Rauxa i Seny

Wednesday, March 4, 2026

Perspectives on Palestine, January 25 - February 23, 2026

This is a compilation of my Facebook posts during our four weeks visit to Palestine.

Settler violence in the West Bank. - Feb 9

I am presently traveling in the West Bank. The whole world knows about the devastating violence in Gaza, but many do not know about the steady destruction of Palestinian farms and communities in the West Bank. The Israeli settlers and military occupation forces are hell-bent on displacing as many Palestinian families as they can with acts of small scale terrorism, harassment and obstruction to lay claim to the land and water, decrease the Palestinian population, increase the Israeli population, and expand the State of Israeli at the expense of the territorial claims of Palestinians. They have no interest in implementing the Oslo two state solution agreements of 1993 and 1995 and later agreements.

While I understand Israel’s need for self defense following the Hamas attack in Gaza, their response was totally disproportionate, a thinly veiled excuse for a genocidal attack on Palestinian civilians. But they have no excuse at all for their oppression and displacement of Palestinian people in the West Bank who pose no security threat. It is purely colonial oppression of indigenous peoples in denial of their internationally recognized right to self determination and statehood.

The United States has long been complicit in this desperate state of affairs. (See Rashid Kalidi’s book The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine.) The Hamas attack would never have happened if the Palestinian state had been securely implemented 25 years ago. No justice no peace! The time is long overdue for the US to step up and push back on Israel to secure the peace in the Middle East.

We can all do our part by lifting our voices with our friends and neighbors and our political leaders, supporting Senate Resolution SR 410 to promote statehood for Palestine and opposing further military aid to Israel until they clamp down on settler violence and recognize the independent state of Palestine.

Looks like apartheid to me. Feb 12

I am looking for bus transportation between various communities in the West Bank, including Jerusalem. The only option that comes up when I search online is an Israeli owned bus company Egged. But locals don’t use it. They mostly use shared taxis. Why? So I asked AI.

Q: Can Palestinians ride Israeli owned bus lines in the West Bank?

AI answer:

“Palestinians with valid work permits are generally permitted to use Israeli-owned bus lines in the West Bank to travel to and from Israel, though they face significant restrictions. While they can ride these buses, they often face scrutiny at checkpoints, and in 2014, the Ministry of Transport attempted to implement segregated, separate bus lines for Palestinian workers, which was suspended following controversy.

Key Aspects of Palestinian Bus Usage in the West Bank:

-Permit Requirement: Palestinians must hold valid permits to enter Israel and use these buses, which connect West Bank settlements to the center of Israel.

-Segregation Attempts: In 2012–2014, there were attempts by the Israeli Ministry of Transport to create separate, segregated bus lines for Palestinians, which were criticized as discriminatory.

-Physical Separation: The road system in the West Bank frequently restricts, or entirely bans, Palestinians from using certain roads, making travel on these buses complex and often, if not directly prohibited, practically difficult.

-Checkpoints: Palestinian workers are often subject to security checks and potential delays, sometimes forced to return via the same checkpoint they entered, restricting their freedom of movement.

While legal challenges have been made against the segregation of bus services, Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has emphasized that public services should be available on an equal basis. In contrast, some Palestinian activists have staged "freedom rider" protests to challenge these restrictions, arguing that the system is one of racial segregation.”

And it’s not just workers transiting into Israel. It’s all Palestinians transiting between local communities in the West Bank.

2. When we were crossing from Jordan into the West Bank on our way to Jericho, we met a Palestinian business woman who travels between Jordan and the West Bank regularly. She said it sometimes takes a whole day to get through the Israeli controlled border crossing. I’ve also been told that it is difficult for Palestinian farmers to ship their produce out of the West Bank. And that it is much harder for Palestinians to get building permits than Israelis, even though Israeli settlements in the West Bank are technically illegal. Not very conducive to Palestinian business and the local economy.

3. I was looking to order this book: Lords of the Land: The War for Israel's Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967-2007 by Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar. It is a detailed history of the Israeli settlement movement, exploring the state's role in supporting settlements, the ideological, and economic factors behind their growth, and the impact on both Israelis and Palestinians.

Knowing that I’m currently in the Palestinian Territories, Amazon said:

“This item cannot be shipped to your selected delivery location. Please choose a different delivery location. “

Looks like apartheid to me.

Lift Sanctions on Francesca Albanese! - Feb 16

International human rights lawyer Francesca Albanese has served as a special rapporteur to the UN on the occupied Palestinian Territories since May 2022. In that capacity she has filed three reports to the UN laying out her legal reasoning and factual findings supporting her conclusion that Israel’s continuing occupation and escalating oppression of Palestine constitute genocide under international law.

The Trump administration didn’t like that message, or her high-profile social media presence. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced, “Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated.” In July, 2025, pursuant to Executive Order 14203, the Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on Albanese, forbidding all US persons and companies from doing business with her. Her bank accounts have been closed, credit cards cancelled, her assets—including a condo in New York—have been frozen, her medical insurance has been cancelled, she has been banned from travel to the US, and donations on her behalf are prohibited. And she has received death threats. Her daughter is a US citizen.

Seriously?? Is this how we honor our constitutional right to free speech in the USA? What happened to the norm that if you don’t agree with someone, you make counter arguments? Instead, they have lied and vilified her as an antisemitic terrorist. The sanctions are not only grossly unfair to Albanese, but represent a dangerous expansion and abuse of executive power that could be used to target domestic political opponents.

The UN High Commission has called for the sanctions to be reversed but they have no power of enforcement. While some legal scholars have identified avenues to seek redress, Albanese herself has said we need to keep our energies laser focused on the larger, more urgent problem of ending the genocide in Palestine.

Albanese’s three reports to the UN have now been published by Pluto Press under the title A Moon will Rise from the Darkness

https://www.plutobooks.com/product/a-moon-will-rise-from-the-darkness/. Read it and decide for yourself. You can download the ebook for free.

What can we do as US citizens? We can call on Congress and the White House, we can raise our voices in protest, and we can act on Albanese’s findings. Based on Albanese’s recommendations quoted below, here is my own shortlist for citizen demands and action:

1. Demand that the US cease all military aid to Israel and institute an arms embargo and sanctions.

2. Demand that the US restore full funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and resume aid to Palestinian refugees displaced by this conflict.

3. Investigate and prosecute US nationals and corporations who are suspected of aiding or abetting the ongoing genocide, including President Trump.

4. Demand that Israel and the United States both acknowledge the colossal harm done to Palestinians and commit to non-repetition with measures for prevention and full reparations.

5. Participate in boycotts and divestment campaigns to highlight the complicity of various US and Israeli corporations in the ongoing genocide and system of apartheid. For information on one of the the boycott and divestment campaigns see the BDS website: bdsmovement.net/node/3

6. And of course, demand that the US lift the sanctions!

“The arc of history bends towards accountability only when we refuse to look away.” — Francesca Albanese

Settler charged for killing Palestinian Activist . – Feb 17

“ISRAELI SETTLER TO BE CHARGED WITH KILLING A PALESTINIAN ACTIVIST

Israeli prosecutors said Monday that they plan to charge a settler in the killing of a Palestinian activist during a confrontation that was caught on video, opening a rare prosecution of violence by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Attacks from settlers and home demolitions by authorities have spiked dramatically over the past two years, but the death in July of Awdah Hathaleen has drawn particular attention due to his involvement in the 2025 Oscar-winning film “No Other Land,” which chronicled Palestinian villagers’ fight to stay on their land.

In a video that family members say was taken by Hathaleen himself, Levi could be seen firing toward the person holding the camera. Another showed Levi firing two shots without showing where the bullets struck.

An Israeli judge released Levi from custody six months ago, citing a lack of evidence that he fired the shots that killed Hathaleen.”

—AP

This indeed is very rare! There are lots of killings and assaults against Palestinians every day that go unprosecuted. End the occupation!

Palestinian prisoners are tortured - Feb 19

See how Palestinian prisoners are tortured in Israeli prisons, and hear the Israeli Minister of National Security advocate execution.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DU8Z-SYFScm/?igsh=MTFpaWt1Njdkand6eQ==

It’s more urgent than ever! – Feb 20

It’s more urgent than ever to Stop Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank! Call on the White House to end military aid to Israel, impose sanctions, and advance the two state strategy for a free, independent Palestine. Stop the genocide! Stop the steal!

As Israel takes steps to claim land in West Bank, U.S. stands by

The Washington Post, February 18, 2026.

Despite Trump’s opposition to annexation, Israel has moved to expand control over the West Bank — to the condemnation of Britain and others at a U.N. Security Council meeting.

By Abbie Cheeseman, Lion Soroka, Hazel Balousha, Shiham Shamalakh and Heba Farouk Mahfouz.

Israel has moved aggressively in recent days to deepen its control over the occupied West Bank, unilaterally adopting policies that analysts say represent a major shift toward annexation and appear to defy President Donald Trump, who has said he opposes annexation but has not publicly pushed back on the escalating Israeli measures.

This month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, in a closed-door meeting, adopted measures to make it easier for settlers to purchase land and circumvent the Palestinian Authority in areas it has controlled since a 1995 agreement under the Oslo accords. The move was widely condemned in the Arab world and globally as a violation of international law and an undoing of decades-old regional security agreements.

After that decision, the White House issued a statement reiterating Trump’s opposition to annexation, and the president emphasized his position in an interview with Axios. “I am against annexation,” Trump said, adding: “We have enough things to think about now. We don’t need to be dealing with the West Bank.”

Both Trump and the White House statement brushed over his opposition to annexation in vague terms, and neither referenced the accelerating measures by Israel to expand settlements.

Tuesday, September 16, 2025

Chilean Patagonia March 10-April 3, 2024

Our dream was to traverse Chilean Patagonia south to north. It is a magnificent 1700-mile archipelago stretching from Cape Horn to Puerto Montt, sandwiched between the crest of the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean. The best known and most touristed destination is the iconic Torres del Paine National Park, popular for hiking and climbing. We visited eight years ago and chose to skip it this time. The other 16 national parks in the region are quite remote and little known. The Tompkins Conservation land trust, founded by the North Face entrepreneur Douglas Tompkins, bought and conserved two million acres of wilderness and donated it to the people of Chile. Park lands in the region now total 28 million acres. The Foundation is actively promoting the Ruta de los Parques to develop tourism for the benefit of local communities.

Patagonia is rich with virgin forests, rugged mountains, active volcanoes, dramatic glaciers, rushing rivers, profound fjords and few people. The southern-most part of the region is accessible primarily by water. The next section around Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales is accessible by road from Argentina. North of Puerto Natales, the long middle third is served only by ferry. The northern third is a combination of road and ferry. The 770-mile Carretera Austral extends from Puerto Montt to Villa O’Higgins and Caleta Tortel. It was initiated by the Pinochet military regime in 1976 with the motive to improve transportation, strengthen ties to central Chile and secure the region in the face of ongoing border disputes with Argentina.

Puerto Williams and Los Dientes

To start our journey we had to get to Puerto Williams, the southernmost town in the world. (We had already waved hello to Cape Horn a week earlier from our cruise ship enroute from Antarctica to Ushuaia.) Although Puerto Williams is only 40 km from Ushuaia across the Beagle Channel, that border crossing between Argentina and Chile had been shut down during Covid and never reopened, so we had to travel by bus from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas and fly from there.

Mon 3/11. In Punta Arenas we went shopping and researched our travel options for the next phase. Andrés, our host at the hostel, gave us a lead on a Patagonian agency for a one-way car rental to Puerto Montt, but it didn’t pan out: the one-way charges were higher than the rental fees! We stopped by the visitor center for information about the Carretera Austral. At the port we were delighted to learn that seniors over 70—including extranjeros like us—get a 50% discount on the ferry. We booked our return from Puerto Williams—the southern-most town in the world—for next Saturday. We struggled online to book an out-bound flight for the next day. Walking around town we were seeing and remembering places from our prior visit eight years ago.

Tue 3/12. The flight was only 40 minutes. The view from our window was mostly the wing and turbine, very little of the Beagle Channel. The Puerto Williams airport doesn’t have an actual terminal: they unload the bags directly on the ground at the head of the short walkway to the road. Good thing it wasn’t raining! There was a shuttle for 5000 pesos to take everyone to their hotels, or in our case just dropping us downtown. We had a bit of a wait, but he got us all in. We were last, standing room only.

Our plan was to spend the first three days hiking a section of the Dientes de Navarino Circuit. We walked all over town looking for camping gas and groceries, then to the Carabinero office for our backcountry permit.

We headed out about 3pm. It was a three kilometer walk to the end of the road where the trail starts. The trail was longer and steeper and we were slower than expected. We got to Cerro Bandera about 5pm. Past that the terrain was exposed and getting very windy. We found a small lake and decided to camp there: we were getting too cold and the trail conditions to the next campable site were uncertain. We set up the tent in a tiny depression, cooked soup and ramen with soy protein—we had found no freeze dried food anywhere—and went to bed about 9pm. We ate protein bars and slept with all our clothes on. It was hours before our toes were warm. The wind was blowing hard, with gusts up to 40 knots, so the tent was shaking and pushing against me.

Wed 3/13. The wind calmed down and it dawned sunny. We stayed in the tent until the sun was on it and it got warm, about 8:30am. Simple breakfast of oatmeal and hot chocolate. Started hiking a little before 10. We warmed up enough to take off some layers. We were traversing a long, shale slope with gorgeous views of the Beagle Channel behind us, the Dientes mountains in front of us, and several lakes surrounded with scrubby alpine trees below us on the right. The trail was not easy: it reminded us of the Goat Trail in Alaska. We were hiking in running shoes: not as good as real hiking boots for these conditions. It took us another two hours to reach the mirador and the lake. Glad we hadn’t tried it last night! We decided to camp two nights here so we can just hike all the way out in one day (Friday). Also we didn’t want to carry the packs up to the next pass.

We spent the afternoon hiking around our lake, scouting a way down to the next lower lake, and hiking around that. There was lots of evidence of beavers, though we didn’t see them. We saw their lodge, their dam and lots and lots of cut down trees. Old, not fresh. We saw a few other hikers—three at a distance and one near the mirador and we chatted. He runs a guiding business and was scouting for some new hiking tours.

It amazed us how warm it was in the sun with no wind, how cold when a cloud came over and some wind, and how fast it changes back and forth. We decided that when we hike out on Friday we will take the “trail” from the lower lake, not return on the high trail that we came on. We were not interested in climbing back up the loose shale to the traverse.

Had soup. A sprinkle of rain motivated us to set up the tarp over our tent. More ramen for supper and early to bed.

Thurs 3/14. We waited for the sun to hit our tent, but it never did: high overcast. Got up about 9, hit the trail a little after 10. The trail up to the first pass was steep, watery and hard. We were glad not to have full packs. There was a campsite in the first cirque with a substantial wind block built from stacked rocks—several actually—and one guy camped there. The second pass was the high divide between the Dientes and the next mountain.

After that, the route descended halfway, then traversed a steep rocky slope with a lake below. We came out to a lower pass and a series of lakes. We hiked down to the lower lake and circumnavigated it. Lots of beaver activity. Beavers had been introduced in 1946 in hopes of forging a fur industry, but with no natural predators the population grew exponentially and created a lot of ecological damage.

The wind came up and it was getting colder. We turned around about 1:30. I was a bit worried about severe wind and cold at the high pass, but it turned out okay. There was a bit of tiny snow crystals in the air.

The rocks were amazing: lots of layers, lots of colors, some like marble. Looking up at the pyramid mountain the face was gorgeous. Sometimes the trail was hard to follow and the cairns and paint blazes hard to find, but we never got too far off because the terrain where the trail is going is pretty obvious. Back to the tent about 5pm. Soup, reading, ramen, then nighty nite.

Fri 3/15. It snowed overnight. At least the air was still, so it wasn’t unbearably cold. We stayed in the tent until almost 10, hoping the sun would warm it up, but no deal: the overcast was too thick. We managed to pack up, shake off the snow and got wet gloves and cold fingers, but we were on our way. The slope down to the lower lake was even more slippery than before. We picked up the trail markers, but lost them again and had to bush whack around a bit to find a large muskeg meadow with a clear and marked trail. No more snow but lots of mud. The trail followed the stream down through the wood back to the trailhead at the end of the road. We looked at the signage and wished it had had more information about the trails.

We booked an Airbnb and walked into town. First, we went to the carabinero office to check out, then moseyed around town looking for a place to eat. Most of the restaurants were closed. Finally we found a Columbian one just about to open at the town center. We enjoyed our pisco Calafate, papas fritas, and a really excellent and big cheese empanada.

We hadn’t yet received confirmation for our reservation at the Airbnb, so we decided to walk up to the approximate location on the Google map to see if we could find it. We walked around asking the neighbors where Alba lived; they directed us. We rang the bell. Alba and her husband answered, confirmed they had a room, then confirmed the Airbnb reservation on her phone. All good! Took showers, washed the mud off our pantlegs, put our shoes and socks on the drying rack by the stove, made love and rested. Then we fetched a take-out pizza for dinner and were in bed by 10pm.

Sat 3/16. Alba prepared a nice breakfast and told us her story. Her parents were communists. She finished her degree in social work two days before the Pinochet coup shut down the social sciences department at the university and took all the students and faculty away into mass detention. Most of them were tortured and killed and never seen again. Her parents were arrested and imprisoned. She married an a-political young man whose brothers were carabineros. His family took her in. That association provided some protection for her. She was never investigated.

We left our packs and walked into town. The Yangun museum was closed, but we got to admire the whale bones in the yard. Sra. Teresa at a local package store solved my problem recharging my Claro SIM.

Sat-Sun 3/16-17. The next stage in our journey would be a 30-hour ferry transit up the Beagle Channel to Punta Arenas. We went to three grocery stores looking for the things we wanted for the trip. The panaderias had no empanadas—in fact, not much of anything. We did buy fresh, hot muffins and some of the round flat breads that are common here. The Columbian restaurant didn’t have empanadas vegetales either. But we did meet an interesting French geologist on his way to do tectonic fieldwork near Cape Horn, by Zodiac.

On the way to the ferry dock we passed a dry marina where we struck up a conversation with a young Swiss couple with a new 2012 sailboat: Ovni 365 with a beautiful aluminum hull. They sailed last year through the Northwest Passage, around Alaska, then down to Tahiti. They met an older couple on the same transit who decided to sell them their boat. They reconnected in Puerto Montt for the transaction. They will sail to Alaska next year, then return to Tahiti.

The ferry, Transbordadora Austral Broom, was small, with an open vehicle deck on the port side; the starboard side had a two-story passenger area with reclining seats, and an upper, open viewing deck. The semi-cama seats were the most comfortable yet for sleeping. The young people who sat behind us had done the whole Dientes circuit in three days. (The things these young people are doing with aplomb make me feel old.) Claire and Cleo do ecology studies for the US National Park Service. Clair has worked a couple times in Alaska, in Gates of the Arctic and Lake Clark. She’ll be doing field work on the Noatak this summer. We met more interesting people on board, including a couple from Barcelona, Guillermo and Marina, who are travelers, trekkers, and wanna-be sailors. Mike invited them to come sail with us in Alaska.

We were pleasantly surprised to discover that meals were included. Nothing to write home about, but better than the provisions in our bag. The 30-hour transit was spectacular: endless islands, fjord’s, rounded hills with a mix of glacier-scoured bedrock and green, low vegetation, and beyond that an assortment of jagged, snow-covered peaks. The area of glaciers we passed at night so I did not get to see them. It was dark and stormy the first half of the night and not conducive to being outdoors or seeing much of anything. Sunday day was a constant mix of dark clouds, cotton clouds, patches of sun, some hail, light winds, strong winds, calm seas, and high seas frosting with spray. The waves crashing on the reefs sent up explosions of brilliant white spray. We passed only one sign of humans: the ferry made a quick stop at a road-end with no buildings to unload a forklift of building materials and load a cargo truck. We also saw lots of light beacons with no visible light, and a Navy ship and Zodiac apparently trying to land on a rock to repair that light.

We arrived at Punta Arenas about 11pm. We started walking, looking for a taxi; not finding one we ended up calling one. It was after midnight by the time we checked into our hostel.

Mon 3/18. We spent the day catching up on email, running errands and researching our next moves: too many choices and not enough information. The tourist office was totally useless. We ended up deciding on a TABSA ferry from Puerto Natales to Yungay, the start of the Carretera Austral (Highway 7). We also finally found, after much searching, an open Claro office where they were able to resolve my i-phone’s problem accessing the internet.

Tue 3/19. We took the 11am bus to Puerto Natales then walked to our Airbnb hosted by Liber. It had a super comfortable, giant king bed! Not to mention a private bath and good light. We went out to the TABSA office to ask for our senior discount, only to learn that it is not available on this route. We also learned that though the ferry leaves at 5am Thursday, we will need to board the night before, so we had to cancel our second night at Liber’s house. We spent the day doing laundry, researching the next phase of our route north, some tourist shopping, and had the best-ever dinner: salmon ceviche, pasta putanesca and pisco sour.

Wed 3/20. A leisurely morning in Puerto Natales. We went to the TABSA office again to ask about buses. They advised us to disembark at Caleta Tortel, not Puerto Yungay, and catch a bus the following day. We went grocery shopping, to a panaderia and to the history museum. We made a point of going to the shop Etnia where Mike had bought his favorite hat when we were here years ago, but found nothing interesting this time. We enjoyed a Greek dinner then went to a bar for another pisco sour to pass the time before picking up our packs and checking in with TABSA. Our seats were interior, not window, but we diligently watched until everyone was on board, then switched to the last available window seat. We slept in our semi-cama seats.

Thu-Fri 3/21-22. Fall equinox. While not as spectacular as the journey from Puerto Williams, we enjoyed watching the passing landscape of fjords, ringed with scoured bedrock and mature green scrub, with snowy peaks behind, and lots and lots of waterfalls. The ferry is pretty much the same but the passengers are quite different: far fewer international backpackers and more middle-aged Chileans. Fewer cargo trucks and more passenger cars and vans. Some pet dogs too. And the kitchen area is even smaller.

We met a USA woman and her Peruvian fiancé with whom we played cards and talked and talked and talked. We all enjoyed each others’ company. They had a car so would stay on to the end in at Puerto Yungay.

Sat 3/23. All the backpackers got off at 3:30 am in Caleta Tortel. Most of us slept in a shelter at the ferry dock. Two by two, we went our own ways in the morning.

Reliable information about the bus to Cochrane was hard to come by and very mixed. We ended up getting a ride with a Dutch couple who had gotten off in Yungay, but drove to Tortel looking for coffee. Never found it: everything was closed. The town is all stairs and boardwalks: scenic, but a long slog with packs to the parking area for busses and cars. The ride in the RV they had rented was marvelous, but we had to keep wiping the fog off the windows to see anything. They let us out in Cochrane. We walked to the bus terminal, which was closed till 4pm. We ate lunch on the bench, browsed the information at the terminal, and learned that two busses a day go to Cochrane, at 7:30 and 8:00 am. So we were stuck spending the night in Cochrane.

We walked around until 4:00 and came back to buy our tickets, then sat and used their WiFi till the terminal closed at 7:30 pm. We recognized some of the backpackers from the boat and Tortel who finally arrived on the bus. They looked wet and tired. We went out for dinner, finding only one open option, a pub/restaurant. We ordered two glasses of red wine, a veggie burger and a salmon dinner. Nothing very special but still expensive. We returned to the bus terminal and laid out our sleeping bags in a covered area outside.

Sun 3/24. We took the early bus to Coyhaique. Mike had slept very poorly and was very tired, so he mostly slept on the bus. Though it was hard to see out the fogged windows, we could see that the landscape was changing: it was getting more and more rural and developed with agriculture, cattle and sheep. We also saw some real forests with big trees, and several huge lakes and big rivers with snowy peaks beyond. The bus stopped in Rio Tranquillo and Cerro Castille; the road was still dirt until we reached the outskirts of Coyhaique. We arrived about 2:45. It’s a pretty nice town. We walked to the Airbnb, then went out looking for cars to rent. But everything was closed (Sunday). We found a couple outdoor shops in case we decide to buy another sleeping pad. We came back for showers and love making. It felt great!

Mon 3/25. No breakfast provided in the “bed and breakfast.” We cooked oats and hard boiled some of their eggs, then went out to find a car rental. We checked with half a dozen companies before deciding on RecaSur—the same company we had been referred to in Punta Arenas. They were closed midday, so we went shopping for food and a new waffle style camp pad. We picked up the car, stopped at the bus station for information about buses to Chaitén, fetched our packs from the BnB and were off!

This week-long road trip offered the best hiking and sightseeing we had in central Patagonia, replete with steaming volcanoes, glacial cirques, and lush rain forests.

First, we drove to Parque Nacional Cerro Castillo. We picked up a trail map from the visitor center and drove down the road to check out the trailhead. Well, almost. It was a dirt road with a hill too steep to navigate without 4-wheel drive. We figured we’d have to walk the last kilometer. We camped by the river near the bridge across from the village. It was a very pleasant spot on a warm evening.

Tues 3/26. Up at 9, we walked to the trailhead where we were charged $16 each to cross private property and enter the park. It was a two-hour hike up through the woods, over cow fences, up to alpine, to a park ranger guard station where our permits were checked again and our names recorded. Then on up to the mirador, the lagoon, hanging glacier, and the dramatic Cerro Castillo. The rules were we had to head down by 4pm, which left us a couple hours to explore. We followed a route down the boulder slope, across the stream, and down valley to ever more spectacular alpine and glacial terrain. Some fall color too. Back to the mirador just at 4, in time to meet the young rangers who were carrying a sign saying it’s 4:00 and time to leave. Our knees were getting tired on the way down. We used poles and I took Ibuprofen. We checked out the showers at the bottom, but they were not operational. We started to walk the road back to our car, but a pickup offered us a ride. Yes! Dinner and camping in the same spot by the river.

Wed 3/27. We decided to skip Rio Tranquillo and drive north to the parks near Chaitén. Stopped in Coyaique to buy to buy bus tickets, yogurt, wine, another pad for the car, camping gas, and a FABULOUS salmon poke lunch. The drive was gorgeous! Down a lush valley with tall sheer cliffs on the sides, down almost to the Port Chacabuco, then up a side valley to a high pass, and down a very step, windy, dirt road (highway!) to follow another river out to the fjord Canal Puyu Huapí. We stopped in the Parque National Queulat, but were discouraged by the $11 per person entrance fee for a piddling 3.3km hike to see a glacier. We also had sore knees and thighs from the hike yesterday. So we continued on. We stopped at the visitor center in Puyahuapi to get more information about hikes, kayaks and hot springs, but decided to drive on.

We have really been enjoying the vistas from the car—so much better than the bus—and the freedom to stop anywhere, go anywhere, sleep anywhere. If only our car bed was more comfortable…

It was starting to get dark, so we looked on I-overlander and found a place to stop near a bridge and creek.

Thu 3/28. Another fine morning. It was getting steadily warmer and less windy at the lower latitudes. The forest was more lush, tropical almost, with giant ferns and bamboo. We stopped to hike a glacier view trail in the southern Amarillo section of the Parque Nacionale Pumalin, founded and donated by Doug Thompkins. We signed in at the guard station. The road she directed us to was barricaded, so we drove up to the Termal road, past the hot springs baths which have been closed since a landslide, and up to the end of the road about 24km. Beautiful valley with small scale lumber operations and small homesteads with goats and cows. Back to the guard station. She told us to just move the barricade and replace it. So we did.

We picked up a walker on his way to our same trailhead at Camping Grande. On the mis-advice of people in the parking lot, we walked down the wrong trail. Our Belgian friend Agustin looked at his GPS and saw it was wrong, so we backtracked to the parking lot and walked up the closed road to the real trailhead. Thinking it was an easy trail, we didn’t take our poles. It was harder than expected: steep with log stairs. I was dragging well before we got to the first mirador where we stopped for lunch. It turned out the “real” mirador with the glacier view was only 50 feet farther. We saw three condors flying overhead. Mike and I waited at the second mirador waiting for Agustin who didn’t arrive. Getting cold, we decided to go back and tell him we were going on—it was a loop trail. He had gotten waylaid eating a second sandwich and talking with some newly arrived Europeans. The trail down soon joined another section of road. Augustin is fast and caught up with us. We drove him to his hostel in Chaltén. We liked it and booked reservations for next week.

Then we went and bought our bus tickets, walked on the beach, and went to the Resturante Flamenco for dinner. They served us the best sopa de mariscos ever! We also enjoyed the rolls and pisco sour. We drove past the ferry terminal to a gravel lot for the night. We saw lots of dolphins near our beach.

Fri 3/29. We headed out to hike the volcano trail. It was cloudy enough that we didn’t know whether we would see it, but wanted the hike anyway. Once again, we expected it to be a moderate trail and left our poles, but then wished we had them. The trail was in poor repair, wet and steep with broken log steps. Up in an hour. Sure enough, no view, but the sun was working hard to clear out the mist. Finally, we got a stupendous view of the still steaming volcano. It had erupted in 2008. The blast had broken and killed all the trees, so there were lots of bare, standing large trunks. It had also melted the glacier and sent a major flood down the river to the town. There were lots of photos of the devastation. The forest on the way down was subtropical, very different than southern Patagonia or any place I’ve ever seen. Augustin showed up at the summit, took pictures, and hurried back down for a 1pm phone conference. Going down without poles was less traumatic than I expected. We were down in half an hour.

We drove back to Chaitén and ate our lunch on the benches at the waterfront promenade. Then we headed out to Futuleufu, famous for world-class white water rafting. It had started to rain hard, and we were hoping to escape the rain. It was another scenic drive up a valley with sheer cliffs on the sides and green pasture in the bottom. It was gentler by the time we reached the town. We picked up a hitchhiker, a local woman returning from a hike. Then we looked for a café for a cup of tea and a pastry. The one we found was very slow: one worker and a number of customers. Stopped at the visitor center, but he had no information on road conditions in Argentina or elsewhere. Good thing I speak Spanish: fewer than half of the tourist information staff speak English. Anyway, we decided to continue east toward the Argentine border to see new territory and get out of the rain. But it turned out we couldn’t get across the border without a cross-border insurance receipt from the car rental agency. So we drove back down to Highway 7. It was well after dark by the time we got down, but we had no trouble finding on I-Overlander a viewpoint parking pad, next to the road, above the river. The rain had stopped and the sky was clear, with beautiful views of the Milky Way, Orion and the Southern Cross.

Sat 3/30. We drove to La Junta to fill up on gas and eat a bite of breakfast: chocolate croissants and tea. We continued on through intermittent rain showers to Puyuhuapi where we decided to indulge ourselves with a visit to the local hot springs. We were able to get a reservation for 2pm at Terma Ventisquero (“Snowdrift”) resort. While waiting and wandering around the town we stumbled upon a major community festival at the city gymnasium, with food stalls, a kitchen contest, a DJ and a little live music.

The hot springs was moderately expensive—CP15,000 each—offering three outdoor pools adjacent to the saltwater fjord. It was mostly sunny while we were there. In the pools we enjoyed the company of a Brazilian woman living in Australia and a Spanish woman from Catalonia. We got hot enough to dunk in the cold fjord: even Mike dunked twice. We finished up with a shower, hair wash and clean clothes. It felt really good.

Back in town we visited the festival again, then walked around town until it was time to settle for the night. We parked by the dock at the end of town; it was a popular spot for people to come to enjoy the evening light.

Sun 3/31. It was a bad night. There were partiers nearby with their music until 8am, and a couple vehicles with lights came and went. Plus my hips were bothering me in the hard bed so I never got comfortable and kept changing my position. Baby gruel for breakfast, a short stop in town to use the public toilets and we hit the road.

It was a beautiful day, although it never got warm. We enjoyed the scenery but never found a trail to hike. We drove a few side roads just to explore and ended up on a long backcountry route to Coyhaique. It was mostly gravel with a few stretches of pavement. The eastern side of the divide was noticeably drier and less green. The mountains—the highest ones were dusted with new snow—were unceasingly gorgeous. We also enjoyed the flat green bottoms filled with animals and pasture.

Back in Coyhaique we found a trail to hike in the morning—if it’s not too rainy—and slept in the car near the trailhead, on a dirt street, across from a play area, with four cows wandering around eating paper garbage.

Mon 4/1. April fools! We weren’t at the trailhead, but on a street with the same name! Turns out the trailhead for Cerro Fraile is on the back side of the cerro, 45 minutes south of town. Mike found an alternative on maps.me, but that was a dud too: private property and new construction closed the trail. I found an option at the river on the north side of town so we went there. Not much of a hike. It was a picnic area with a social trail up river, and another trail down river. We explored both. The most interesting sight was a huge Kingfisher, and three large birds we couldn’t identify. No rain anyway. We packed up our gear, dropped our packs at the Airbnb, and returned the rental car. We celebrated with pisco sours at Tropero restaurant—the same place I’d bought the great poke a week ago. Went shopping for tomorrow’s bus trip and back to the Airbnb. They had a new baby that was crying so we hung out in our room using WiFi.

Tue-Wed 4/2-3. The last leg of our Patagonia journey was one bus from Coyhaique to Chaitén, and a second from Chaitén to Puerto Montt, including three ferry crossings. It rained hard off and on both days. The bus windows were fogged so we couldn’t see much. At least the first leg to Chaitén was road we’d already seen from the rental car. We are not as impressed with the scenery in northern Patagonia as further south. The hills are lower, less fjord-like cliffs, and the tree cover more dense.

The power in Chaitén was out city-wide so we used our headlamps that evening at the hostel. The Flamenco restaurant however had a generator, so we were able to enjoy our dinner in the company of Swiss and French friends from the bus and boat.

We arrived in Puerto Montt at 9:30pm Wednesday evening. Once again, Google misled us: apparently, the bus company had an office up the hill near the hostel where we made reservations, but the bus terminal where we were dropped off was on the waterfront. It was late and it was raining, so we took a taxi.

Our trans Patagonia journey was done. On to central Chile!