Friday, November 19, 2010

Around Coyhaique

Coyhaique is a town of about 40,000 or so people, capital of the Aysen region of Chile but relatively isolated. The road from Coyhaique goes south for a few hundred kilometers and then stops before the mess of ice fields and fjords that make up the southern tip of Chile. The only way to drive to Punto Arenas or Puerto Natales in Tierra del Fuego is to cross into Argentina to the east of Coyhaique, then drive south and eventually west again. To the north, the road is paved for a hundred kilometers or so, then gives way to dirt. And even this is apparently a big improvement in the past 5-10 years. No wonder everyone here drives a truck.

Despite its isolation, Coyhaique is growing quickly as people arrive from the surrounding countryside. And though still quite a ways from being a tourist attraction, visitors are apparently becoming more frequent due to the relative improvement in connection with the rest of the world. What draws them is not Coyhaique itself, which doesn’t offer much, but the beauty of the Lakes Region just to the north and the fjords and ice fields to the south, accessible if you have your own form of transportation.

The town square, which is actually a pentagon, is quite pleasant, with surrounding shops and municipal buildings. There are some nicer homes downtown and in the hills surrounding the town, but much of the rest is filled with small, closely-packed, and sometimes ramshackle houses. I haven’t yet figured out where people buy things other than candy, soda, cheese, bread, and avocados, since every store seems to be a minimarket selling the same things. There is also an inordinate number of clothing stores, but each is about the size of a living room and they are scattered throughout town. I’d like to explore a little more, but many of the stores appear to have everything behind a counter, which is not conducive to remedial Spanish.

I haven’t yet taken many pictures in town, but the ones below give a limited sense of the surroundings.

It sounds like I’m heading out to a couple of Patagonia Sur’s properties – Vallee California and Melimoyu – on Monday for something in the vicinity of two weeks, depending on transportation schedules. With internet mostly out of service where I’m staying now and spotty at best from the properties, I may not be able to upload anything for a while. But I will try my best to keep up with writing and taking pictures, and then upload everything when I’m back.

Nos vemos!



One of the main streets, seen from the town square (pentagon) - this is the nice part of town


Sunset on the outskirts of town


Houses toward the edge of town


Rio Simpson and el Divisadero (the ridge in the background) outside of Coyhaique



2 comments:

  1. Looks like a good place to crush some higher altitude runs. What's the elevation over there? Also, please do keep writing and taking pictures when you're off the grid. We'll read them all at once, no problem

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  2. Actually, altitude is pretty low. It's sort of like New Zealand - big mountains but not starting very high. But still some great running on dirt roads, if you can find ones without over-protective dogs!

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