Tuesday. A new day starts... a little late though. I slept badly, it was cold that night. Anyway. At 10am, I'm buying my bread-rolls for my sandwiches when I meet two French. Good news, bad news. The bad news is that it's been two hours since they started trying to hitchhike, without success. The good news is that I did well not to get up so early after all!
They abandon the idea of hitch-hiking to take the mid-day bus. I hit the road, while hoping the passage of a car (or the bus). After two hours of walking along the lake, only one car passed. And it was full. But eventually a truck stops. Milton transports soil for the maintenance of the Carretera Austral, a few kilometers away. He offers to drive me. I agree, saying that anyway the bus is not passed yet, so I can keep going. We discuss work on the Carretera, trucks, football, etc.. When I left him, a deliveryman (in contrast, not really talkative!) takes me to Cochrane. I'm happy. And as I am a lucky, I would still try my luck. This is a bonus, I'm not late on my program, but I want to move forward, and try to visit Tortel. Fifteen minutes of waiting and Carles, Esteban and Rosario stop their jeep. After making room for me in the car, they almost apologize telling me they are going to Tortel and not further!
Tortel is a unique place. A wooden walkway along the fjord, others on the slopes leading to the houses. The whole village is made out of wood, wooden streets, wooden houses. It is far from everything. The village has been connected to the mobile network for 6 months only. It's pretty funny because everyone walks around with his/her cell phone, like children showing off their new toys. Otherwise VHF radio is always used to communicate from house to house. The electricity comes from the North. And the village is connected to the Carretera Austral by a 25-km dirt road. As you can see, very thin connections to the outside world.
The next day, Wednesday, I walk again nearly three hours before, again, a construction truck stops. I cross the Río Bravo by boat. On the other shore, there are still 100 km (60 mi) before Villa O'Higgins. But the more I advance on this Southern Route, the fewer vehicles there are. Fair enough, it is a dead-end road. In Tortel, I might have taken advantage of the departure of five jeeps I've regularly seen for three days (and I'm rather proud to successfully keep their pace). But it would have been too easy! I therefore prepare myself to camp there in the middle of nowhere, and wait for the passage of the bus the next afternoon. But luckily enough, while I thought all the cars on the boat were full, the last to leave the boat beckons me. What a luck! They go to Villa O'Higgins.
I arrive at Villa O'Higgins, the end of the Carretera Austral. From Bariloche, it took me 8 days to cover these 1,400 km (870 mi). Again, in Villa O'Higgins, it is far from everything. At 500 km (300 mi) from the “big” city by a dirt road, a day walk from the village of El Chalten in Argentina. No access to open sea by boat but a small airfield. I suspect the Chilean government to subsidize the village to "mark his territory". As everywhere in Latin America, there are many areas of territorial conflict about borders. Regardless, I'm here and happy to be here.
What's next? I'll be crossing the border with Argentina over the week-end. This is probably the most adventurous border crossing of my journey: a bus, three hours by boat five hours of walking, the border, the new boat (or 3 hours walk) and bus. And I'll be in El Chalten, Argentina. But that will be for the fourth and final episode of the series.
No comments:
Post a Comment