Background

Hola! ¿Qué tal? Rach and I are currently aboard the Crux Australis ferry for the next 42 hours after completing a journey along the Carretera Austral. The ferry will arrive in Puerto Natales where we will start prepping for a 10-day trek in Torres del Paine National Park. We would like do something a little different with our blog this segment in our travels since we have been bouncing around a lot. We will post separate “mini” (how mini will they really be??) blog stories consisting of our main pitstops along the Carretera.

First, a little context: The Carretera Austral is the only major highway connecting the Lagos region of Chile to the southern portions of the Aysén region and all of the small mountain and port towns between (see map below). The highway was only recently completed, and was first constructed during Chile’s Augusto Pinochet administration, or dictatorship, depending on who you ask. Today, many Chileans and extranjeros travel the length of the highway by any means possible. Buses are reliable but seldom along the way so a lot of foot passengers hitchhike to fill in the missing links. There are also a lot of bike packers and camper rigs going both directions. Rach and I primarily took buses heading south but needed to hitchhike in a few places. I will start out with our first leg of the journey and we will switch off writing our segments. Hope you enjoy 🙂