Carretera Austral Pt. 1: Marble Caves

Although it is the main and pretty much only road in this region, many stretches of the Carretera Austral (the „Southern Way“) are still unpaved and in surprisingly bad shape. But it makes up for it with stunning views of lakes and snow-capped mountains!
Sadly, poor Tim could only partially enjoy them as he had now also cought a severe case of the man-flu (non surprisingly 🥲).

We made our way to Puerto Rio Tranquillo, the next little town en-route, looking for a Gomeria once again. This town is mainly known as a hub for excursions to the marble caves on the adjacent Lago General Carrerea. So, since we were already here we opted for an early morning (8.00 am 😩) tour the next day, hoping the current rainy weather would change into sunshine by then. With the tire fixed and the first shower in 3 days acquired we parked our van on a parking lot right next to the harbour and waited for the (hopefully sunny) day to come.

The next morning, we got out of bed way too early, put on as many layers of clothes as we could find and headed out to the harbour. Luckily, the weather had turned around completely! The sun was out, the sky was blue and the wind had subsided. Equipped with swimming vests, we were guided to our exploration boat, which was going to take us out to the marble caves together with 15 other excited tourists.

Prepping us for the tour, our guide told us that we would be travelling in two modes: „Navegacion normal“ while exploring the caves and „navegacion rapida“ to cover longer distances. And „navegacion rapida“ did not disappoint! With the small boat motor turned to the max, we flew across the lake, wind blowing into our faces. At the caves, the boat navigated partially inside and we could see and touch the marble formations from up close and snap lots of pretty pictures. The final highlights were the so called Cathedral y Capilla (cathedral and chappel) de Marmol, two stunning marble formations with especially pronounced marble patterns.

After we returned („navegacion rapida“, racing another boat) we felt quite cold to the bone, so we quickly had a hot soup as second breakfast, before heading further North on the Carretera Austral!

🛞 Puncture count: 2
🤧 Flu level: 8/10
🚤 Boat races won: 1
🪨 Caves entered: 3
🏔 Landscape beauty level: 10/10
💃 Successful rain dances for the weather gods: 1Read more