Paso Roballos: A Tale of Two Worlds – Chile

Leaving a little part of myself forever lingering along the Carretera Austral, my wheels started turning towards Paso Roballos and into the unknown; our first border crossing of the trip. A tiny, hidden place nestled below the last Chilean mountains, marking the transition into the vast Argentinian plains.

Riding out of Cochrane, it took us a mere 16 kilometers to reach the start of what would turn out to be an unforgettable odyssey. Little did I know that two worlds could be so close, yet feel so far apart.

Turning off the Carretera Austral, I felt an unspoken promise in the air. The gravel was beautiful, and the sun adorned the baby-blue sky. It didn’t take long for the first of many guanacos to dot the fields along the track, or, let’s call them what they really are: puma food! A truth we might not like, but every being here has its place within the food chain, neatly woven together into the fabric of nature.

In the valley below, the first lakes began to appear. What were those little pink dots along the shores? Coming to a brisk stop, the dots transformed into birds, flamingoing about as if putting on a show. Ah, what a magical world we live in! It just takes a peek around a mountain to remind us.

Slowly, we meandered our way through this untouched landscape, filling the air with sounds of astonishment. This finally felt like the remoteness we had been searching for.

The road, which started out easy, became a little more playful; deep sand in one place, sharp rocks in another. Together with the landscape, the road changed colors, ranging from deep red and yellow to fifty shades of gray.

Managing to avoid puncturing our tires, we rode on. Up and down the hills, left and right around the steep bits, and into the valley alongside the rumbling river below. Before finding the perfect spot for our last Chilean lunch, we came face-to-face with our first border crossing.

With nobody around apart from a friend on four paws, we parked our little red companions and ate our neatly prepared sandwiches. This time, we came prepared. No hungry lunch consisting of a few biscuits and nuts. Oh no, proper sandwiches with cheese and salami! What a treat. The dog, for one, most certainly agreed with us.

As luck would have it, by the time we finished our last sandwich, the police made an appearance. This was our time to shine!

We climbed atop the border-crossing stage and politely handed over our documents. Luckily, we had filled out the Salvoconducto beforehand! A Salvoconducto, you ask? Yes, that’s what I say! This seemingly irrelevant virtual piece of paper is the only way the police at this remote border crossing knows that the PDI (Chilean border guards) approve of us leaving the country. Without it, our journey would have come to an abrupt halt. Do you need this life-changing document at every Chilean border? Well, no! Only at places so remote that computers seem a faraway dream, and border guards aren’t around.

With many stamps and no issues, the first step of our border crossing was complete. On to the Argentinian side!

As if to warn us, the mountains shrank, and the roaring wind began shaking us about. Argentina, here we come!

How was the Argentinian side, you ask? Let me tell you. Suddenly, it felt as if time travel truly existed. A small wooden ranch signaled us to halt and set foot on the border-crossing stage once more. This stage consisted of a wooden room with a wooden desk and an ancient wooden commode filled with papers. No electronic items here, oh no! They didn’t seem to exist yet in the 1700s. At least the border guard was a time traveler himself, carrying a pocket-sized, do-it-all electronic device to scan our passports!

After many papers were filled out and signed by hand, it was finally time to set tire onto the vast Argentinian plains. I would call them empty, but that wouldn’t do justice to all the wildlife that survives in such a harsh place.

By the time we left the border behind, we had to shout to hear one another over the deafening Argentinian winds, but oh, was it worth it! Without warning, the landscape we had grown so accustomed to was no more. The powerful mountains faded into the background, the gravel road rapidly deteriorated, and the alone-in-the-world feeling became ever more present.

We had traversed a mere 100 kilometers since we left this morning, yet everything had changed. We had entered another world, an alien world filled with deep gravel, boundless emptiness, and endless skies.

Are you as curious as I was that day? Well, to avoid making you long for an adventure more than necessary, the dreamy, washboardy details of this other world await you in my next story.