After returning from Bolivia we took a bus immediately to Chiloe to start our Patagonian adventure. We took the ferry from the island back to the main land to the Carretera Austral. The Carretera Austral is a road completed during the Administration of the Dictator Augusto Pinochet that connect the very rural parts of Northern Patagonia. The road starts by going over by ferry south of Puerto Montt and continues south 1,240 kilometers until Villa O'Higgins.
We first started in a town call Chaiten. Chaiten is now famous as a city that was destroyed by its neighboring Volcano in May of 2008. The eruption happened in the early morning hours with little to no warning. The people had to flee in the middle of the night. After the volcanic eruption, the Chilean government did not want to let the people of Chaiten return, but the people did and have been rebuilding their city over the ash of what used to be the most northern city on the Carretera Austral.
North of Chaiten lies Parque Pumalin. The park is owned by the Douglas Thompkins; one of the two founders of The North Face. He and his wife are the largest private landowners in the world. Pumalin remains more a reserve than a traditional park. It includes largely untouched areas and some trees that belong to the second oldest family of trees in the world.
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| The boat ride from Castro, Chiloe to Northern Patagonia |
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The destruction left behind after the eruption of Volcan Chaiten
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| A boat washed up after a tidal wave. |
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| The Alerce (Patagonian Cypress) is the world's second oldest living tree species. These rare trees grow in a small geographic area and very few are located in easily accessible places. |
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| On top of the crater of what used to be Volcan Chaiten. Behind us is the ever growing lava dome. |
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