Looking out over the fjords of northern Patagonia
Chile is such a long country that it’s almost inevitable that there are bits of it which get a bit overlooked. Take northern Patagonia, the 500km or so running south from Puerto Montt as far as Coyhaique.
There is only one road through this region, the Carretera Austral. In reality it’s a bumpy dirt road wedged in between the high peaks of the Andes and the icy waters of the fjords.
At this point Chile is incredibly skinny, some 10s of kilometres wide. It is not an easy area to live in, not least because there is a certain lack of flat land to farm. However, it is strategically very important as the Argentinians would give their eye-teeth to have access to the Pacific.
The frontier between Argentina and Chile is simply defined by the direction the water flows. If the water is flowing towards the Atlantic, it’s Argentina. If it flows towards the Pacific then that’s Chile. Of course this means that the border effectively runs along the very peaks of the Andes.
In northern Patagonia the landmass of Chile is tantalisingly slight which dangles the prospect of Argentina being able to create a land bridge between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
Currently shipping can either go round Cape Horn and its famously fierce waters, or it can go through the Panama Canal. The commercial value of creating an alternative to the Panama Canal are almost incalculable.
As a result there has traditionally been a certain, shall we say, tension between the southerly neighbours Chile & Argentina. These tensions have been greatest where Chile was at its narrowest – Patagonia.
Where there is a large open area in the border, the Chileans placed a significant town and military base called Coyhaique. To the north was almost nothing until you got to Puerto Montt.
As recently as the 1980s, there was really not much to stop the Argentines simply pushing through one of the passes along the stretch between Coyhaique and Puerto Montt to establish a foothold on the Pacific coast.
That is until the inauguration of the Carretera Austral in 1992. This is a terribly grand sounding opening for what in the UK would pass in large part as a farm track though admittedly it’s one hell of an engineering project to even fit a road onto the available land.
The Chilean government then incentivised people with the offer of free land. If you could live in the region and make the land productive within a period of, I believe 5 years, you could keep it.
Of course small communities started to appear along the length of the road to create a far greater diplomatic barrier to Argentine incursions.
Things nowadays are much calmer between the neighbours and the area is one of the most precious places you could hope to visit. As long as you are prepared for some serious rainfall, the landscapes and the people are unforgettable.
One of the best ways to experience this part of Chile is on board Skorpios.
To find out more about a Skorpios cruise, or any of our holidays to Chile, please call Pura Aventura on 01273 676 712.
The caves are actually known as the ‘marble cathedral’ so beautiful are they. It is lovely to see that this remote and very little known spot in Chile’s northern Patagonia is getting a bit of attention, after all it is this area which is under threat from a huge hydro-electric dam project.
The caves lie on the shores of Lago General Carrera, the second largest lake in South America but surely its most remote sizeable body of water. There’s almost nothing around here except mountains, forests & glaciers. Stunning.
If you would like to visit northern Patagonia, why not call us on 01273 676 712 to discuss a Patagonia holiday? Alternatively, have a look at the wonderful Skorpios cruise which takes you down towards this area.
The massive new observatory being built in Chile's Atacama Desert
I loved this story on the BBC website about the new Alma observatory being constructed high above the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. Basically it’s a series of large dishes which will apparently work together to effectively create one massive dish – equivalent to a dish some 15km wide.
“What Alma will do is zoom in on the interesting areas and make ultra-high-resolution images that show not just a blob where the galaxies or the molecules are, but resolves in very, very fine detail the structure of those objects, whether it’s the gas discs forming around stars or the collisions between galaxies at [great distance].”
This stuff always amazes me. The science behind the construction is mind-boggling let alone the science behind interpreting what the telescope will see.
“Alma will also go after events in the very early Universe, in particular the so-called “Epoch of Re-ionisation”.
The idea of a massive telescope zooming back through time and space to have a look at events which took place at the dawn of time is just bonkers to me.
Presumably it’s all to do with the lessening acceleration of expansion of the universe which allows us to catch up with some of the early matter?
Anyone know how this stuff actually works? Post your theses here!
Anyone want to go on holiday to Chile? Call us on 01273 676 712.