Port Montt, 7 February 2020
Look at the road.
It has been running straight ahead for days. A motorway without barriers. Now and then someone crosses it, and at regular intervals, the bus stops. So many places to see. But we have to hurry. The programme has slipped and to catch up we will embark motorbikes and vans on the ‘Naviera Austral‘ boat.
At 8:30 p.m. we are in Port Montt.
Waiting on the dock are trucks, cars, colar vans, motorcycles. And more backpackers, families, and tourists on bicycles. I wonder if the small boat will hold all that weight. The wait is long, first, the motorbikes go up and last the vans. We cross a tongue of sea skirting the mainland, past islets and inlets.
11 p.m. departure.
The wind picks up, the cold presses in, the deck slowly empties. I stay a little longer. Lonely silhouettes wander in the moonlit night. My eyes begin to close, I go look for my seat. The heavy door slams behind me, someone is snoring sprawled warmly on the wide armchairs.
I pass the café and the long line waiting their turn, the smell of coffee and hot sandwiches fills the room. TVs show different films and children watch them passionately. The lights are off and with difficulty I find my companions squinting in the dark.
I fall asleep, letting the calm crossing lull me. Dawn surprises us, intense, like this land still unknown to me. It is eight o’clock in the morning and after nine hours the boat docks in Chaytén.
A new road opens up, the Carretera Austral, the gateway to Chilean Patagonia.
