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14 | THE COLONY NEWS | FEBRUARY 2023 | SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS By Kathy Sullivan Before I left on my South American/Antarctic adventure, I read an article about the Carretera Austral Highway in Chile. After checking out some YouTube videos, I was immediately hooked. The Carretera Austral basically translates to Southern Highway and starts at Puerto Montt and travels 770 miles south to the little village of Villa O'Higgins (a very Chilean name!), where the road dead-ends and there are only three possibilities for returning. I could have caught a ferry going further south or driven over the Andes to Argentina, but for me the only option was to turn around and drive another 770 miles back to Puerto Montt. A little geography on Chile: If you are like me, geography was not one of my most remembered classes in school. Chile is 2,700 miles long with an average width of 175 miles — a very long, long skinny country. Chile shares the Andes Mountains with Peru and Argentina. Its tallest mountains top out over 22,000 ft. Then the Andes drop into the ocean forming hundreds of islands and fjords and a coastline which exceeds 4000 miles. The Austral Highway wanders through the awe-inspiring landscape of rural Patagonia. I drove through lush forest that opened on to green valleys dotted with cattle, then up hairpin turns to the top of mountains with vistas over hundreds of miles and always, always I had the snow-topped Andean Peaks as a backdrop. With only an average of two people per square mile, I drove for miles not seeing another human. The road has a combination of four ferry rides, the longest is 4 ½ hours, about 300 miles of dirt/gravel, with the rest a well-maintained paved road. Because of the glaciers, the lakes and river are a stunning color of turquoise and green. With hundreds of waterfalls alongside the road, the turquoise lakes and rivers, the snow- topped mountains and the wildflowers, I was smiling and taking photos the whole way. The villages along the road are mostly small but well-stocked, but there is always the chance of the delivery truck being delayed, so keeping stocked up and filled up is always a must. I mostly slept in Airbnb's or hostels. There are also fancier hotels and camping areas along the road. The price is very affordable, because the Chilean peso is a little more than one penny to a dollar. It was fun and a little sad spending 20,000 peso bills. Chile has 17 National Parks, 10 of which are close to or adjoin the Austral Highway. Unfortunately, I thought I could drive this with ease in nine days and see lots of stuff. Was I ever wrong! All I could do in the nine days was spend long hours in my rented SUV and bypass all the parks and other interesting diversions. Next time, it will be a full month on the road with a camper van. I have been so privileged to have traveled some of the world's great road trips — the Blue Ridge Hwy, Highway 1 along the West Coast, the island-hopping road of the Florida Keys, the Alaskan Highway, the Stewart Highway in Australia — and I can testify that the Carretera Austral Highway belongs up with the best them. The Carretera Austral Highway of Chile

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