Cochrane is a Chilean town in the Patagonia Aisén Region. The 2002 census gives its population as 2,867. It had no access by road access to the rest of Chile until 1988, when the Carretera Austral was opened. Cochrane is still the southernmost town along the Carretera Austral highway, with only a few villages south of it. We did not pass through Cochrane, but passed close to it, as our route from Argentina dropped us down onto the Carretera Austral jst north of the town.
Cochrane is a comparatively recent town, founded in 1954 (as Pueblo Nuevo). Its name was later changed to Cochrane to honour of Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, a British naval captain and politician who was appointed the first Admiral of the Chilean Navy in 1818 and made a major contribution to winning Chilean independence from Spain.