Kilometer Zero, Quellón

The end, or the beginning of the PanAmerican Highway in Patagonia.

43 Degrees South Latitude, 150 miles south of Puerto Montt in the town of Quellón at the southern end of Isla Chiloé. And there you have it precisely. 16,000 miles and 14 months from our border crossing in Laredo Texas and here we are.  

This isn’t the southernmost point of the continent, far from it, with another 1700 miles to go with 1200 of them by ship. But I’ll tell you what: this is definitely Patagonia. And the wind blowing across the bay from the west was cold enough to prove the point. 

It is somewhat surprising to be here after talking about it so much. And we haven’t been to Alaska - yet. Our journey went as far north as Canada after we decided to see the northern end of US One. 

In September 2022 we were parked right next to the bridge to New Brunswick but we were ready to go south. The Maritime Provinces of Canada have been on my list for a while but we wanted to be in Mexico. And now we’re in Chile which is a long way down. 

Quellón is under the blue dot and as you can see it’s a long way to go to the end of the continent.   

It was quite a long day to get here from Puerto Montt. We finished emptying our rented cabin before eleven, check out time, and got on the road to the ferry thirty miles away.

Southern Criss is the name of the ship, one of a fleet of four that work twenty four hours every day, weather permitting, shuttling back and forth to the island half an hour across the water.  

We got on, had a snack and the crossing was so smooth we hardly noticed we were moving. The ferry is easy to use, you line up and drive on then a crew member comes by with a card reader and it’s all done. $18 to cross and you drive off a minute after the ferry drops the ramp. Pets can only ride in vehicles which was good enough for Rusty lording it in his bed. 

Chiloé, a 150 mile long island is definitely in Patagonia; that I know. It is said to be beautiful.  Of that I’m not sure as it looked pretty much like the countryside around Puerto Montt. 

There are two popular advertising signs on Chiloé that we saw; land for sale and cabins to rent. This island is a vacation destination.  

Ancud, the first town is home to some islets which are inhabited by Humboldt penguins. We took a tour in Paracas in Peru, further north and warmer to see them so we felt okay skipping them here where it’s cold and damp. 

We did stop to let the boss out and enjoy the beach. 

Chiloé has the worst roads we’ve seen in Chile and the most roadside trash which both seem to indicate a level of poverty below that of the mainland. Islands, even though they may seem exotic often have less opportunity and lower standards of living for the locals. 

We also stopped to pick up an empanada. 

Made to order. He says truckers like to stop as he churns them out pretty quickly.

They are the largest I’ve ever seen, filled with ground beef and fried onions. 

Rusty sniffed around until the drizzle got to him. 

We got the offer of free well water so we filled the tank. 

I can’t say the island was spectacularly beautiful but we were glad to satisfy our curiosity and check it out. 

With our second alternator not working we are relying on solar power from our 400 watt panels in the roof. So far there has been enough sunlight and indeed sunshine to keep our house batteries charged. We turn off the fridge at night and are careful in our use of electricity but we are doing okay. 

I don’t use my CPAP at night which is annoying and Layne did a bunch of cooking before we left the cabin so all we have to do is use the microwave so we are doing well enough. We decided not to use a propane stove as propane or butane tanks are difficult to fill in South America. Each country has its own system and different tanks so we didn’t want to deal with it. If we needed to we could easily buy a camp stove and butane bottles for sale everywhere but this shortcoming is temporary I hope. 

Land for sale everywhere. 

Quellón below, seen from the road to the marker at the end of the PanAmerican Highway. 

Just as in Key West the locals pretty much ignore the monumental marker in their midst. 

“O” stands for West in Spanish. 

We miss you…

No Energy

Our second alternator cannot be repaired as the mechanic cannot find the voltage regulator part to fit.

So next week Layne flies to Miami and Key West where we are sending the parts from the factory in Missouri. We spoke with Adam, the owner of Nation’s Starters and Alternators in Cape Girardeau and he was very helpful. We even have the bar code of our particular alternator: 

Meanwhile we have to leave our cabin in the woods until Tuesday so we decided to take GANNET2 for a stroll to Isla Chiloé, said to be particularly beautiful. It’s a short ferry ride south of Puerto Montt to the 100 mile long island and we shall explore it over the weekend when lots of Chileans probably will too…

Ordinarily the delay finding the part to charge the house batteries with the engine wouldn’t matter much but of course here we are with our first deadline in a year and we suffer a breakdown. The irony is of course just perfect but this plan should get us ready for the Puerto Natales ferry December 2nd, with days to spare. 

Meanwhile we are getting GANNET2 ready to roll and moving out of our cabin for three days. We have reserved it from next Tuesday for ten days so I’ll have a comfortable spot with Rusty to wait for Layne to return.

Monica and Christoph, our German neighbors looked after Rusty for a couple of hours and he was quite relaxed when we got back from collecting GANNET2, proof positive he not only likes them but he likes it here too.

And why wouldn’t he? Meanwhile our German neighbors are waiting for news of the replacement axle they’ve ordered from Germany for their expedition truck. It’s supposed to arrive next week but as always who knows what will happen between Munich and Puerto Montt? That’s why Layne is flying to the US to pick up the tiny but critical part we need.

These are the nuisances we have to learn to deal with on the road. So far so good.