Villa O'Higgins, and Then Nothing

Ruta 7 ends here. Not "becomes difficult" — ends. Beyond Villa O'Higgins is the Campo de Hielo Sur, the third-largest continuous ice on the planet after Antarctica and Greenland, and you do not put a road through that.

To carry on to Argentina you take a boat down Lago O'Higgins, walk about 20 kilometres across the border with your bags, and pick up another boat on the far side. People do it. We watched four cyclists load up for it, all grinning like idiots, all clearly a bit frightened.

1,240 kilometres from Puerto Montt. Three weeks. One spare tyre, two ferries booked in a panic, and about nine days of rain.

The hospedaje owner in Hornopirén was right to laugh, and also completely wrong.