Day 47 - 21 Jan.2012 - Puerto Tranquilo

Today we awoke in the middle of a downpour. It must have started by 6AM. We hoped it would stop at some point but by 9AM the tent was starting to swim away as the ground was soaked up with water and massive paddles were starting to appear. We packed everything in a hurry and left the camping without breakfast. The restaurants in town were only opening at lunchtime and so we had yoghurt with cereals in the car. After all we had to eat the yoghurt anyway before crossing the border into Chile again. The border was luckily not busy at all but the Chilean side was even more thorough than usual. Our entire luggage was x-rayed and this time we even had to give away our cheese and bananas, things we were allowed to keep at the last entry. It seems to be a bit random of what is allowed in and what not.
As soon as we crossed into Chile, the landscape changed dramatically. After we have left Chile Chico, the border town, we drove through some stunning mountainous scenery along Lago General Carrera, the Chilean name for the Lago Buenos Aires in Argentina.
The road till Puerto Tranquilo was all gravel with a lot of dust but the views we had were worth the sacrifice. Some 45km before Puerto Tranquilo we turned into Ruta 7, the Carretera Austral. Now we are exactly back on track of the originally planned course.
Shortly before Puerto Tranquilo we went down a steep slope to see some spectacular Marble Caves. The trip was 1 hr by small boat, just the two of us and a rather uninterested looking driver of the outboard engine. The coastline at this part of the lake must be of some stone material, which erodes away by the water. Some small rocky islands are at the waterline almost completely washed away making them look like standing on crutches. The combination of the washed away stone and the turquoise coloured water gives some stunning pictures. The way up to the Ruta 7 was for some cars quite a challenge. One guy with front wheel drive could not get enough weight onto his wheels at that steep slope and his wheels constantly started spinning. We told him that going backwards would do the trick - hopefully he managed it. We arrived at the village of Puerto Tranquilo, did some shopping in the local convenience store, which here they always call a “Supermercado”, and went to a campsite directly at the lake with a spectacular view and had our tea.