Blog 2: Backpacking Trip to Carretera Austral

Hello everyone!

I think of all the vacations i’ve had in my entire life, undoubtedly the best of all was when i finally decided to adventure on the road. I borrowed a backpack to a friend, bought a bus ticket from Santiago to Puerto Montt, and went only by myself to the Austral Highway (Carretera Austral), which stretches for approximately 1.220 kilometers, from Puerto Montt, the capital of Los Lagos X Region, to Villa O’Higgins, a small town in Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo XI Region, with an estimated population of 650 people.

My trip started the last days of February and ended March 12^th, 2016 if my memory doesn’t fail me. It lasted for about 15 days. Only for mentioning some of the people and things I saw, I met a guy that had a cat skull with him, tied to hhis grandmother’s hat. 

I took a 4 hour-long ferry through a breathtaking fjord; spent like 12 hours aboard a cargo truck that was carrying a lot of the Chilean cherry, maqui, all the way from Chaitén to Villa Mañihuales, a little town 73 kilometers north of Coyhaique, where I finished my journey, delivering a present (a “3 Coraçoes” Brazilian bag of coffee) I was bringing all the way from Brazil to a girl I met on Instagram.

Then, after about 5 days in Coyhaique, I took 2 buses to get back home, in Santiago. The first one was from Coyhaique to Osorno at 3 pm o'clock, through argentinian Pampa Patagónica Route 40, which was about a 16 hour-long ride; then i have to wait a whole day, since i arrived in the morning and the bus was at 8pm. Then another 12 hours of road was all there was between Osorno and my apt. in La Reina, Santiago.

I’ve never come to experience as much calm and happiness as I did on this journey. I learned a lot about life and being by my own made me a lot more mature than I was at the time. I came back with a lot of pictures I took with my dear Canon AE-1 film camera; those images are a living testimony of the big time I had!

Hope you’ve enjoyed reading my blog, and have a nice day y’all!