so, i’m not really sure where to go anymore…but i figured south made sense, so i kept on the panamericana towards the island of chiloe. if i had read ahead, i would have known that there’s no bridge connecting the island to the mainland…but i didn’t…after all, reading ahead can ruin the surprise. so, i kept driving until the road led to a ramp, which led to the ocean. i decided to stop. a few minutes later, there was a reasonable size queue of cars, and a few minutes after that, a ferry showed up. i drove onto the ferry, and it started moving. i paid $20, and before i knew it, i was on chiloe!<\/p>\n
chiloe is famous for it’s national park, indigenous heritage and churches. it’s also where the panamerican road ends. who knew? well, apparently lonely planet; but, as i already established, i’m not the biggest reader. also, a cop yesterday warned me against reading…although i was driving at the time. anyway, mission accomplished!<\/p>\n
and what’s the big deal with the panamerican anyways? i’m not even sure who, when or how it was formed. from what i can tell, it sorta just happened. neighboring countries decided to join their highways together (probably for transportation of goods\/merchandise) and the idea of the panamerican sort of just evolved. and why didn’t argentina get any of the action? maybe just bad luck?<\/p>\n
of course there are some gaps in the panamericana. the biggest one is between panama and colombia…and seems to be due to narcotics. another one i passed today, between the mainland and chiloe. which is kinda stupid actually. why not just end the panamericana on the mainland? chiloe doesn’t really provide much, and only adds an additional 150km or so.<\/p>\n
oh well, i guess now i can move on to argentina.<\/p>\n
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