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November 17, 2004

Stuck in the Mud

After Pucon, We crossed the border into Argentina, which seemed more like the entrance gate to a national park, rather than a border crossing. we made a quick stop to a small town called Bariloche, which is in the an area called the Lakes District. The drive there was beautiful, with many scenes of lakes with mountains in the background. At the beginning of the day, I tried to keep track of the names of all the lakes, but after a few hours, I gave up and just kept taking pictures and pictures and pictures. My original plan for Bariloche was to rent a bike and cycle around a route called the "Circuito Chico," which translates to "Short Circuit." At about 60 km, I didn't really consider it a short circuit, which combined with the fact that in the morning it looked like a promising day for rain, I decided to rent a car instead. It was a nice day for a drive, not with the blue skies like the previous day, but still a lot of nice scenery.It was nice to drive on the side of the road I'm used to again.

After the quick stop in Bariloche, our next destination was the small town of El Chaltan, about 600 km down a dirt road from Bariloche, where I was very excited about an overnight glacier trek I had scheduled. Since the drive was entirely down a dirt road, we broke it up over two days, staying the night in a small town called Perito Moreno near the western border of Argentina. The first day (12 hours) was pretty uneventful, we entered the Patagonia landscape, which was very barren and windswept. Lucky for us, we found an armadillo, and I was able to get a picture of, um, its backside. Unluckily for us, at the end of the day it started raining, turning the dirt road to mud. Because we were traveling down the dirt road in a rear wheel drive bus, the rain really mucked up the roads to the point that our guide, Rod, and our driver, Dave, made the decision to take an alternate route down a paved road the next morning. The catch was that instead of the direct 11 hour, 600 km drive to El Chaltan, the paved road would take us in a huge circle, over about 1500 km, via the eastern coast of Argentina. To use the word "detour" seems like a gross understatement. Of course no one objected to the "detour" since it was a matter of safety so plan B was to drive from Perito Moreno across the country to Fitzroy (400 km), near the Atlantic Ocean, head south along the coast to Rio Gallegos (600 km), and then head back northwest to El Chaltan (500 km). Yuck. We began at 6am on saturday morning and by about 3pm we had reached a small town called Puedra Buena, just south of Fitzroy and our guide Rod thought that we could cut across a different dirt road to get to El Chalten more quickly. So thats what we did - or should I say, thats what we tried. After driving in the mud for about 3 hours, sliding around a bit more than I was comfortable with, we got stuck. We started sliding sideways and ended up in about 5 inches of mud, and we were lucky that at the edge of the road was a sort of shoulder, instead of a drop off. So there we were stuck in the mud on a desolate road, in the rain, wind and freezing cold, and none of us had the proper clothes on to be standing around outside in that kind of weather. There was nothing but mud in either direction. Then the real fun began. We all got off the bus and were instructed to find rocks to put in front of the tires to help get some traction. It only took about 20 minutes for everyone to get soaking wet, and Rod and Dave were up to their shins in mud. At one point, Dave was all the way under the bus on his hands and knees in mud trying to jack the bus up to get the grate underneath, all you could see was the bottoms of his shoes. Every hour or so, the bus moved about a foot (which brought momentary elation to the group,) only to get stuck again. Finally after about 4 hours, the bus was freed. It was a relief of sorts, but we were all really cold, wet, tired, hungry, and getting the bus moving again at 10pm didn't feel all that good, since at the speed we were able to go, it would take about 6 hours drive to El Chaltan. We didn't feel we had been victorious in the battle with the mud. We slid along for about an hour at a snails pace, and finally Rod and Dave decided to get out and walk a few kilometers ahead to evaluate the road. When they came back, they said that it was too dangerous to continue tonight and we should just stay on the bus until morning. We all agreed that was the best idea, but no one was really in high spirits about the situation. So hungry, cold, wet and tired, we waited the night out on the bus. When they turned the lights out, I learned what the Lonely Planet means when it describes Patagonia as "desolate and windswept." We had shut the curtains to try to help keep some heat in, so when the lights went off it was so dark that you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face, and the wind was howling and making the bus sway as we sat there. It was a very eerie feeling being there, so isolated from everything. No one got very much sleep that night - except for one guy who was snoring loud enough to vibrate the entire bus.

Morning didn't come soon enough, and we started down the road again. About 50 meters down the road was a 18 wheeler that had overturned. Looking back, I'm sure that was a big factor in Rod and Dave not wanting to continue the night before. Luckily for us, the night time temperatures and wind hardened the mud a little bit, so we were able to drive the to the little town of Tres Lagos without too much trouble. We stopped for a bite to eat before continuing along the still muddy road to El Chaltan. We only had about 160 km to go, so we were hoping it wouldn't take TOO long. Of course, about 15 minutes later we came to a hill that we couldn't get up because of the mud. We didn't wait to get stuck this time, we grudgingly just turned around and headed back the other way, the way we came. It was a big decision seeing as turning back meant going ALL THE WAY back to Piedro Buenos, which was about 400 km back, and then continuing with the original plan B, which added on another 700 km. We were all very frusterated, and it became almost comical when we got back to the point where we spent the night and couldn't get back up THAT hill either. We were able to succesfully slide down the hill but going back up wasn't going to happen. Of course we spent about an hour trying, and of COURSE the second we all get of the bus it started raining again. Some people helped, some people walked to the top of the hill to wait, and some people hid behind bushes in an effort to escape the wind. We gave up and went BACK to Tres Lagos to find alternate transportation, which ended up being a tractor of some sort that pulled us up the hill after waiting for 3 more hours for it to come back from where ever it was. They pulled us up the hill and then we set off for Piedro Buenos, where we were 24 hours earlier, leaving from where we started in the morning. We got there at about 11pm and found hotel rooms, not having the energy to stay on that bus for another 500 km. We hadn't had a proper meal in about 2 days and couldn't even THINK of spending ANOTHER night on that bus. Long story short, we left for El Chaltan on friday morning, had to abandon route after getting stuck in the mud, and arrived to El Calafate monday afternoon.

So in the end, we never even made it to El Chaltan to go glacier trekking, since we spent the time we were supossed to be there, digging the bus out of the mud. We drove straight to our next destination, El Calafate, home of the Moreno Glacier. Did a nice hike and boat cruise to the glacier, and spent the day watching and listening to huge pieces of the glacier fall off into the water.

Here are some of the photos. And here's a big iceberg.


If you enjoyed reading this blog entry please post a comment! Thanks!

Posted by msshell on November 17, 2004 08:40 PM
Category: South America
Comments

WOW, looks amazing... just wait til you get to Antarctica...

Posted by: Erik in Pondicherry on November 17, 2004 10:54 PM

How incredibly frustrating! Great story though. I like the pictures of Bariloche - reminds me of Washington. Also, the pic of the overturned semi with the "hazardous material" warning on the back - classic.

Posted by: Rob M on November 17, 2004 11:36 PM

BTW, as long as you're in South America, start getting use to the bus problems. I swear in my travels there, only 2 rides did NOT have a breakdown or issue of some sort.

Posted by: Erik in Chennai on November 18, 2004 07:15 AM

I'm so sorry your bus trip was so horrible. I am sure you will look back on it one day and laugh. I think I would have killed someone if I had to spend all that time on a bus with wet, nasty, muddy people (who snore too!)

Posted by: Susan on November 18, 2004 02:46 PM

ERIK: 9 days and counting until Antarctica!! What was the name of the icebreaker you were on again? Wow, you made it from Pondicherry to Chennai between 10:54pm and 7:15 am?

ROB: Wait, you mean, I came all the way down here and could have seen the same thing by going to Washington?

SUSAN: We were kind of half heartedly laughing at the time. Now that its over, its whole heartedly funny. It was the REAL Patagonia!

Posted by: Michelle on November 21, 2004 06:33 PM

I was on the M/V Prof. Molchanov... all the companies chartered the same ships, so you might actually get that one... Don't mind the dent in the hull; they hit an iceberg but say the damage is only cosmetic...

Posted by: Erik in Bangkok on November 22, 2004 12:18 AM

Thanks for the postcard! It arrived today. Rob finally emailed me the photos - can you believe it? Your photos are as amazing as ever by the way!

Posted by: Kellie on November 23, 2004 06:02 AM
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