We had heard a lot about the Villa O'Higgins crossing. Many spoke about it as the most exciting and pioneering way to make it onto the Austral. For us it was an exciting prospect - the only problem was no one seemed to have any real information about the best way to go about it. This blog will be part of our story as well as a no bull reference to crossing the stretch of land between El Chalten and the start of the Carretera Austral at Villa O'Higgins with a bicycle.
The first part of the journey is a 37km stretch of Ripio, the road is for the most part flat (by South American standards) - you get the feeling that you are finally in "Carretera Country" For the first time in our journey, lush greenery and cascading water surrounds the road and mountain peaks are evident on both sides. If the wind stays down then it looks like a very very pleasant road for riding...
Of course this part of the journey went differently for me...... having a damaged knee I attempted to procure some form of bus transportation to Lago del Desierto..... all the bus companies in town told me that while they did run services to Lago Desierto they could not take bikes. I was staring down the barrel of a long (and painful) walk. I was speaking to a guy who ran an internet cafe and he offered to phone around a few people he knew..... After a couple of phone calls he told me that I'd be able to get a bus from a Hostel about 15km down the road towards the lake. I was pretty happy to hear this..... a 15km walk is better than a 37km one after all. I decided i'd go for that.
Of course things don't always go to plan...... I had planned to spend about four hours walking - this is a nice slow strolling pace - which was all I was really capable of with my knee in the state it was..... I made it to the Hostel in pretty good time, with a very sore knee, I thought my day was probably over.... As it turned out I was wrong..... I get into the hostel and start having a chat with the Bossman there - I mention a bus service and he gives me this grimace that makes me a little worried then he starts talking - this confirmed my worries. Apparently there is a bus service that runs from there but only when he phoned up the companies (that i'd already been turned away by) and booked them specially to stop at his place..... I could tell by the look on his face that he was pretty gutted that this was happening to me - especially after I gave him my massive sob story..... I made my way out of his place pretty gutted - I thought I'd have to walk the rest of the way........
Luckily this did not happen - a kind hearted Gaucho picked me up from the end of the hostel's drive way and dropped me about ten Km's short of Lago del Desierto. This was ok - I only ended up having to walk 25km in total.
There are two camp sites by Lago Desierto - the first one you come to is owned by the state - and we're really not sure what the deal was..... but we camped there and seen as everything was locked up - apart from the toilet, we camped for free. The second camp site is a rip-off they charge between 10-15 Pesos for a night - all he had was hot showers. People would be best advised to stay clear - although that depends what the deal is with the "free" campsite when you arrive.
The boat for Lago Desierto is 35pesos per person although it looked like it was poised to increase in price to 60pesos at any moment. It's possible to walk - but it's a pretty arduous route along a footpath - that will probably not be maintained now that the boat service is running more regularly.
It was quite a pleasant crossing and it was nice for all of us to make a few K's northwards without having to put any effort in.....
The crossing lasted about forty five minutes and we arrived at the Argentine border post and were once again stamped out of the country. There is no road from the border post to the Chilean side..... there is only a 6km long track that is muddy and narrow and at times very steep - not ideal conditions for portaging a bicycle. It is possible however - and while it was very very difficult; there were stretches where the path seemed to disappear, consumed by bog or the undergrowth. It was possible. I popped a couple of painkillers before starting this stretch and we yomped on. We ended up doing the 6km in about four hours - which is pretty good going considering how rough the terrain was. We arrived at the border signs took the obligatory photo's and were able to mount up again and ride the final 15km to Candelario Mancillo, from where we would catch our boat to Villa O'Higgins.
The 15km stretch of road is pretty terrible - there being no real reason to keep it maintained. We therefore had to contend with sections that had been almost washed out by snow melt or heavy rainfall and most interestingly a section where a bridge crossing a river had been washed away. We were lucky because the river wasn't too deep or too wide - only coming up to about our knees. The end of the road is all downhill - about 5km. It would have been gloriously fun if it wasn't for a few trifling matters: First, the condition of the road at this point was horrific. Second, it was starting to lash down with rain and finally, the left hand side of the road was bordered by a steep drop off of at least 40m into a steep ravine. This did not make for a rapid descent - by the time I'd reached the bottom the rear brake of my bike had ceased functioning most of the pad being on the inside of my rim.......
We crossed back into Chile - ushered back in by Carabineros. From the border post it was another Km to our campsite - on a hillside above where the boat would come in. It was dirt cheap - 1000pesos a night per person, but very very basic. It was pretty much a field - with a nice view though.
We were expecting the boat the next day - this did not happen. Apparently rough weather stopped the boat from coming across - this seemed a little doubtful to us. We were of the opinion that a commercial decision had been taken not to run the boat while they waited for more people to turn up - this was pretty much confirmed in our minds when a large group of Spaniards turned up that evening having already paid for their tickets in advance. The next day we heard that the boat was coming and at 5pm we were all loaded into the boat and on our way to Villa O'Higgins. The crossing costs 35USD or 17,500Pesos. It takes about 4.5hours and it can get bumpy.
We arrived in Villa O'Higgins quite late and found lodgement in a campsite called El Mosco. It had been a savage couple of days and everyone was feeling bruised, battered and hungry - we had finally made it though... to the Carretera Austral.
The first part of the journey is a 37km stretch of Ripio, the road is for the most part flat (by South American standards) - you get the feeling that you are finally in "Carretera Country" For the first time in our journey, lush greenery and cascading water surrounds the road and mountain peaks are evident on both sides. If the wind stays down then it looks like a very very pleasant road for riding...
Of course this part of the journey went differently for me...... having a damaged knee I attempted to procure some form of bus transportation to Lago del Desierto..... all the bus companies in town told me that while they did run services to Lago Desierto they could not take bikes. I was staring down the barrel of a long (and painful) walk. I was speaking to a guy who ran an internet cafe and he offered to phone around a few people he knew..... After a couple of phone calls he told me that I'd be able to get a bus from a Hostel about 15km down the road towards the lake. I was pretty happy to hear this..... a 15km walk is better than a 37km one after all. I decided i'd go for that.
Of course things don't always go to plan...... I had planned to spend about four hours walking - this is a nice slow strolling pace - which was all I was really capable of with my knee in the state it was..... I made it to the Hostel in pretty good time, with a very sore knee, I thought my day was probably over.... As it turned out I was wrong..... I get into the hostel and start having a chat with the Bossman there - I mention a bus service and he gives me this grimace that makes me a little worried then he starts talking - this confirmed my worries. Apparently there is a bus service that runs from there but only when he phoned up the companies (that i'd already been turned away by) and booked them specially to stop at his place..... I could tell by the look on his face that he was pretty gutted that this was happening to me - especially after I gave him my massive sob story..... I made my way out of his place pretty gutted - I thought I'd have to walk the rest of the way........
Luckily this did not happen - a kind hearted Gaucho picked me up from the end of the hostel's drive way and dropped me about ten Km's short of Lago del Desierto. This was ok - I only ended up having to walk 25km in total.
There are two camp sites by Lago Desierto - the first one you come to is owned by the state - and we're really not sure what the deal was..... but we camped there and seen as everything was locked up - apart from the toilet, we camped for free. The second camp site is a rip-off they charge between 10-15 Pesos for a night - all he had was hot showers. People would be best advised to stay clear - although that depends what the deal is with the "free" campsite when you arrive.
The boat for Lago Desierto is 35pesos per person although it looked like it was poised to increase in price to 60pesos at any moment. It's possible to walk - but it's a pretty arduous route along a footpath - that will probably not be maintained now that the boat service is running more regularly.
It was quite a pleasant crossing and it was nice for all of us to make a few K's northwards without having to put any effort in.....
The crossing lasted about forty five minutes and we arrived at the Argentine border post and were once again stamped out of the country. There is no road from the border post to the Chilean side..... there is only a 6km long track that is muddy and narrow and at times very steep - not ideal conditions for portaging a bicycle. It is possible however - and while it was very very difficult; there were stretches where the path seemed to disappear, consumed by bog or the undergrowth. It was possible. I popped a couple of painkillers before starting this stretch and we yomped on. We ended up doing the 6km in about four hours - which is pretty good going considering how rough the terrain was. We arrived at the border signs took the obligatory photo's and were able to mount up again and ride the final 15km to Candelario Mancillo, from where we would catch our boat to Villa O'Higgins.
The 15km stretch of road is pretty terrible - there being no real reason to keep it maintained. We therefore had to contend with sections that had been almost washed out by snow melt or heavy rainfall and most interestingly a section where a bridge crossing a river had been washed away. We were lucky because the river wasn't too deep or too wide - only coming up to about our knees. The end of the road is all downhill - about 5km. It would have been gloriously fun if it wasn't for a few trifling matters: First, the condition of the road at this point was horrific. Second, it was starting to lash down with rain and finally, the left hand side of the road was bordered by a steep drop off of at least 40m into a steep ravine. This did not make for a rapid descent - by the time I'd reached the bottom the rear brake of my bike had ceased functioning most of the pad being on the inside of my rim.......
We crossed back into Chile - ushered back in by Carabineros. From the border post it was another Km to our campsite - on a hillside above where the boat would come in. It was dirt cheap - 1000pesos a night per person, but very very basic. It was pretty much a field - with a nice view though.
We were expecting the boat the next day - this did not happen. Apparently rough weather stopped the boat from coming across - this seemed a little doubtful to us. We were of the opinion that a commercial decision had been taken not to run the boat while they waited for more people to turn up - this was pretty much confirmed in our minds when a large group of Spaniards turned up that evening having already paid for their tickets in advance. The next day we heard that the boat was coming and at 5pm we were all loaded into the boat and on our way to Villa O'Higgins. The crossing costs 35USD or 17,500Pesos. It takes about 4.5hours and it can get bumpy.
We arrived in Villa O'Higgins quite late and found lodgement in a campsite called El Mosco. It had been a savage couple of days and everyone was feeling bruised, battered and hungry - we had finally made it though... to the Carretera Austral.
