Day 67 January 15th 2007, Camping it up - Coyhaique to Rio Tranquillo, 268km

After resolving my differences with Hertz we finally picked up our hire car today and we were quickly on our way, after buying a tent, stocking up on supplies from the supermarket and a visit to the bank, we eventually got on the road at midday. Now everyone we have spoken to and everything we have read on driving in this region has advise on a 4x4. Looking at the map and seeing that most of the road we planned to travel on was paved we hired a saloon. After 100km into the drive I discovered that the maps we had were not entirely accurate with regard to the road surfaces.

One of the views from today

As smooth tarmac road gave way to 150km of what I can only describe as a cross between a rumble strip and a gravel driveway littered with boulders, the Toyota Yaris began to struggle a little. Luckily Shelley had the foresight to buy me a rally driving lesson a couple of years ago for Christmas and I was able to handbrake turn my way through the winding dirt tracks to Rio Tranquillo with no problem at all.

The view of Lago General Carrera from our campsite

We found a campsite next to the shore of Lago General Carrera which according to one source is the 3rd largest lake in South America. I say one source as I have found reference to several other lakes claiming to be the third largest in South America. Given that it is the 3rd largest I have now visited the largest 3 lakes in South America oooh Lake Titicaca (Peru), Lago Argentina (Argentina) and now Lago General Carrera (Chile).

To give you an idea of the size of these lakes, Lake Geneva has a surface area of 581.3km sq whereas Lago General Carrera is 3 times the size with a surface area of 1,850km sq. With the size of the lake it appears to have a small tide and when the wind got up it could certainly throw some rollers at the shore. So far from any from of light pollution and being a moon free night the night sky was amazing almost unbelievable.

Highlights: Camping by the river