Where to fly into for patagonia
On route 7 into the heart of Patagonia | DW Documentary
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vast and variable the remote landscapes
of southern chile are spellbinding it's
one of the wildest places on the planet
Chilean Patagonia
the carretera austral is a 1240
kilometer stretch of road that serves as
an artery into the very heart of this
wilderness the terrain here was once
deemed impassable carving a road through
these expanses utopian little by little
construction of the carretera austral
are also known as the southern highway
has advanced creating access to this
natural paradise
the road connects distant fjords with
major cities and is an economic lifeline
for Chile's salmon industry
join us for a road trip full of
surprises to explore the magical
landscape and meet the people of Chilean
Patagonia
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it's a 13,000 kilometer journey from
Germany to Patagonia in southern Latin
America Patagonia stretches across both
Chile and Argentina Chile's canna Terra
Australis center of the country with its
southern tip but to date the road
remains incomplete and getting south
requires crossing into Argentina our
journey begins in the Chilean port city
of Puerto Montt this is the starting
point of the carretera austral also
known as ruta seven
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after some 60 kilometers Patagonia
begins to show its wild side the road is
soon interrupted by a feud
it's one of the many especially along
the northern section of the carretera
austral ferries transport cars across
but the Chilean government eventually
wants to replace them with road
captain's stanislav medina
isn't worried about his job yet the
project to replace the ferry connections
with the road will take at least 30
years they'll have to build bridges and
tunnels it's a long-term project I might
be dead by the time it's done
traveling the entire carretera austral
involves several ferry connections this
stretch across the kamau feud is more
than 60 kilometers
could a road really be built across such
wild terrain critics are skeptical they
say a modernized ferry system would be a
more efficient solution but the
government has given the road project a
green light
in this still very sparsely populated
region only few people would actually
make use of the road the first stop on
our journey lies on the banks of the
Kemal fjord
German marine biologists work at this
research station in the Bay of who and I
it can only be reached by boat across
the fjord
it offers scientists a unique
environment for research
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Freeney hi sermon is in charge of the
station we meet up with her ahead of our
trip at her home in puerto montt there
kamal fiat that the kumar feud has the
same ph value that the oceans are
predicted to have in the year 2100 so it
provides us with a glimpse into the
future we can see how coral will live in
the oceans a hundred years from now
fastened at yonder invert researchers
here specialize in cold water corals
that only grow in these fjords they grow
so close to the surface of the water
that scientists can dive down and
explore them
Freni has discovered more than 50 new
species she's officially named some
after her children and husband but she's
made troubling observations in recent
years entire coral reefs have died out
from one year to the next and in April
2015 she made another alarming discovery
at a different field satoru up when lip
- it felt apocalyptic we looked around
and saw one dead whale after another we
were so shocked we flew over the area in
a small plane and using GPS tracked
every whale we spotted we were just
clicking the whole time and I thought
I've seen a hundred now and then even
three hundred the beach was just
littered with dead whales it was
terrible
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duh sister school it was the biggest
whale stranding in history immediate
when the research has countered 360 dead
say whales during this observation
flight Freni believes the total was
substantially higher on Vice fun Calvin
we know from the US northeastern
Atlantic that only five to 10 percent of
the gray whales that died in shallow
water get washed up onto the beaches
if those 360 whales constituted 5 to 10
percent of the number that died then
we're looking at a frightening figure
one that seriously jeopardizes the say
whale population in the southern
hemisphere
mokou-san the cause of death was most
likely a red tide
the maharajah as it's called here the
red tide gets its name from the color
given to water by microscopic algae that
release toxins these can be fatal to
certain types of sea life
when Vice al Kresta Marietta along with
environmental pollution in general the
Mafia Hoffa is increasing around the
world we see changes that can be
attributed to anthropogenic causes
offensive these anthropogenic causes
meaning caused by human activity could
very well be increased economic activity
in the region little has impacted as
much as industrial salmon farming which
was brought to Patagonia
with the arrival of the carretera
austral today it's the biggest employer
in southern Chile a seasonal worker
gives us an insider's look into the
business it's the same like farming
chickens or pigs it's an industry just
like any other on his cell phone his
recorded video of his job on one of the
floating farms in one farm there are 10
enclosures each with 40 thousand fish
this is the injection gun these are the
hoses in the medicines and vaccines go
through these this is how you use the
gun you take it in this hand and inject
the drugs into the fish just imagine the
fish is subjected to this but it's not
even sick it's like the fishes on drugs
we use a blue paste called benzocaine
it's like an anesthetic it keeps the
fish calm when you hold it in your hands
kappa kagerou see i see but i would
Monica local la mano lady Ron the chuck
in 120 kilograms of fish food a day
those 120 the fish eat maybe 40 and the
rest sinks to the seabed
that's industrial pollution but no one's
bothered you just come do the job novena
yeah a salut given a Casanova in the
food
fisherman Boris lives opposite the
research station on Kemal fraud he was
born and raised here
but really I like it here how many
people get the chance to live in a place
like this
many Bay's that Boris used to fish in
are now occupied by salmon farms in
their proximity he has caught some very
unusual fish you can catch sea bass now
that look like salmon they've been
dumping chemicals and salmon food into
the water for so long the bass now have
the skin and color of salmon there are
tons of them here Boris built his house
in an isolated Bay on the edge of a huge
nature reserve called poo Merlin Park
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the park was founded by the American
philanthropist Douglas Tompkins he made
his fortune with outdoor apparel brands
in the 1990s he retired from the
business world sold his shares for more
than a hundred million dollars and
together with his wife acquired wide
swaths of land in Patagonia on the
biggest portion of their property the
Tompkins created Palmer Lynn Park more
than 3000 square kilometers in size the
park stretches from the Argentine border
all the way to the chilean fjords its
existence created another obstacle for
the carretera austral the Tompkins
rejected the prospect of a paved road
intersecting the park
locals were suspicious
some accused Douglas Tompkins of staging
a land grab because he'd bought such a
huge area of land thousands of Hector's
people said this gringo wants to set up
his own state and let no one else in
except himself it was only later that I
started to understand it wasn't like
that at all this was about protecting
what you have making the most of your
resources because a tree doesn't grow
overnight it takes up to 500 years for
trees like this to grow back it said
that Tompkins was looking for the
world's oldest tree before he decided on
the side of his nature reserve
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Ranger Sergio has been working at pummel
in park for more than ten years he knows
a lot about its primeval flora you know
path underwater we're crossing the money
or forests these gigantic money owed
trees are about 100 to 150 years old
butin can hear the frogs and toads that
live in the wetland here you know Mia
this is one of the millennia old Alessa
trees I think it's the biggest one we
have in coumarine park
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it's about 3000 years old these enormous
Alessa trees also known as Patagonian
Cypress don't grow anywhere else in the
world work here in the park and protect
these fantastic trees more than anything
they're a lung for the world without the
protection of Puma lien Park the forest
will be facing disaster before there was
no respect for nature
Douglas Tompkins died in a kayaking
accident in 2015 but that didn't spell
the end of his conservation project
honey there he gave us a vision now we
the young people and all the future
generations need to care for and protect
the park this isn't the end
Puma lien Park will live on for a long
time what you're in for
in 2017 Tompkins Widow Christine
McDivitt Tompkins handed over all of the
land she and her husband acquired to the
Chilean government it was the largest
ever donation of private land to a
government in South America but there
was one condition that the state turn
all of it
international parks our journey takes us
out of Puma Land Park and back onto the
carretera austral we're heading south to
our next stop chai ten
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the small harbour town on the Gulf of
Corcovado is just a shadow of its former
self struck by a natural disaster in
2008 residents were forced to flee less
than half of return to rebuild their
lives here
Tritan volcano located inside poo melon
park erupted without warning a cloud of
smoke rose kilometers into the sky vast
quantities of scree and larvae destroyed
parts of chai ten town located just 10
kilometers from the volcano the volcano
had not erupted for more than 9,000
years and was considered dormant but in
seconds magma shot out of the depth of 5
kilometers cutting a swathe of
destruction
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it will take a long time for the region
to recover just a few kilometers on and
the splendor of Patagonia's landscape
unfolds again
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heading further south our next stop is
via santa lucia and we meet one resident
who devoted his working life to the
carretera austral minimally mario my
name is mario inner Strasse and i'm a
retired Army soldier
dido mario was a member of the military
labor corps for 35 years and proudly
shows us photos documenting his career
the Corps was formed in 1976 when the
building began it was pioneering work
under the most adverse conditions
Mario's company was there from the start
but Gilliland why was the army involved
because no private sector companies
wanted to work there it wasn't
profitable Mario is still proud of his
units achievements clearing the first
path into the wilderness using axes and
shovels beyond misses there were times
when we'd progress only 10 or 20 metres
in a whole month it was so difficult
firstly to divert the water and secondly
to create a stable road
it's a lot of fund officially that's it
these sections here were very hard look
how much construction machinery there is
now we didn't have all that in our day
it's wonderful to see all this machinery
down here today in the early stages
building the road was back-breaking work
up to ten thousand men worked here all
year round there were no weekends forty
five workers lost their lives during
construction prisoners could trade in
two years of their sentence for a year
working on the road
Mario volunteered for 35 years like many
others here he still refers to the road
by its original name Kanna Terra
Australis talked Pinochet jr. for Hogan
the person who actually planned this and
had the determination to make it happen
was General Pinochet people who now want
to change the name don't understand what
really went into creating it my general
left us with technology improvement and
asphalt it's just fantastic
Pablo Acosta Pinochet came to power in
1973 in a military coup his four member
government was made up of the commanders
of the Army Navy and military police
Rodolfo SH Tonga is one of the last
surviving members of the hunter
stronger joined the hunter in 1985 as
head of the national police force the
Carabineros he remained in government
until the fall of Pinochet's regime in
1990 now 93 Stanga is of German descent
thus build this picture here it's a
photo isn't it no no no it's a painting
it hangs in the museum in Santiago along
with all the generals this is a picture
of me this is Pinochet a pope General
Fernando Matteo a head of the Air Force
and me the two of us were called the
German the other members of the hunter
sometimes made fun of us because we
spoke in German to each other when we
needed to change our opinion okay okay
come be our opinion the laws were made
by just for men Stanger still believes
that government model offered advantages
my goodness he won we didn't have many
laws but the ones we did were good ones
today many laws are passed but they're
not all good you know tumblr with
so why was the construction of the
carretera austral so important to the
men of the hunter after all there was
already a well-developed road to the
south of chile via argentina you need to
have your own road it's the same with
anything you can't live half in your own
house and half in your neighbor's house
you live in your own house so it was
necessary essential even that we create
a route on the Chilean side no matter
the cost
stronger doesn't accept responsibility
for everything that happened under the
hunter does it sighs I'm not saying it
was good no unfortunately I didn't have
anything to do with the deaths so hobby
I'm not guilty of anything
under the repression of the military
dictatorship more than 3,000 people were
killed some 27,000 survived torture and
political imprisonment these are the
officially recognized figures documented
by Chile's Truth and Reconciliation
Commission the exact numbers will never
be known Bank Pinochet is still revered
by many today especially along the
carretera austral the atrocities of his
regime and dismissed as a necessary evil
for the progress of the country as a
whole our journey leads us to discover a
small slice of German history in the
village of poo happy
who you happy was founded by German
settlers in 1935 traditions are still
kept alive here to this day hello good
morning
I'm freedom and Gaddis and I've been
living in Pojoaque for three years here
in put you happy houses like this a
relics of the original German settlement
but they're falling into disrepair just
outside the village it's a different
picture I live and pull you happy and
this is where I work
I've lived around here all my life yeah
Helmut set up his own successful
business his most important resource is
water from the nearby glacier what's the
meat
[Applause]
helmut used to breed salmon too but now
he's concentrating on trout because
salmon industry has gone down the drain
Helmut believes quality is the key he
only uses organic feed
I just need a beer then it'd be perfect
and he knows a thing or two about beer
this is the best job you need to test
the bottles every day to see how they're
doing when the bottles are full they
need to be stored for 20 days under a
bit of heat and then the process is
complete every bottle tells a story one
of them is called the golden years my
uncle Volta always used to say the best
years of his life were spent here it was
a long road to these golden years the
founders of puyo hoppy fled poverty in
Germany when they emigrated in the 1930s
amid the isolation and harsh climate it
took all their strength to carve a
living from their land they lived mostly
from cattle breeding forestry and
fishing in 1945 they set up a carpet
factory that found national acclaim to
assist them in their arduous work they
enlisted workers from the nearby island
of chiloé descendants of the chill otter
people today make up the majority of the
population here but the entrepreneurial
spirit of the founders still lives on
today our next stop is a 600 kilometer
ride away through the breathtaking
landscapes of Patagonia
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the further south one travels along the
carretera austral the more one often
encounters men like this in Chile
they're known as wasis the horse and the
poncho are part of their centuries-old
way of life
Juan Flores tends the land of a cattle
breeder
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he was born and raised here in the Rio
Vargas region and he remembers life
before the arrival of roads and other
modes of access to civilization our
lives changed when the road arrived here
it made it easier in every way the next
biggest town for Juan used to be a
month's horse ride away today it takes a
few hours by car there were parties in
every yard here when the road came the
neighbors brought a calf and we
celebrated and another major connection
to civilization arrived here just a few
days ago we've had an internet
connection here for four days now these
are still baby steps but we're a modern
farmers soon we'll have to buy every cow
a computer they can finally communicate
with us I use all the services on offer
Facebook whatsapp email I use them all
correo electrónico porn find has also
tames Patagonian wild horses in the
evening he prepares a Cordero a
traditional local barbecue this is the
meat from a cab
get the smoke makes it really tasty just
that a bit of salt and that's it no
garlic or anything
although Quan is in favor of the road it
has changed life as he knows it the
doors here are always open and anyone
can come and stay the night if I came to
your house I'd just leave a note
saying I'm so-and-so and I was in your
house so the person knows I stayed there
and I didn't take anything we don't want
to lose that it's already learned to
love the Internet though because it
means he can keep in regular contact
with his daughter who lives far away
the next morning Quan is getting ready
for a trip
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he needs to tend to the cattle up in the
mountains but there's no road the
journey on horseback takes nearly two
days
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our last stop on the carretera austral
is fast approaching
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the road is blocked once again by a Ford
and we need a ferry to get us to the
other side
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after 1240 kilometers through Chilean
Patagonia the carretera austral comes to
what's currently its end at a former
outpost of the chilean army via
o'higgins this last stretch wasn't
completed until 1997 because of its
remote location the airfield has always
been essential for the town's survival
today the mayor Ricardo rockabye is
inaugurating a new terminal this region
has always been isolated because the
country lacks geopolitical vision it's
virtually unknown there are hopes that
the new terminal will increase air
traffic u.s. pilot Vince Beasley has
stationed his chest 'no 206 here for
several years he's been flying charter
flights from via O'Higgins to the
remotest corners of patagonia only very
few pilots dare to venture out into this
dangerous terrain when it comes to
maintenance there's no one he trusts
more than himself he doesn't mind the
solitude in via o'higgins
I grew up remote far away I don't like
living in a city or even the village I
like to live out and so this gives me a
great feeling of I'm the only guy here
and I like it Vince often gets special
assignments he does survey flights for
NASA and in 2015 he was piloting the
plane with the team of scientists who
discovered the beached whales in Kemal
fjord
we flew out here to this area and
explored here and we saw a number of
dead whales a few along here not so many
and then all of a sudden when we came in
this area there were maybe thirty five
whales here 40 there scattered along
some in this channel alone there were
100 whales Vince goes through the
checklist a second time before he takes
off traffic ovo he gets alpha tango
whiskey pagando pista tres cuatro vo he
get
via o'higgins lies at the gateway to the
southern Patagonian ice field the Campo
de hielo saw its the barrier that
stopped the further expansion of the
carretera austral for pilots these are
tricky skies to navigate if you have to
visualize what the winds are doing
around each mountain either going around
it or going over it
coming down a valley and it's just like
water over a rock and the river so I'm
just a kayaker now
a flight kayaker
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I like the raw beauty it's much bigger
than you are and you have to respect it
vince has had very close encounters with
the forces of nature in the Patagonian
wild it was a perfect day with no wind
very very nice
visibility and
all of a sudden I saw one of the
mountains in front of me growing and it
didn't take me long to realize that it
was a volcano an eruption and there I
got some very good footage filming with
my my a cell phone
happened to be flying near the calbuco
volcano when it erupted suddenly in 2015
I came within one kilometer of the
crater and they column of ash erupting
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I'm gonna concentrate on flying now
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the face of it that's reaching the water
meters high
the dimensions are overwhelming the
Campo de hielo stretches for 350
kilometres along the Patagonian Andes
it's a huge obstacle for the carretera
austral project to the east it borders
Argentina and to the west lies a jagged
fuelled landscape
sorry we can't see more but this is
about as far as I want to go inside
weather conditions for civ in
store-bought the flight the winds below
the cloud cover are too strong and
there's a danger the plane could be
swept towards the rocks
vo Higgins vo Higgins alpha tango
whiskey
Vince bought his chestnut - oh six in
Alaska and fluid with his wife - via
o'higgins
in several stages over the course of
months back on the ground
mayor Roberto acaba is waiting for us
before his career in politics he worked
as a truck driver he transported
building materials for the road and
witness firsthand the enormous changes
that came with the road road has brought
great progress but it will also bring
poverty to the people of o'higgins first
it brought electricity and then
television my friends in the countryside
want to get cars soon but they don't
realize they don't have the money to
live such lifestyles because people are
poor here in the countryside
Monterey is a remote area
this is where the road ends just a
little bit further over there as
Argentina so there's no chance of
building the road further here you know
anything I mean devised by a dictator
construction of the carretera austral
has pushed farther and farther south for
two decades this remote spot is the end
of the road but the dream to create a
continuous road to the southern tip of
Chilean Patagonia lives on regardless of
the wilderness to be conquered in its
path
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