I knew that foreign tourists arrived in Puerto Montt to start their Chilean environmental adventures. Chile, after all, has the last natural wilderness left in this world, with its glaciers, wild forests, volcanic mountains, wild penguins and guanacos, the Andes mountains, and more. It is an experience to behold.
What I did not realize was that this “wilderness” is now inundated with thousands of tourists seeking to see the natural scenery and wilderness frontier. I just didn’t grasp the massive scale of what was going on.
Puerto Montt, being a major departure point for just about every international tourist coming to experience the wilds of southern Chile, has a massive 7-story shopping mall filled with the stores of every international wilderness supply brand.
It was a madhouse of a mall.
I had thought the Southern Chile was an isolated landscape in an empty Chile. But I found out it is a destination for many backpackers, motorcyclist, camper vans, and regular campers in their cars– and of course, bicyclists. I suppose southern Chile holds a landscape not to be missed.
I had simply wanted to ride my bike through the wild Chilean wilderness. But now I realize I am unknowingly participating in this tourism madness that may be destroying the environment that is South Chile. The feeling leaves me conflicted. It’s an ugly feeling. Not a good feeling.
The only thing I can say to myself is that I’m trying to practice the least destructive form of travel with a Leave No Trace personal philosophy (am I justifying myself? as I use a jet plane to get here). This awkward contradiction is a struggle I have been aware of for a while. It is part of living in the modern world. There really is no resolution to the dilemma. The massive tourism will occur, irregardless of my biking or not.
From the ferry going south, viewing a landscape that may not be around in several decades.
I am simply here to view a world that may not be around in several decades. As I head off on the Carretera Austral, I will humbly treasure the landscape that is there, not as a consumer of tourism experiences, but with a realization that nature has so much to teach my soul, if I let it. I am part of this world, and when it disappears, I as a part of that creation, will also disappear.
Well said.