Carirriñe Pass is a beautiful border road in the Andes

Paso Carirriñe is an international high mountain pass at an elevation of 1.150m (3,772ft) above the sea level, located on the border of Chile and Argentina. The road is less used but very beautiful.

Set high in the Andes mountain range, it is one of the many minor passes between Chile and Argentina. It opens for the summer on 15th November from 08:00 to 20:00 hrs. The pass may be closed most of the year due to snowfalls, minor landslides and rehabilitation. The pass is 133 km (82.64 miles) long, running from Coñaripe (a Chilean town on the shore of Calafquén Lake in the Valdivia Province of Los Ríos Region) to San Martín de los Andes (in northwest Patagonia, Argentina).

On the Chilean side, the road to the pass is called Ruta CH-201. It’s mostly paved and very narrow. The last 15km are on gravel but there are plans to asphalt it by 2021. On the Argentinian side the road is called Ruta Provincial 62. It is a forest road, unpaved and very bumpy. On this side is extremely narrow. You usually get a few rough patches but nothing really bad. The road has not had work on it in a while and is pretty rough in places. It’s difficult to do it in an ordinary car.