Carretera Austral, Rio Tranquilo, Chile
April 7
General Carerra Lake, Rio Tranquilo, Chile
First, I’m going to say that this post is going to be mostly a retelling of events, without much content. Sorry in advance, if it’s long and boring!
I am proud to say that I’ve now successfully hitchhiked in South America. Does that give me any extra backpacker cred? 
The Carretera Austral is a road in Chile that some people consider an extension of the Pan American Highway, or the “road after the end of the road”, since it continues south for almost 800 miles, turning into a gravel road eventually, winding through rural Pategonia. I arrived in Rio Tranquilo on a four hour bus from Coyhaique on this gravel road, in search of the “Capillas de Marmol” or marble caves on General Carerra Lake. After arriving in Rio Tranquilo, I found that the next bus to Chile Chico, the border town with Argentina, would be on Sunday. It was Thursday at noon. Rio Tranquilo is a tiny village on the northwestern shore of General Carerra Lake, the second largest lake in South America, and largest in Chile. When I say that Rio Tranquilo is tiny, I mean there are literally six streets in the town. Four going east/west and two going north/south. There is a gas station, a small grocery store, several hostels for the people who come to visit the caves, and a few small trailers set up on the shore, selling boat trips to the caves. That’s pretty much it.
North end of town
South end of town
While it was stunningly beautiful and peaceful in Rio Tranquilo, I didn’t want to spend the next three days there. I only came to see the caves, and was planning to move on. Especially because I needed to be in Ushuaia, Argentina to catch a flight by the 16th, and only had 10 days with a lot of Pategonia left to cover. So to spend three of those days doing nothing seemed like an entire waste of time.
From searching online, I knew that there was a minibus company that brings people to the marble caves and back, from Chile Chico, but I couldn’t find their schedule online. When I asked around town, no one seemed to know. They only knew the schedule for the regular bus that ran twice a week- on Wednesdays and Sundays. I finally found an email address for the minibus company, and sent them a message, asking about the next bus. Surprisingly, they responded within hours. But it wasn’t good news. They had a bus that would leave Rio Tranquilo at 4:30pm on Friday, but it would take four hours to travel to Chile Chico, so we would arrive at 8:30pm. The border crossing closes at 8pm, and on top of that, the last bus for the week going south to El Chalten was scheduled to leave at 8pm on Friday night, from Los Antiguos, Argentina, the parallel border town. So yet again, I was going to be stuck in a little town in the middle of no where, wasting days waiting on the next bus to come by.
Chile Chico/Los Antiguos is literally the last border crossing between Chile and Argentina. There are roads that go a little further south in Chile, but none that cross over to connect to Argentina. So my only other option, if I wanted to cross the border before it closed and make it to the 8pm bus on Friday, would be to hitchhike there. I weighed it to the alternative, wasting three of the ten days I had left in Pategonia, and decided it would be worth it. On Friday at 1pm, I checked out of my hostel and walked to the edge of town, to try and hitch my first ride ever! Since Rio Tranquilo is only four blocks long, I could also see what traffic was coming into town. A few trucks passed, but none pulled over, so I kept waiting. After about a half hour, a bus came into town and stopped by the tourist office, where all the buses stop. According to the bus’ destination display, they were going to Cochrane, which is about two hours south of Rio Tranquilo. I knew from the map that that would be heading in the direction of Chile Chico for about an hour, before the road would split. They would continue heading south and I needed to head east, toward the border. The crossroad was called Cruz el Maiten, and it was about 5.5 miles (9 kilometers) to the next town, Puerto Guadal, and 71 miles (119 kilometers) to Chile Chico. I asked the driver to drop me off at Cruz el Maiten and paid him $3000 pesos (about $4.50 USD).
We followed the lake all the way around it’s western edge, with even more stunning views.
Finally we arrived at the crossroad, and the bus driver dropped me off. There was only a dusty gravel road in each direction and a sign that reminded me that Puerto Guadal was 9 km away and my final destination, Chile Chico was 115 km away.
The bus pulled away and out of sight, leaving me in the dust and completely alone. I grabbed my backpack, and started walking in that direction. I thought that if no one came by, I at least wanted to reach Puerto Guadal by sundown. I knew that there was lodging there, if I had no luck getting a ride. I hoped that I would get lucky and find someone passing by that was going all the way to Chile Chico! I walked in the quiet for about 15 minutes. The silence was deafening and beautiful. There were no birds, animals, people, or cars. Just silence, the lake, and the mountains. It’s easy to forget your troubles when you are surrounded by beauty! Also, Chile is the safest place in South America to hitchhike, so my only fear was that no one would come along, since the area is very remote. But, if I was going to walk/hitchhike anywhere in the world, this was the place to do it.
I heard a car coming from somewhere behind me and became optimistic that I was going to get a ride right away! This wasn’t the case, as they passed right by me and left a cloud of dust. Another car and then a tour bus passed by. I still stayed optimistic and just kept walking, enjoying the spectacular views. I had walked less than a mile, when I saw a jeep coming down the road behind me. To my excitement, they actually slowed down and pulled over! I put my things in the back, climbed in, and thanked them. I was elated! I had just scored my first ride hitchhiking ever! It was an older man, his wife, and their friend. They were super chatty and wanted to know everywhere I’ve been in Chile, what I thought of the country, where I was going next, etc. They lived in Puerto Guadal and were concerned when I told them I was going to look for another ride and keep going in the direction of Chile Chico. I figured worse case scenario, I’d have to flag down the minibus that had to be taking this road, a few hours behind me on the way to Chile Chico. They dropped me off at the main plaza in Puerto Guadal and I thanked them again and waved good-bye.
I saw a transfer van parked on the other side of the plaza, and decided to go ask if they were going anywhere soon. These vans are like the minibuses, but are generally much nicer and not crowded. The driver was sleeping but I woke him by knocking on the passenger window. To my shock and amazement, he said he was going to Chile Chico at four or shortly after. It was 3:53pm. I could not believe my luck and timing! There was a little confusion when he told me to go around the corner and wait. Huh? I thought we were leaving now? But I did as told, and found a store with a few bus schedules posted in the window. I guessed this must be their version of a bus station. I was anxious and tempted to run back to the plaza, scared that I had misunderstood and that he would leave without me! But within a few minutes, he came around the corner and picked me up. I guess he must have been intent on only picking up people at the “bus station” LOL. There was only one other passenger in the van, a young girl. I settled in for the two hour trip to Chile Chico, so thankful for my good fortune! I estimated that I should arrive with almost two hours left to cross the border and get on the bus.
The road between Puerto Guadal and Chile Chico got gradually worse. It was a dusty gravel road with long sections that were washed out or that had turned into washboards that shook the whole van. It twisted up and around the lake with some steep drops hundreds of feet below, with no guardrail in most places, and only loose gravel. The view of the lake below was incredible though. It was turquoise and shimmering, just mesmerizing! Thankfully, the driver seemed almost as scared as me of heights, and drove very carefully around the cliffs!
He and the other passenger chatted in rapid Spanish for most of the trip and I was just content to sit back and enjoy the ride.
We arrived in Chile Chico at 6:20pm. Great! I would have plenty of time to get to the bus station to meet the bus at 8pm. I felt more positive than I did all day!
Until I checked the map. I had assumed that since Chile Chico and Los Antiguos are tiny towns directly across the river from each other, I would just need to cross the river and pass customs to enter Argentina. But when I looked up the route on the map, it said that Argentina was 5 miles away. Whaat? And then it would be another 3+ miles to the bus station after the border. For some unknown reason, they made a road to follow the river out of town for a few miles, built the Chilean border patrol in the middle of no where, built a bridge to finally cross the river into Argentina, and then built the Argentinian border patrol a few miles from Los Antiguos on the other side. It makes no sense at all! In total it’s at least a 6-7 mile detour out of both towns, even though they are directly opposite of each other. So crossing the border wasn’t going to be as simple as just crossing the river.
The van driver told me where I could find taxis to take me to the border, a few streets away. But when I got there, there were no taxis in sight. I went to the nearest little store and inquired about taxis. The owner was less than helpful and simply stated that there are no taxis. A customer that was in the store behind me at the counter said she would call a taxi for me, and I was so grateful to her! The taxi arrived a few minutes later, just as another one pulled up. I almost got into the wrong taxi, nearly causing a fight between the two drivers, because the one had been called and the other hadn’t. Of course, there weren’t any taxis when I need them, but suddenly there were too many! The drivers straightened it out and I was on my way, in the right cab. I asked the driver to stop at an ATM, because Argentina is notorious for having unreliable ATMs. Better to cross the border with Chilean pesos, than no pesos at all!
On the way to the border, the driver thought it would be a good time to tell me that he could only take me as far as the Argentinian border. He also said he didn’t think that there would be any more taxis waiting on the other side, because of how late it was getting. Great! So I’m going to be stuck between Chile and Argentina, several miles from town and SO close to making it to the bus. I estimated that from where he would drop me off at the Argentina line, it would be about 3.5 miles to the bus station, which would take me more than an hour to walk, carrying all my things. I wasn’t going to make it. He offered to contact his friend on the other side, who was also a cab driver, to come meet us. But he could not get a hold of him.
At the Chilean border patrol, I met an English speaking couple with a van. I asked them if I could get a ride with them to Los Antiguos. The said they would give me a ride, but they had already declared that they weren’t taking anyone across the border so they couldn’t do it. Bummer! So I got my exit stamp for Chile and the taxi driver drove me as far as he could, to the line.
I gathered all my things and set off walking again, passing the “Bienvenidos a La Republica Argentina” sign. Being dumped at the border in the middle of nowhere did not feel like a welcome at all! Within less a minute, a car came up from behind me, heading in the same direction. I quickly put my thumb up, feeling like a hitchhiking pro at this point. And they pulled over right away! This time, my saving grace came in the form of two elderly gentleman, both Argentinian on their way back home from Chile. Yay! They were happy to help me out and we all went through the Argentinian border patrol together. They waited for me to finish getting my entry stamp, and we all got back in the car. They asked me where in Los Antiguos I needed to go, and took me all the way to the bus terminal. Once again, the kindness of total strangers and my good fortune just amazed me! I thanked them profusely and they went on their way.
The sunset in Los Antiguos was stunning that evening!
I immediately went in search of a ticket office, any ticket office that was still open. Based on the schedule, I knew for sure that the 8pm bus would be coming through. If the offices were closed, I had planned to just get on the bus and pay the attendant, which is common down here. It’s definitely better to buy a ticket in advance though, for a guaranteed seat. But I didn’t buy a ticket in advance because I didn’t know for sure that I was going to make it Los Antiguos in time, or even make it all that day! I had looked at the available seats and was confident that if I did make it by 8pm, there would be plenty of seats left. It would have been an $88 non-refundable ticket and it was too great of risk for me to pre-book it. By the way, that is a ridiculous price for a 10 hour bus ride! This area of Pategonia is very expensive to travel around in, and during late fall and winter, bus schedules are very limited and non-existent in some places.
I found a ticket window still open and to my surprise, the ticket was only $50! I guess the price was higher to buy online ahead of time? I’ve never encountered that before down here. But it made me doubly glad that I waited to book it! When I finally had my ticket in hand, it was 7:10pm. I had almost an hour to spare, with enough time to change into more comfortable clothes for the overnight trip, and clean up from the long day. The feeling of relief was overwhelming. I made it. I did it!! It was a long, hard day, but I felt on top of the world! I would wake up in El Chalten the next morning. Best of all, I wouldn’t be wasting any days at all!
Once the bus arrived, they served us dinner before we left, which was a meat and mashed potato casserole dish, jello, and bread. I had forgotten that I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and was starving! It was very basic bus food, but it tasted amazing. I’ve never felt more relieved, than I felt being on the bus as we pulled out of the station and left Los Antiguos behind!
Human will and determination are amazing and will get you a long way, but often divine intervention is also necessary. I think both were working for me on this day, and I know God was looking after me! I am so thankful that I arrived safe and on time!
I don’t know that I will be hitchhiking again anytime soon. At least I don’t intend to make it a habit! But you never know what you are willing to do, until you’re presented with a choice. What would you have done?
Leia ➼