Pedalling for Peru: "Capitan. Vuelve El Don Baldo!"

Profuse apologies for the lack of recent updates. Since our last post we´ve completed the final selection of the Carretera Austral from Coyhaique to Chaiten, and taken the boat over to Chiloe.

After five days loafing around Coyhaique and getting rather bored of haemorrhaging money it was great to go back into the wild. The road out of Coyhaique follows Rio Simpson through a beautiful valley, before joining another valley and heading north. We spent one night camping in a beautiful clearing on an estancia by the river, and one night at the Casa de Ciclistas in Villa Manihuales (which is highly recommended - it´s right by the river so is a good spot for swimming and fishing, and provides free beds for bikers).

200km North of Coyhaique we reached Parque Nacional de Quelat. The Carretera goes straight through the park, with a brutal climb up towards a huge glacier. This section was as steep as anything we´ve been up yet, following a fast flowing stream with countless hairpin bends and with a surface that looked and felt more like a dry stone wall than a road. At the top of the climb we came to a forest known as "El Bosque Encantado" which was well worth a visit. The area below the glacier is very well watered and so we found vegetation growing from every possible surface. It was full of incredible wild flowers and creepers hanging from huge trees. Park rangers had cut a path through the forest but the vegetation quickly sneaks in to reclaim the space so all of the bridges and steps look like they are made out of moss and greenery.

El Bosque Encantado

Ventisquero Colgante - hanging glacier

After a night camping next to the river we followed the road as it continued through the rainforest, past an immense hanging glacier, and on to Puyuhaupi - a welcoming German settler town at the end of a fjord with beautiful views. We stayed by the lake in Puyuhaupi and then added to our collection of wierd camping locations over the next few nights by spending a night in the fire station in La Junta, and on a runway at Puerto Cardenas.

The beautiful Fjord at Puyuhuapi

A week after setting out from Coyhaique we finally reached Chaiten and the end of the Carretera - at least the end as it currently stands with the road north of Chaiten closed due to landslides. We´d heard all sorts of things about Chaiten, but I don´t think anything could have prepared us for such a strange experience. In May 2008 a volcano went off in a valley 10km to the north of town. The ash from the erruption poured into the Rio Blanco, Chaiten had been evacuated so nobody was hurt, but the river burst its banks and the force of the flood destroyed whole streets and washed many buildings out into the sea. A few weeks later when people came back to try to rescue their posessions they found the whole town buried under metres of ash and sand. The Chilean Government made the decision that it was too dangerous to try to repopulate the town and offered people the chance to settle elsewhere.

The final stretch on the Carreterra Austral- paved road at last!

The majority of the 5,000 inhabitants seem to have taken their offer and relocated, but there´s a group of people who don´t want to leave and have tried to stay in Chaiten despite the fact that since the eruption nothing has been done to reconnect the telephone lines, electricity, or water supply. Chaiten was a pioneer town, and the story of the lady who owned the hostel we stayed in demonstrates why some people just don`t want to take the Government´s advice and leave: her grandfather was one of the founders of Chaiten, and it´s the only place she has ever lived.

Estimates vary, but most people will tell you that there are a couple of hundred people still living in Chaiten trying to carve out a living from toursists and passers-by. Those who have stayed seem to have spent most of the last two years trying to salvage their property but now they are literally living in a ghost town and the main pastime seems to be binge drinking and eating Pichanga. The population is gradually dwindling. The streets are empty and shops, hotels, offices, and homes remain untouched since the day the volcano went off, submerged in ash, gradually corroding. We passed a greengrocers with trays of fruit and veg that were fresh on the day the volcano went off and still sit there now, shrivelled and coated in silt. In the Plaza de Armas there´s a tourist office with two desks visible through the dusty window. The desk nearest the window is exactly as it was at the moment the town was evacuated with paperwork and a cup of coffee left unfinished.

After a strange two days in Chaiten we were more than ready to hop on the ferry to Chiloe. We got up early and were cycling over to get on board the Don Baldo at the advertised hour when we suddenly noticed the boat edging away from the dock. The captain had inexplicably decided to leave a whole hour early and the next boat wasn´t until a week later. The thought of another week in a ghost town was too much to contemplate. As the boat disappeared towards the horizon we rushed to the booking office and remonstrated with the man who had sold us the tickets. Happily, after 45 minutes, he saw our point of view and picked up the telephone to the Captain: "Capitan. Vuelve El Don Baldo a Chaiten!" We couldn´t believe our luck as the ferry swung round on the horizon and headed back to Chaiten to collect us and five other passengers who had been left high and dry. This is possibly the coolest thing that has happened to us so far, if not ever. The Don Baldo is not some glorified fishing boat, it´s a fully grown car ferry. And it turned back to collect us. Safe to say, once we´d finally boarded we weren´t the most popular passengers (at the very least the crew spat in our coffee) but we were on our way to Chiloe!

Moments before we saw the Don Baldo disappearing to sea directly behind us!

The infamous Don Baldo

A quick footnote on the Carretera. In Rita´s hostel in Chaiten we found some amazing photos taken at the time of its construction. Building a road through 1,500km of rocky wilderness was an insane project. But we had a wonderful time cycling along it so we´re very grateful to General Pinochet for deciding to build it.