Tag Archives: disaster

5 days on the Austral

Many parts of the world are still left undiscovered for all practical purposes. In fact only 200,000 people live in the Southern Part of Argentina, while the country has a population of over 40 million. When living in a metropolitan center of the world it is easy to forget just how wild parts of it are. Our recent trip down the Austral Highway in Chile presented, to me at least, one of the most beautiful parts of the world. The grand connection of this highway from the populated north of Chile to the undeveloped southern section was only finished in 2000 and it only services a small total of 100,000 people. Bus service is irregular or almost non-existent, and while we were passing through it was rare to come across more than a car or two driving it all day. It is adventures like this one that really answer the regular question begged of us, “Why drive your own cars?”