The World Off Road Pt 8

Don’t Cry For Me Patagonia
You need to survive the winds of Patagonia to makeit to Tierra del Fuego, considered as the end ofthe world. We did it with pleasure as this was ourultimate destination before our trip back home…
Words by Akis Temperidis Photos by Vula Netu and Akis Temperidis

Coloniadel S
in Urug acramento, a fouay, is armer Po
beartua post-Wutiful little towguese colonyn withWI feel…

Passing thdevastatingrough ground zeroofearthquakein ConcepcFebruary’sion, Chile.

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ortsandagoin Pat.
aturestemperner concept ays includedw
lofinlwoadsesaw
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Bec as our n ed winew
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A MaPatagonia is as
isolated as theAustralian Outback
but in far more harshclimatic conditions.

OVERLANDER SePTemBer . 1045

The World Off Road Pt 8

Entering Chile from Bolivia is similar toentering Australia from Indonesia. It’sa total return to the developed world inother words. Northern Chile is a desertcountry. Atacama extends for hundredsof kilometeres along the Pacific and isconsidered the driest place on earth. Inparts, rainfall is absent for years. Under
its arid soil huge copper mines arehidden. They are the powerhouse of the Chilean economy.
Driving on the Panamericana highway is a straightforward anddull process. The road is well paved and signed but petrol stations
are not frequent. All major towns on the road, like Iquique,
Antofagasta and Copiapo’, are within 500km of each other. These
copper towns have nothing to show apart from some fancy malls.
Outback drivers would feel at home in Chile as there is nothing ofreal interest on the road, apart from some of the most powerfultelescopes in the world. Atacama’s clear sky is the ultimate
observation desk for astronomers. If you want to taste the desert
at full, you just need to visit San Pedro de Atacama, an oasis
village hidden in a lunar landscape 100km from Antofagasta.
The village itself is purposely dusty but stylish. You can findexcellent pizzerias, sushi restaurants and art galleries on the mainpedestrian road. Accommodation offered suits all tastes, fromalternative backpackers to posh Americans.

Here is the station of the iconic
Patagonian Express,
which still runs fortouristic purposes.

Pucon in Central Chile, is a
manicured resort village
next to Villarica Volcano
which is still smoking…

Patagonia

is gaucho(cowboy)

country.

We spent four days there and visited the natural beauties
around the village, like the valley of the moon. This is an
extraterrestrial landscape, where, according to well-known
conspiracy theories, the Americans had filmed the landing of
the Apollo 11 on the moon. Whether you believe these theoriesor not (personally I don’t…), Valle de la Luna is a very special
place, especially at sunset.
As we were driving towards Santiago, we could see thelandscape getting greener and huge vineyards replacing themines. This is the reason Chilean wine is so good and bloody
cheap. There are two nice towns worth a visit in Central Chile,
La Serena and Valparaiso. The second one was mentioned inthe Motorcycle Diaries of Che Guevara. It is a vital port witha colonial feel and unique architecture. You can still use 19thcentury steam motored elevators to climb to different ‘barrios’

This is an extraterrestrial landscape where, according
to well known conspiracy theories, the Americans had
filmed the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon.

Road signs
are often
ripped off byPatagonianwinds.

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aysatures we were alw
Due to low temperlike this in South America.
glooking for campin

OVERLANDER SePTemBer . 1047

The World Off Road Pt 8
We did about
1500km on
the infamous
Ruta 40 from
Bariloche toEl Calafate.

The iconicPerito Morwarming bu eno glacier still defies global
t for howlong?

was moved by several centimeters. Concepcion was moved
3.5m to the west. We were told by locals that they felt as if it
was the end of the world.

Perito Moreno liesin Los Glaciares
National Park,
70km west of
El Calafate.

48(neighborhoods) that were built on the hills overlooking
the Pacific. Valparaiso is a town that makes you want tostay forever…
Santiago is a huge but clean capital with an entrepreneurial
atmosphere. There is nothing interesting there apart from the‘cafés con piernas’, the original coffee shops that resemble
night clubs, where high heeled blondes serve you a café
cortado (coffee with milk). So, we drove further south after wechanged (under warranty) the fuel pump of our TDV6 engine.
We could enter Argentina from Santiago but we wanted tovisit the area south of the capital that was devastated by last
February’s 8.8 grade earthquake.
Around Concepcion we saw that people were still living intents despite the efforts of the Chilean government to provide
shelter for everyone. On February 27th 2010, the fifth mostpowerful earthquake ever measured hit the Pacific Coast ofChile. More than 700 people were killed and about 200,000
left homeless from the cataclysmic event. The whole continent

www.overlander.com.auPatagonia Express
Chile is an extremely stretched country, about 4300km longnorth to south. It is a narrow strip of land located between theAndes range and the Pacific. You can enter Argentina fromdifferent high altitude passes on the Andes. We chose to drivefrom Temuco to Pucon and from there to enter Argentina
from a twisty gravel road under the live Villarica volcano thatsmokes menacingly during the day. It was freezing when wearrived in Junin de los Andes, a village known as the ‘trout
capital’ of Argentina. Junin, San Martin de los Andes, Villade Agostura and Bariloche are surrounded by lakes. This isconsidered the ‘Switzerland of South America’, a beautifulregion full of snow-capped mountains, crystal clear lakes anddelicious chocolate bars. Our trip through Patagonia started
from there.
South of Bariloche, the landscape changes dramatically. It
gets more arid and isolated. Initially we couldn’t understand
why this flat area remains unexploited. Travelling from Esquel

The World Off Road Pt 8

Driving through Torres del Paine National Park by night.

Patagonia is a land not acountry. It is divided by theAndes and shared between
Chile to the west andArgentina to the east.

We were on
our own at
Torres del Paine
during winter.
By summer,
thousands oftravelers from allover the world
visit the park on adaily basis.

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to El Calafate through the roughest section of Ruta 40, weunderstood why. Who could live in a windy place like this?
Patagonian winds are so fierce that no plants, insects, animals
or human beings can survive. It is like a huge aerodynamic
tunnel, with constant winds blowing at speed of 200km/h!
The climatic phenomenon is created by the cold winds ofAntarctica contrasting with the hot currents of the tropics.
For two days we could not open a door or a window. Small
stones from passing cars were catapulted like bullets towards
the windshield and one nearly penetrated it. At the end of
the trip, the right side of the car – the one facing the west– looked like it was shot by a machine gun and our precious
roof tent was almost ripped off! Winds eased at Calafate, anice resort village which is the base for exploring the famous
Perito Moreno glacier. We visited the huge glacier that moves
steadily from Chile to Argentino Lake and felt its ecologicalwww.overlander.com.au

Some nights we had to sleep in our cars as the strong
Patagonian winds could rip off our Italian roof tent.

significance. Perito Moreno is a natural thermometer and oneof the ultimate reminders that in the past, all Patagonia wascovered by ice. If it melts, our planet will be really sick. That’s
why we all have to do something long before it does so…

To The End Of The World
You have to study the map to understand the complicatedgeography of Southern America. Patagonia is a land, not acountry. It is divided by the Andes and shared between Chile– to the west of the range – and Argentina – to the east. If you
want to reach the end of mainland America, you have to headfurther south from Calafate. You have to cross the border toChile and arrive in Puerto Natales first. This is a remote port
connected with the Pacific Ocean by a sea route through thefiords. You can’t drive here from anywhere else in Chile. You
have to take a weekly ferry from Puerto Mont - 1100km to thenorth - or drive through Argentinean Patagonia, like we did.
Puerto Natales feels like the end of the world. It has a Nordic
feeling actually, and seems like a port in Scandinavia or Iceland.

The World Off Road Pt 8This is not the end of the Southern Hemisphere though.
You have to cross the Magellan Strait by ferry and step onTierra del Fuego, the archipelago of islands that comprises
the southern end of America and the world. The main islandis called Tierra del Fuego as well. One third of it belongs toArgentina, so we had to cross the border one more time,after a dusty drive through the endless steppe. The landscapechanged again further to the south. The desert transformed
to alpine landscape before we arrived to Ushuaia, the mostremote town in the world. The natural harbor is well protectedfrom the ultimate Andes summits. On the other side lies theChilean Navarino island, which is sparsely inhabited. Furtherto the south there is just one continent, Antarctica. Ushuaia
is the closest town to the southern pole and the perfect place
to organize a trip there. We would like so but the vessels arestalled during winter and this is an expensive trip in anyway.
You need at least 4500USD for a week’s trip to Antarctica.

The landscape changed again further to the south. The desert
transformed to alpine landcape before Ushuaia.

Whale watchingat Peninsula
Valdez,Argentina.

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From here, you can explore the best national park in SouthAmerica, Torres del Paine, a massif of granite mountains
formed over millions of years thanks to internal volcanic
erosions. Even if explained scientifically, the view of the horn
like, twin-coloured tops seem to be a spectacular miracle. At
the base of the Torres, there are pristine lakes, on the shoresof which you can encounter herds of guanacos – a camelid
species, like wild llamas. This is the ultimate place for trekking
in South America.
From Puerto Natales, we drove through Chilean territory to
the southernmost town of mainland America, Punta Arenas.

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So, we just relaxed some days in this town that is like anyother in Argentina, apart from its extreme geography. Ushuaia
has everything! A lively market, loads of restaurants and afancy casino. We visited the nearby Tierra del Fuego Park, theformer prison (for which the town was created) and flew overthe harbour in a Cessna. It was an achievement to be there,
especially if you have driven all the way from Quebec. Fromthe 45th parallel to the north to the 55th parallel to the south,
this is what we did in the last few months. From now on, every
kilometere would get us closer to Europe and to the end of ourtrip. That was the reason we were hesitant to leave Ushuaia…

We werearrived fromat Puerto Madryn
whenthethe warm south to make it fothe first whalesrwaters ofPeninsula Vathe winter atldez

The World Off Road Pt 8
On May 25th Argentina celebrated the 200 years of its
independence. We followed the grandiose celebrations
at the Obelisk in Buenos Aires among millions of locals.

Uruguayans adore vintage cars.

270 different
falls on Iguazu
River – naturalborder between
Argentina andBrazil – compriseof supposedly themost astonishingnatural attraction
on earth. Iguazu
falls were seen
for the first timeby a westerner– Spanishconqueror de Vaca
– in 1541.

– and then to Brazil. after
we visited the majestic
Iguazu Falls, we took thelong, busy motorway to Sao
Paolo and rio. It was hard
to make it in the Brazilian
traffic. we didn’t like theIn search of cargo vessel
industrial atmosphere of theour trip from ushuaia to Buenos
huge country. we loved rio ofaires was fast and easy but
also uneventful. we drove thecourse, especially the southerneastern ruta 3, along the atlantic
beaches of copacabana andocean and it proved to be theIpanema. Finally we founda vessel that could take thedullest road we had ever taken.
Yerba mate isthreeof us to the other side ofPatagonia is an ugly placeana
tio
nal addiction in
Uruguay. MAr
the atlantic. we had to drive
without the views of the snowthermos, whereany people go around holding gentina andthey steep thethdry leaves for e essentialback to Buenos aires for that.
capped andes range. Therepersonal use.
From there we found the mostare few towns on the endlessaffordable way to get backroad and all of them lack any history as they were built
home which was also the hardest way home… on Julyto support the oil refineries of Patagonia. The wind was26th, we got onboard a Grimaldi cargo vessel and crossed
omnipresent especially around the 50th parallel. So, wethe atlantic. on august 9th we will arrive in dakar, thedrove and drove and drove for 600 to 800km every day.
westernmost tip of africa. From there we will then follow
In Buenos aires, we started searching for a cargo vesselto ship our car. we did the same at nearby montevideo, thethe very same route we took in 2007 through the Sahara
capital of uruguay, which lies on the other side of the riverdesert. Finally, from morocco we will enter europe. Thisplate. we kept searching till we arrived in rio de Janeiro.
is a dream-like finale for our three and a half month longon the way, we crossed all of uruguay, entered argentina,
epic trip, which means that you will read at least one morefrom there to Paraguay – the poorest country in the region
story from us…

See where Akis
and Vula are
now on www.
theworldoffroad.com

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