Carretera Austral
Chile · Americas
About Carretera Austral
La Carretera Austral is a road in Chile, part of the region of Patagonia (Chile). It runs for 1240 km from Puerto Montt in the north to Villa O'Higgins in the south. Some call it the road after the end of the road, because it is not part of the Panamerican Highway that ends on the island of Chiloe Island.
Carretera Austral travel guide
Understand
The Carretera Austral (CH-7), formerly known as Carretera General Augusto Pinochet, is the name given to Chile's Route 7. Construction of the road started in the 1970s and is still going on. It passes through very beautiful and sparsely populated parts of Chile. Landscapes vary from forests and fjords to spectacular mountains, glaciers and volcanoes.
Getting there
If you start from the north, getting to Puerto Montt is straightforward. You can also enter the Carretera Austral by ferry from Chiloé to Chaitén (once a week in high season). There are a few border crossings from Argentina into different places on the Carretera Austral (see map). To start from the south at Villa O'Higgins, you will have to do an interesting and expensive border crossing from El Chaltén in Argentina. From El Chaltén there is a road of around 40 km of very bad ripio to the southern shore of Lago del Desierto (hitchhiking not impossible in high season). You can camp here, but it is better to go to its northern shore the same day and camp there (much better location and view and it is free). Take the boat (130 Argentine pesos, March 2013 - two, three times a day in high season, passengers and bicycles only, no cars). Alternatively, hike along the lake (5 hours), kind of impossible with a bicycle. At the northern shore of the lake is the Argentinean immigration post. From there you will have to walk (and walk your bike if you have one) on a trail of varying quality and gradient) to the border between Chile and Argentina. From the border, a very bad gravel road (on the Chilean side) leads to the southern shore of Lago O'Higgins (camping possible here). From here you will have to take a very expensive ferry (passengers and bikes only), CLP$44,000 as of January 2017, no extra fee for a bike. The ferry goes once a week in shoulder season and up to four times a week in high season. Cancellations are possible. They accept credit cards (at least in their office in Villa O'Higgins). The ferry takes you to the harbour, 7 km south of Villa O'Higgins, which is the southern end of Carretera Austral. If you are doing this crossing in the opposite direction, you can secure a place on the boat by buying the ticket in their office in Villa O'Higgins, but you can also just show up. The crossing generally takes two days, camping at Lago del Desierto, at the Argentinean i
Go next
El Chalten and El Calafate in Argentina and on to Torres del Paine. See the Get In section for the border crossing procedure. Many bikers continue to Ushuaia, hoping that the strong winds in Patagonia (Argentina) and Tierra del Fuego will be in their back. Biking from El Chalten to El Calafate is doable in two days. At around 120 km from El Chalten there is an abandoned pink house next to the road where many bikers spend the night. The police is known to show up around 20:00 some days to throw people out. Try to arrive late at the pink house. In the north, from Puerto Montt you are close to Chile's lake district, Osorno with the namesake volcano and Bariloche in Argentina. From many places on Carretera Austral you can cross to Argentina and travel on its famous Ruta 40 (known to be difficult for hitchhiking, very windy and sparsely populated). In fact, if you take a bus from Coyhaique to Puerto Montt, it will probably drive through Argentina.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia, travel guide fromWikivoyage (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.