10 Jan 2023
North of Balmaceda the carretera is paved (mostly) and is very scenic. South of Villa Cerro Castillo, it would be more accurate to describe it as a collection of potholes where, unless you are driving a full-on adventure vehicle with huge tyres, you will struggle to average 20kph.We had a Seat Alteca 4x4 and we were equally delighted and relieved the road didn’t break it. We spent half of our time on the wrong side of the road, dodging holes the car would not have been able to get out of. If Google maps quotes 2 hours, factor in at least 3 hours with driving effort equivalent of at least 4 hours. Our reality was 25-30% in excess of our travel agent’s estimates. A 4.5 hour estimate was a 6 hour reality and at the end of that 6 hours, we were absolutely exhausted. A 4 hour estimate was in reality 5:20. The last 1:20 was on unpaved roads and considerably more tiring than the 4 hours on paved roads. Maybe it was being constantly exhausted from driving but it did not put Northern Patagonia in a good light. It was empty and in our experience of 14 days there, there Is a probably a good reason for that.