"Do not know the Carretera Austral?"- We asked the owner of a stay when, For many years, we made our first trip in Patagonia. At that time we walked the mythic Route 40 of Argentina, instead the southern road runs parallel to this but the Chilean side. In some sections are separated by only 60 miles to travel but the environment could not be more different. Semi-desert steppe of Argentina and the Chilean rain forest valdiviana.
Some years later I spent three weeks to tour almost its entire length. First we made the nearly two thousand miles from Buenos Aires to Argentina's city Esquel. We stayed there two days and face the narrow gorge Futaleufu River (Mapuche means that in large river) that would take us across the mountains. Just pass the border post was the very steep slope. The road runs along the river that runs with incredible strength. In a corner a group of German kayakers preparing his team for making this dangerous descent. In the same place, in 1904, eleven of the Boundary Commission died trying to explore the river by canoe.
The winding road took us to the Chilean city of sympathetic Futaleufu which I took to change Chilean pesos. Proceed to a fishing lodge in Lake Yelcho. We were in the world of the Carretera Austral: jungle, glaciers, mountains, rivers ... at first glance pure nature reigns but the truth is that in southern Chile is taking a battle, topic, lose nature.
For many years the south of Chile was inaccessible by land, and remained a virgin with just a handful of fishing villages and some settlers. And 1976 work began on a road connecting the region. As the towns grew and progressed the number of settlers increased livestock practice.
The first thing we wanted to visit was the Pumalín Nature Reserve, supported by the U.S. millionaire Douglas Tompkins. This man bought 270.000 acre nature preserve area. Get all kinds of pressures from those who under the banner of progress lay in the area looking for a huge number of sawmills. The park is free and perfectly preserved. Touring is a great satisfaction but it is a shame to know that, sometime, Tompkins will be defeated by hydroelectric project that will pass through this narrow area of ??high voltage line and, behind her, chainsaws.
Our journey took us further south. Land of glaciers that descend from the mountains across the Valdivian forest. Thousands of years ago it was they who produced these great fjords, but today, as in most of the world, These glaciers are receding. But, their beauty remains overwhelming.
the environmental impact of the construction involves the creation of a village of about 5.000 people in the middle of nowhere
And Puyuhuapi a low ecological impact venture allows visitors, nearly all European, immersed in hot springs and pools, when body temperature is high, dive into the mirror and cold salt water of the fjord that connects with the sea of ??tens of kilometers away. The same enterprise organizes boat trips in the spectacular San Rafael Glacier.
After resting a couple of days in the tiny fishing village Puerto Swans, where we had a legitimate experience of alienation from civilization. Our journey south took us to the area Coyhaique, where our heart was muted. Some fifty kilometers from the city abruptly ended the Valdivian forest and grasslands cover the entire. The settlers burned the forest to exploit the livestock. In the forties were burning so the government decided to ban. But far from any governmental control a forest fire, supposedly natural, Thousands of acres burned, but suspiciously only on the properties of the settlers. Since then the controls fires intensified and stopped but the damage was done. Currently you can appreciate the effort to reforest, but not with native species, slow growth, but European pine.
The process of deforestation that took place in Coyhaique is equal to that lived on the island of Chiloé in the nineteenth century and on the shores of Lake Llanquihue in the twentieth century. In fact the Valdivian forest originates in the forest that surrounded the city of Valdivia two centuries ago. Today the forest is a 500 miles south. The history of these regions fills me with pessimism about the future of the habitat that we follow the road to southern.
Finally on the last leg of our trip we visited the area most threatened by the progress, Baker River, the natural drain of Lake General Carrera. River is the largest flow of Chile, hence its hydropower potential, but it is more than 1.000 kilometers from the centers of consumption. Therefore a hydroelectric dam there not only inundate much of the forest but also the power lines will sweep thousands of hectares of forest to bring energy to the far north cities. To this is added the environmental impact of construction involves the creation of a town of about 5.000 people in the middle of nowhere. Currently in Chile there is great debate on hydropower.
And so we reach the end of our journey along the Carretera Austral: exuberant nature, eco lodges, fishing villages, glaciers, Hot Springs and a reserve of an American millionaire but also pressure from settlers, sawmills, hydroelectric works and power lines.
For me, the end is announced ...
Contacto@GerardoBartolome.com
Gerardo Bartolomé traveler and writer is. To learn more about him and his work go to www.GerardoBartolome.com
