Carretera Austral, Mountain highway in Los Lagos and Aysén Regions, Chile

Route 7 is a long road through Patagonia in Chile, running over a thousand kilometers from Puerto Montt to Villa O'Higgins. The route alternates between paved sections and gravel tracks, passing through mountain ranges, forests, and coastal areas.

Construction started in the second half of the 1970s to connect remote settlements and open access to the south. The final sections were completed two decades later, when the road reached its full length.

The name "Carretera Austral" was first used in August 1963 by Baldo Araya Uribe, a councilman from Coyhaique, who campaigned to extend the Pan-American Highway south. The road is also unofficially called the Augusto Pinochet highway, a name no official document supports. Near the roadside, look for the gravel surface with two darker wheel tracks and a raised center strip.

Three ferries are part of the route, connecting road sections across bodies of water, with the first running continuously south of Puerto Montt. Reservations are needed for the longer crossings in the southern part, especially during high season.

The route crosses zones with different climates and changing vegetation, from wet forests in the north to barren landscapes with ice in the south. The transformation becomes clear within a few hours of driving.