Boaz Kantor

We left the calm and beautiful town of El Chalten up north, driving all night on the Ruta 40 and crossed the border to Chile, to start our Carretera Austral trip. "We" means 3 Israeli couples aged 30-40 and a lunatic Argentinian driver called Martin. The plan: 6 days on the Carretera.
The Carretera Austral was built by Chile's dictator Pinoche in 1976 to allow access to remote populated areas in Chile. But make no mistake. This 1,200 kilometers so called "highway" is a dirt track leading to barely populated areas. However, it's a road with beautiful views, which makes it a destination by itself for South American tourists and backpackers.
These are my highlights of the Carretera Austral:

1. Landscape: There's nothing I can say about the Carretera views that will be anything close to depict it. The huge Andes mountains thrown violently everywhere, with endless green and freezing-grey lakes and rivers filling the areas between the mountains, all shades of green on wild fields, beasts and wildlife everywhere, killer winds pale sunrises and pink sunsets. The Carretera has the most beautiful landscape in the world. It's Patagonia at its best.
2. Horseback riding: A real Gaucho riding his horse as one and two adorable dogs led our group through beautiful Patagonian paths and fields (see "Landscape" above).
3. An "enchanted forest": A secret and barely seen entrance on the side of the road leads to a thick and enchanted forest. It's like a fairy forest, so green and alive, full of all things to admire. We took pictures every 10 meters. Seriously.
4. Chaiten, the ghost town: Chaiten resides next to a volcano. In May 2008, after 9,000 years of silence, volcano Chaiten suddenly erupted. 4,000 people were evacuated swiftly, leaving everything behind, including food on the tables and shouting tv sets. Only 500 people returned to their homes, claiming that "Chaiten no morira" or "Chaiten shall not die", determined to revive the ghost town. We walked in deep volcanic ash which covers everything, crossed the flooded streets and the experience was strong and sad.
5. Hot springs: Sitting in a pool of steaming hot water. Cold drops of rain falling on my head. Thick forests on both sides of me. This is wildlife pampering.

We finished the Carretera Austral in an El Bolson restaurant, with great English service and awfully made beef steaks. We then departed from Martin in Bariloche, to start a new adventure in Argentine.


Goodbye Chile, you have been an unforgettable adventure.


Boaz.

We met a nice Israeli couple (Michal and Erez), also aged 30+, who were in touch with a second Israeli couple (Nataly and Israel). Both couple were about to rent a van with a driver to ride the Carretera Austral, and were looking for a third couple. We decided to join them, however, the van was only available a couple of days later. So we decided to do something productive with our time, and headed to El Chalten.
This small and cute town is a base for trekkers and mountaineers (mountain climbers), and is located in the national park of glaciers called ¨Parque Nacional los Glaciares¨. Among others, this park has the biggest ice cap in the world after the polar ones, and the Perito Moreno is also in it.
We arrievd at our hostel at about 11:20. At 12:00 we have already been packed and walking towards a local trek to Laguna De los Tres. It was going to be just another trek, however, two facts made it one of the most significant activities we´ve done so far:
1. The mountain is the holy grail of mountaineers. No, not the himalayan peaks. The everest summit, for example, is stepped on up to a hundred times a day. The Fitz Roy summit is reached only about once a year. It´s a monster, who has claimed many lives.
2. The trek ends with a very steep climb of 450 meters, which should be twice as difficult as the (unfinished) Torres climb.
After walking for about 4 hours we arrived at camp Poincenot, named after one of the first explorers to climb this mountain. From this point on, it´s just sweat and blood. Erez and Michal decided to head back to town, as it was becoming too late to climb the hill. However, Jenis and I, in a blink of an eye, decided to ¨just do it¨.
I was afraid. I´ve known fears in my life, but this one was different. It was the same fear I had of climbing the Torres mountain. I´ve been in good shape in the late 1990´s, I´ve ran half a marathon and was thin and muscular. However, for the past 10 years or so, I have been losing fitness and gaining fat. I´ve reached rock bottom about 6 months ago, and decided to get in shape. And so I´ve been working out for the past 6 monhts, and have come to some better level of fitness.
However, I had no idea where my limits are. What my body is capable of. I was afraid that at some point in the middle of the way I won´t be able to climb up any more.. nor to climb down.
At the age of 33 I overcame this fear and reached the top with Jenis. We´ve reached the closes possible point to Fitz Roy without climbing it, with a beautiful crystal lake and still glaciers. The view was magnificent, but the adventure and the achievement was even more.
The photos below may start depicting the experience, but do me a favor and multiply everything it makes you feel 20 times more.