Chaiten – Futaleufu- La Junta – Palena

We started out of Chaiten in sunny weather. The paved road followed a valley with spectacular mountains. After 30km the road turned into a very well maintained gravel road and we enjoyed riding quite a lot.

We heared of the town of Futaleufu which was supposed to be real nice. So we turned off the Carretera Austral to ride the 100km up the mountains. A fantastic scenery was the reward for this little detour. The town is known mainly for its class 5 whitewater rafting and so you see a lot of wild rivers along the way.

The town itself was not as enjoyable as we thought, but we were compensated with an incredible sky that was illuminated in the wildest and most intense colors at sunset.

The following day was cloudy and soon after we started on the motorbikes it started raining. And it wouldn’t end that day. We rode down the road we already knew back to the Carretera Austral in pouring rain, it got cold and so we were happy to find a cafe where we could warm up a little bit.

Soon after our break we where stopped by a motorbiker who came the other direction. He told us that the road was blocked and that the only options would be to wait until the landslide was removed or to go around it via Argentina. We stood there in the pouring rain, checking the options and finally decided that waiting wouldn’t be what we wanted to do. So we turned around and rode the road back again.

We found a nice little Bed&Breakfast where we stopped for the night. With a warm oven and a great meal in our stomachs we slowly warmed up.

The following day we would cross the border to Argentina, and again we started in the rain and it would rain until we hit the border. It was miserably cold…

The road out of Chaiten is a nicely paved road with a great scenery.

High mountains…

…with glaciers…

… and white hats.

Soon the pavement ended, but the road is very well maintained.

Incredible lakes

On the way to Futaleufu

We had an amazing sky at sunset.

The colours were unreal (and just that you know: no phot0shopping of any kind… the real stuff here…)

It was a nice reward for taking the long road that we would have to take back again the following day.

It was wet the next day… very wet.

And it was cold, very cold.

So this oven was welcome, very welcome…