Cycling guide Chile: Carretera Austral (231) 1.A 2009

The Carretera Austral runs approximately 1,300 km along the Pacific coast and the southern foothills of the Andes. It connects the villages of Puerto Montt and Villa O'Higgins in a spectacular way. On this adventure road dotted with fjords, glaciers and volcanoes, experienced spectacular seascape and snow covered rugged peaks, crossing raging rivers, driving through rainforests and the Patagonian pampas. With the northern and southern ice fields we passed the largest continuous ice outside the polar regions. Furthermore, the Carretera Austral runs through the area with Chile's most diverse flora and fauna: inter alia, condors, huemuls, alpacas, whales, dolphins and a variety of beautiful birds, such as the Andean woodpecker, can be observed here. Famous national parks are along the way, such as the Pumalin or Queulat National Park. Car traffic on the Carretera Austral is very low even today, which is the perfect environment to explore this region by bike and enjoy nature in the broadest sense of the word.