Panorama of the countryside around Coyhaique, a city of about 70,000 inhabitants in Chilean Patagonia. It was founded in 1929 at the confluence of the Simpson and Coyhaique Rivers. The highway, Carretera Austral, was built in 1980, linking it to the rest of the country. I first visited the town in early 1965, when there were only 4,000 inhabitants. I arrived by ship at the nearby port of Aysén. I was teaching in the Peace Corps further north in Valdivia.
Puerto Aysén, but this is not the ship I arrived on!
Coyhaique in 1965
I met these boys while walking on the road toward Argentina. They offered me a horse to return with them to town, as they doubled up on the two remaining saddles. The first photo above looks down on this road, now paved and lined with many homes and farms, almost 53 years later.
I hired a car and driver/guide to explore the gorgeous country around 6 Lagunas and the Simpson Valley, which I last visited in 2002. This is one of my favorite areas in Chilean Patagonia. Livestock ranching is about the only activity, as the soil is very shallow and doesn't support growing crops.
It's springtime and the lupines are blooming throughout the region.
Farm landscape near Lago Frío
No comments:
Post a Comment