Do you like that western? I saw it many times in my childhood, and I like especially the song… Today I saw Rio Bravo – Chilean Rio Bravo, of course.
It was lucky day – first I find out that there is a bus in the morning going to Tortel – half way to my remote destination. Transport is scare here – I bought almost the last available ticket for the little bus to Tortel. Then the lady-cashier checked out that in the afternoon there times per week another minibus goes from Tortel to Villa O’Higgins in the Andes. Yes! Today it is operating! Lucky me, I embarked first bus (back seat, no photos!) and we drove Carretera Austral – dusty gravel road, along small lakes and rivers. Tortel is a little village on the bank of the fiord. It is reminding Malay villages on the poles. I had there 3 hours to explore this picturesque place and then minibus for just 4000 pesos took me first to Puerto Yungay, where we boarded the car ferry. The terrain is here so difficult that Chileans decided to include 12-kms ferry passage into the Carretera. It is free and tooks 40 min.. On the other side we started to drive the gravel again along Rio Bravo river… Climbing and going down. And climbing again. Did you ever drive on the gravel? So you know, how the car is “dancing” on the small stones. You cannot drive fast. Great views of the snow-capped mountains on the way and Rio Bravo – quite wide… It was 8 pm when we reached Villa O’Higginns where Carretera Austral or Carretera del Sur ends. Everything goes well!
