hitched rides with me.  Obviously their parents never taught them about decency and responsibility.


I went to bed glad they were not dead or missing, but also went to bed pissed off knowing exactly I was going to say to them first thing tomorrow morning, “You are not getting my van again…good bye”.  

Time for bed..  it’s late now..    too late! Zzzzzz as a new day awaits tomorrow!  CIAO!   ;-)

Daily Summary:

I'm going be much more careful in the future about who I pick up In terms of hitchhikers.  Very much looking forward to getting back into Chile and seeing more mountains.

Day 6 - 420 KMs, El Chalten, Argentina (0900) to Access Road for Parque National Perito Moreno, Argentina (2000)

Road to Nowhere / Camping in Oblivion

So I wake up @  9am.  It was a tight squeeze with the 2 girls in the van, but we managed.     We woke up and it was still windy as shit . There was a wee bit of a blue sky, but mostly really strong wind and spitty rains.  We got the van packed up and drove over to the Visitor Centre for another free wash up and morning hygiene thing.  After that, I got a coffee at the bus station café which is attached to Visitor Centre.  The coffee, was good, and not just because I really needed it 

El Chalten is one amazing mountain town...

We left the visitor centre and the road ahead was a hot one.   The clouds disappeared as soon as we left the El Chalten area.   It was hot as bitch in heat..  in the car that is. It would seem the UV or ozone hole that is prevelant over NZ, is also here.   The outside temp was not too bad..

I chatted with Betrina as she was in the front seat.  Her friend slept in the back on the bed.  The road never seemed to end as we every so slowly passed the lake near El Chalten.   

Ruta 40 Norte (Route 40 North) is like no other road I have driven in my life. Its like something out of a dream world

We finally arrived at Gigure Gregores (sp?) and filled up the tank.   The road was hot as death and dusty as the Wild Wild.  They also happen to have hot showers!  Holy shit yeah!  I got to take another shower, but while the shower was not that hot it still felt very good to get cleaned up.   The girls took a shower together first.  They took forever! or so it would seem so!   A couple from Holland where at their RV beside where I had parked the van. The guy in line before me to get a shower was getting pissed off.    He was friendly, but getting pissed that the girls were taking their sweet time.   He banged on the door and said, “are you ever going to get outta there?!  Please there are other people here who want to get a shower!”.  I heard the girls mutter something back through the door.  I think it was a profanity in Portuguese.

8 minutes later, the girls FINALLY got out of the shower.  He and the girls exchanged a few pleasantries (LOL!) if you get my drift. Wink wink!  He jumped into the shower and 3 - 4 minutes later was done.   I then jumped in the shower.  It was not hot, but felt good.  The door had NO LOCK, so there was a chance someone could see a showering person naked.  LOL!  I don't expect anything else in a 3rd world country, but hey at least a jerry rigged lock would suffice-- eh??  

After I got shower, I see that the girls made some bread with butter, tomatoes, herbs, and etc.  They made about  20 pieces which tasted good.   Wow healhy food-- who would have though in the barren landscapes of Patagonia.  Even though I was very appreciative of their food and etc, I sorted wanted to be alone now .   I was lucky to traded a few WhatsApp messages with Rebecca. I miss her very much now. 

We hit the road and it got really fucking hot in the van for my driving efforts.  The winds were nasty from the left (from the West).   At one point I was driving a straight line for about 90-100kms!   Holy shit was  a long tiring  drive this has become. The girls are giggling and talking not even realising I am dead tired and etc.   They thought it was an easy thing I am doing or so it seemed.  The wind you cannot see, but trust me it was there and in full force too.   This is just mere sample of the one of the only NON-straight roads we had.

We eventully reached the gravel road to the Parque National Perito Moreno.  I looked down at the trip odometer. It was 420.5 km.  Uggh.  According to the map it was like 90 KMs or more to the park on a gravel road.  I said to myself out loud, “fuck that, I am parking this van in this ditch beside the road.” The girls said, “what??”.  I said, “we are camping down here (and pointed down to the ditch)”.  They said OK  and smiled.  

They offered to cook dinner since I made dinner the night before so she said, “we cook dinner”.  I said, “muchas gracias!!!”.  I then parked the van. They got out the cooking stuff, the stove, etc.  I then got into writing mode for my blog here.  They had to chop up veggies so dinner took a while to cook. 

By the time I was done my blog entry for the prior day, and then in an hour or so dinner was ready. They made a yummy rice, tomato, onion, and spice mix meal.  It was a wee bit bland in taste, but it filled my belly.  

nicely which is all I can ever hope for with regards to meals way out in the middle of Patagonia.  ☺    They did the dishes and all.  All good.    It was very nice of them to do all of that.

I got my van bed ready which took a few minutes.   They pitched their old ratty (used) and partially broken-duct tapped tent up behind the van to get shelter from the relentless Patagonia winds.  The sky was clear, and I said that we’d have a good night for star gazing.    After they got their tent up and sorted out, I settled in for the night.   I did some more writing here on my offline blog but then forgot to brush my teeth.  It was dark very dark and starry out when I was brushing my teeth.

It's going to be a clear night in the middle of nowhere
Argentina

I stopped brushing my teeth and looked up. WOW!  I can see even more stars than from home in New Zealand in a place called Lake Tekapo.    Sadly my infrared remote for my Canon DSLR seemed to be broken so I was unable to get any star photography from that lovely night,  I got back into the van and maybe 20 minutes later I peeked outside again for the look at the stars.   Nice indeed.  Very nice. I then turned off all my stuff, and went to sleep.  Zzzz this was around like 11pm…    

Daily Summary:

I'm definitely feeling that I would like some time alone now.  While having company is good from time to time, it feels that these current hitchhikers are beginning to take advantage of my generosity. There's a fine line between being socially reasonable vs experiencing solo exploration.  The stars above are amazing  and no words from my vocabulary can even describe it.