Three of the four highest passes on the Carretera Austral barely brush 2000 feet above sea level, so today’s climb up to 3650 feet is by far the highest point of the route. We had done most of the work yesterday, lifting ourselves from 1000 ft. to the 3200 ft. initial pass where our campground Read more…

After more than a week in Coyhaique, we began the second half of the Carretera Austral at 7:20am, with the weather still warm enough that starting off in shorts at that hour was no problem. That’s been the case for nearly all of our days in 2026, flipping my fears that we would be constantly Read more…

Coyhaique is by far the largest city on the Carretera Austral, as well as the midpoint of its 770 mile length. And the route to get there from the north is one of the only places where you have the choice to leave the Carretera Austral, by making a westward jog toward Puerto Aysen, and Read more…

Our request for breakfast at 7am had been met with the usual surprise. “Why would anyone want to eat so early?” seems to be what the quizzical look communicated. But in this case it worked out nicely for us, because rather than cooking us a hot breakfast, our hostess just put out cold food (the Read more…

The weather modeling for rain seems to be quite accurate and stable here in Patagonian Chile (in contrast to being almost useless in the Peruvian highlands), so we woke to clear blue skies just as expected. Well, we had to get packed out of the surrounding forest before we could confirm that, and nothing had Read more…

It rained during most of the five nights and four days that we spent in Puyuhuapi, though only heavily on two of those days, which matched the forecast. There was still rain predicted for today, but light and decreasing, and leaving today gave us the best window to make it to Coyhaique in four days Read more…