The Road to Tortel

Cochrane – Caleta Tortel, Chile

Well, I haven’t been feeling that well, but we made it. Sixteen days of the Carretera Austral – and we made it to Caleta Tortel with a day to spare. 

As usual, the last two days of the Carretera were amazing. Waterfalls.

More snow capped peaks – some of which look to be serious enough that they must be crossing over into ice fields or glaciers or something.

Rivers and lakes.

Changing scenery, including what I think are peat bogs or something similar. (Maybe makes sense because now we’re on the Iron Range in terms of latitude equivalent to Minnesota . . .)

Bottom line – amazing.

As I mentioned, there are basically no services between Cochrane and Caleta Tortel, where we are now – waiting to pick up the ferry tonight. We did, however, find two places that have some small resemblance to a business. 

First, we found a woman along the road who sold little balls of bread (pan). You literally walk into her parlor, she grabs the bread for you from her kitchen, you pay, and head out.

Second, we found a little campground. 

Campground. That’s probably a word we should explore for a second. In the U.S. the word “campground” pretty much evokes KOA or State Park type setup. I mean, there are other iterations, but that’s basically what we imagine. You drive around and everyone has their own numbered site. There’s a fire pit, a small pad, and maybe a picnic table. 

A little different around here. Most campgrounds here seem to be somebody’s house, where they just decide to start letting people pitch a tent, and they’re not set up for cars at all. Many of them erect these shed-like things – with the idea that you put your tent underneath. Not an idea that would ever occur to us in the U.S. – where the whole point is to have the stars above. And then some of them erect little bathroom type facilities, which may or may not have a shower and, if there are showers, they may or may not have hot water. 

Anyway, the campground we stayed at was somebody’s house, they had sheds, they had nice bathrooms with hot water, and they had amazing mountain views. Nice bonus.

What wasn’t great was our cook stove. We’ve been using this old whisperlight type stove and, as I’ve mentioned once or twice, we’ve been using regular gas station gas because it’s cheap and easy to find throughout the world. 

Only problem is that gasoline is, I guess, much more dirty than normal camping fuel. Upshot is that it can eventually clog up the fuel lines. 

Eventually came at the campground. Started with the stove barely functioning. But, eventually, it stopped working altogether. 

Ugh.

Not like we were super hungry and cold after a full day of riding at low temps . . .

I could make a wood fire – except these backyard campgrounds don’t seem to have fire pits, and it’s somebody’s back yard – so doesn’t seem like a good option. Fortunately, like so many people we meet, the proprietors were super generous and nice.

We asked Nibia, the woman in charge of the campground – about it. 

“Jose,” she called, immediately, shouting into the back of her house. 

Within a few minutes Jose (Nibia’s husband) had brought a grill and some wood – and within another fifteen minutes we were eating dinner. Another Soup Surprise – only with some veggies added in. Delicious.

And then off to bed with our new extra blanket. It was cold – like high-20s – but we were warm. I think our Minnesota cold weather skills are coming in handy. It’s not that we’re “used to it” – a total myth. There’s no getting “used to” sub-freezing temperatures. People are just not designed to live in those conditions. No. I think we just know that if you’re going to be out in those temps you better darn well have enough clothes and/or the right equipment . . .

Now, speaking of cold weather, this town we’re in – Caleta Tortel – kind of feels like it could be the Southern Hemisphere’s capital of Christmas. There are snow capped peaks all around – it’s situated between the north and south Chilean ice fields, and it seems to be pretty cold . . . 

But it’s the strange layout of the town that really gives the town its odd feel. There are no sidewalks. None. Boardwalks everywhere. And stairs. So many stairs. And all the houses and buildings are basically built on stilts. It just doesn’t seem like the kind of place normal people would live. You just kind of feel like it’s exactly the kind of place where elves would live. Santa’s elves. And they’re all working away making their little Christmas gifts in the little houses on the stilts . . .

No sign of reindeer. But then, there’s no sign of deer of any kind around here – except for the occasional road signs and/or, maybe the guanacos. Maybe the Southern Hemisphere Santa uses flying camels or llamas or guanacos? A mystery we will keep working on . . .

Now, whether Christmas-town or not, I will say that the elves around Tortel could do a little more on upkeep. Many of the boardwalks and stairs seem to be rotting away. Probably hard to keep on top of everything. After all, there’s a reason for all the boardwalks – water seems to ooze from the ground everywhere and there does not appear to be much soil. And I think it rains A LOT around here. 

Interesting place. Wouldn’t necessarily want to live here. Every endeavor requires stairs. Want to buy some propane? Lug it up or down the stairs. Want to get some groceries? Take the stairs to the town parking lot, take a three-hour bus ride to Cochrane over the ripio, the nearest “real” town, then take the bus back, come back down the stairs, and make dinner . . .

We’ve met a few nice people the last few days . . .

Hannah and Siebert. From Belgium. They were biking the opposite direction from us. They’re traveling over here for a few months and took this one week to bike a section of the Carretera. I guess Hannah doesn’t love cycling – so this one week of their two month journey was their compromise. They rented bikes and equipment for a point-to-point trip from Villa O’Higgins – the far southern village on the Carretera – to Cochrane, the town we most recently came from. 

Hannah just finished her PhD. in neuroscience – so she’s pretty smart – and Siebert quit his job so they could take this trip. They had great energy and it was fun to chat with them . . .

Clemens. Another bike rider. He’s from Belgium and is also heading to Ushuaia via the ferry and Puerto Natales. He showed up at Nibia’s campground a few hours after we arrived – during the camp stove crisis – so we haven’t talked much yet, but he seems like a great guy and we look forward to chatting more on the ferry. 

The one funny thing with Clemens – he definitely seems to be on a different schedule than we are. Yesterday morning we got up, took down the tent, made breakfast, ate breakfast, packed up, and biked off – all before Clemens even stirred from his tent. I guess he’s young and single; not old and married . . .

Finally, we met Mateo today while hiking around in the Tortel area. Mateo just took the ferry from Puerto Natales to Caleta Tortel. Young and French. Mateo is still in university – majoring in energy engineering – with an emphasis on batteries and hydrogen. The kind of young person that is going to save the world for all of us. Love people like Mateo. 

We are excited for the ferry. Hoping to see whales and dolphins and glaciers, fjords and stuff.  Mateo tells us it’s beautiful . . .

P.S. – Apparently there is no WiFi on the boat so don’t expect to hear from us for a few days…