If you think this entry is going to be about the town of Coyhaique, the furthest south we get on the Carrera Austral, you are mistaken. There is really not much to write about Coyhaique, except that it’s only tourist attraction is a monument to the sheep herder, and that it has – confusingly – a main square which is in fact a pentagon. Highly unlikely for any South American town, which is always laid out rectangularly. Oh, and Coyhaique is significantly larger than everything we have so far encountered along the Carretera, with some 50,000 inhabitants it is obviously the local centre for a very large area.
No, most of this entry is about the area around the town: we are heading back north, but have decided to make a detour of an hour or so, to travel from Puerto Chacabuco to Coyhaique – a spectacular road, once the rain has stopped -, and only then turn north, via Villa Ortega back onto the Carretera Austral. An if possible even more spectacular road, especially since the sun starts appearing, as well. At one stage we stop, and see all around us, in four directions, snow-capped peaks, the one even more dramatic than the other. I am sure they all have names, but I have not been able to identify the individual mountains – it doesn’t matter, really, we just enjoyed the views, which are impossible to fully capture in photos. And all of this amongst an explosion of spring flowers; sometimes we drive through a corridor of purple lupines, with some white and pink for variation, at other times we are surrounded by deep-yellow bushes. Fabulous, and I suppose we are lucky, once again, because this flowering doesn’t last long, of course.
Never mind that later, and for the rest of the day, the rain returns.
next: back up north to Contao
