Famous Carretera Austral reponed
One of the attractions in the South of Chile, due to its natural and impressive views, is the National Park Laguna San Rafael. This Park with magnificent landscapes is a mosaic of fjords, channels, islands, inlets, and ice. Declared a Biosphere Reserve, the park is the main port of entry to Chile’s Northern Ice fields and the second-largest National Park in the country. The San Rafael & Exploradores Glacier natural attractions, specially bring visitors from all over the world, who admire their beauty.
One of the ways to get to the start point of the excursions and tours to the Laguna San Rafael (at the end of this route) as well as Exploradores Glacier (half way approx.) is the route “Puerto Tranquilo — Bahia Exploradores”.
Since late October 2018 this route was closed due to the domino effect that was caused by the fall of an ice floe causing the formation of a lagoon of 23 hectares and five meters depth in the place where this route was. This cut the connectivity of 600 meters, causing local tour operators to transit it by boat through the same lagoon to be able to get to the starting point of the mentioned tours (Laguna San Rafael & Exploradores Glacier).
A new road has been built around the new Lagoon that was formed, so it is possible for to drive to the starting points of both tours again. As this new road is improvised and not as good as the one before, we recommend that all passengers who want to drive this new road do that with precaution.
