5th of Feb - Bajo Caracoles to Cochrane via Paso Roballos - 197km 7h45

Paso Roballos was on the program for today, a border crossing into Chile over the Andes. Diana and Felix raved so much over this pass. When we turned left at the road crossing onto the gravel we had the “nicest” Ripio one can imagine. Ripio is a great word here in Argentina and Chile for heavy corrugation or as we say in Germany, Wellblech. But maybe it was not only the Ripio which took my strength but also the cold I caught the day before. Additionally we had strong wind gusts which tried to push us off the road. Awful driving but the scenery was it worth. Beautiful landscape, dramatic mountains topping canyons, turquoise lakes and some green Estancias. On the Chilean border the officer saw our frozen faces and he ordered us into his kitchen and prepared coffee for us. Unbelievable friendly! The further we came down from the mountains on the Chilean side the warmer it got. The last 18km along the beautiful Rio Baker towards Cochrane we even sweated and we had to eat the dust from quite a couple of cars on our way. On the 160km over the mountains we met only 3 pickups.



Out here: Nothing!




Also here: Not too much :-)




The wind push from the back











Dramatic sceneries on our way























Ying modelling :-)




















Flamencos up here. Amazing. I always thought they like it warmer.








Between the two border "stations" in no man's land




Sweet, isn't it? I proudly present the border.





















Rio Baker. Maybe the last picture of this beautiful river as it is today. The HidroAysen is a megaproject that aims to build five hydroelectric power plants in Chile's Aysén Region, two on the Baker River and three on the Pascua Rivera. Nothing will be like it is today.