38:50S 71:20W 3hrs walking & hitching from Melipeuco
This is a spectacular piece of road with views to the snowclad Vocan Llaima to the north and Sollipulli to the south. There's a bus in Summer, and not much traffic in Winter, but what there is is happy to give you a lift. There's a steep climb up over the mountais above the snowline amongst giant Araucania (monkey puzzle) trees.
Icalma is a small town on a pretty lake, surrounded by mountains with a border crossing to Argentina. It`s hard to find a cafe open in Winter.
If you intend to hitch a ride in the back of a ute, three rules:
(1) Put on warm, windproof clothes before you climb on, even if you are hot from walking, because it`s difficult to do without losing something whilst bouncing around in the tray.
(2) Empty your bladder before you climb on, because bouncing around on cold steel over the corrugations can be quite punishing.
(3) Always carry a newspaper for sitting on, not just to attenuate the impacts of rules (1) and (2) above, but also because the goats and sheep who were the previous passengers don`t give much of a damn about rule number (2).
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| The Icalma school bus |
