La Carretera Austral

From the archives of my memory... February 2005

With my folk's former exchange student from Chile, Alexis, and his mom and younger siblings we drove from Puerto Montt to Coihaique, Chile. It was one of the most gorgeous trips I´ve ever been on as far as scenery goes. We drove down this curvy, hilly dirt road for several days and the view from the windshield was perpetual beauty. About halfway between the two cities, we spent two nights at this camping spot called "las toninas", where I was to learn why it has that name. One afternoon Alexis was fishing with Paz (the daughter of the owners of the camping area) about 100 meters down the fjord from where we were camping. It occurred to me to swim over that way to find out how the fishing was. So I get about 15 meters out in the fjord and start swimming down the water, towards Alexis and Paz and I hear a breath behind me. I kind of wanted to deny what I had heard so I kept swimming for a couple more strokes until something touched my foot. I looked back and there was a fin right behind me. I was so scared! I logically new sharks aren’t too common off the coast of Chile because the water is quite cold and furthermore they breathe underwater, but I sure didn’t like having this sea creature sneak up behind me and touch my foot. So after screaming to Alexis "shark, shark", I swam back to shore. (Just in case I didn’t make it, I wanted someone to know where to find my body.) The longest swim of my life. So I got back and told the owners of the camping place what had happened, and they said I was followed by a tonina, a cousin of the dolphin. So from the safety of shore I could appreciate how cool it was that I'd swam with a tonina, even if she came off as a bit sneaky and aggressive. I guess I’d encroached on her territory.

Later Paz and her mom went out in a row boat and came back with fresh King Crab which we bought from them. It was so good. And Alexis's mom Leti prepared home-made onion rings and sopaipillas (like fried pumpkin bread) on the camping stove. I bought fresh jam made from calafates for the sopaipillas. We had a tasty meal with the beautiful Patagonia as a backdrop. The trip to the Carretera Austral has been one of the best I’ve made in Chile due to its remoteness and abundance of natural beauty, good food and good company.





Paz with king crab she'd just caught.


Me holding the evening's snack.

A day of excitement & locavorism.