March 13/31 – Argentina/Chile
Day 224/242 – So, it has been awhile…. Here is a very brief summary to catch everyone up: The car broke down, as described in our March 10/12 entry. Got it fixed. Picked up Maude, our new addition to the van, who is from Montreal, Canada. We drove west, then south to El Chalten to trek Mt. Fitz Roy. Visited the Perito Moreno Glacier. Crossed into Chile and trekked in Torres del Paine National Park. Came back into Argentina (cheaper gas) and headed east, then south. Made it to Ushuaia. Below is a long post with a bit more details on the above, for all who would like to read in more detail……
They asked us to arrive at the mechanics in the morning. When we got there they were already working on the van, even though we had asked them to wait for us. They fixed it quickly, by re-threading the head for the spark plug, without taking it out of the engine – they promised (we asked five times so there was no confusion) no shares would get into the engine. We crossed our figures, and hoped we weren’t going to be returning later with a blown engine. After a test run to the beach, the van ran fine, and so we continued on our journey with a tuned up car. The only thing left is the oil leak, which needs to be fixed still, (the problem wasn’t fixed like we thought it was in Buenos Aires). This is something we wanted to do before we headed off into the Andes on dirt roads and desolate countryside.
Puerto Madryn was our next town. We decided to get the front seal replaced there. We had been trying to find a front seal since we left Uruguay and Argentina, and no one had one, so we finally decided it was worth having one shipped down from the states. As we waited for the package to arrive in Puerto Madryn, we visited Trelew to look for a trusty mechanic. The hostel worker in Puerto Madryn had told us it would be cheaper for us to get the work done on the car in Trelew instead of Puerto Madryn. It turns out that the mechanic we finally got in touch with had a front seal for the car! More and more our trip is proving to us that if we look hard enough, our needs will be met. So now we have an extra front seal 🙂 Bear in mind that Sean has been with us for all the car work, he has faith in the van. We thoroughly explored the area, including Gaiman, where we had high tea. I never knew there could be so many cakes to eat! Gaiman is one of the towns that was originally settled by the Welsh. By the time the car was ready we had picked up Maude, a welcome addition to our traveling van, we were all very ready to hit the road.
We drove directly west from Trelew and took highway 40, south, once we hit the Andes. We slowly made our way to our first trekking destination, El Chalten. We are constantly reminded what a pain in the keister bad gas can be, as it turns out they enjoy adding water to the gas down here. Henry doesn’t really appreciate it. We’ve (well, really Jason), has cleaned out the fuel filter numerous times, and at one point we paid a guy to clean out the carburetor for us. But we move on, nothing can stop us 🙂 We camped in the desert one night on our way to visiting Cueva de las Manos. This is an area that has paintings of hands and animals on the canyon walls. We are a bit skeptical of the paintings since some of them were pretty bright and looked new; but if it is true, it is pretty cool. I am not sure if I would recommend spending the $15 pesos ($5 usd), though the canyon was very beautiful. It was a pretty small area, and there is no information in English about the site; the only reason I bring that up is because if you are a foreigner you pay twice as much as a national visitor. Which doesn’t bother me, if they can provided information on the site that we are visiting. It has been pretty common for the foreign visitors to pay twice, if not four times, as much for park entry fees.
The hiking around Mt. Fitz Roy, out of El Chalten, is really amazing. We hiked up to our first camp and, after setting up our tents, did a side trek called Tres Lagos. If you go hiking in this area you have to go up on the Tres Lagos hike. Both Jason and my legs were definitely feeling our age and how out of shape we have become, but the steep trek up the mountain side to the glacier, and the great view of Mt. Fitz Roy, was worth it. The next morning we woke up to snow on the ground. It was pleasant, but cold, surprise. We moved on to our next camp, though we had decided to possibly not stay up in the mountains for a second night – it being colder than we’d like, and with the treks being quicker than we had originally thought. So, we hiked the rest of the trail and saw everything we wanted to, with enough time left over to hike out and get a warm shower before bed. The hike out reminded me of Christmas back home 🙂 with all the snow lightly topping the tree branches and brush.
Our next stop was El Calafate; to see the Perito Moreno Glacier, use the internet, get gas, and exchange our money for some Chilean pesos. The internet was down in the whole town, due to a recurring power outage. So we accomplished everything but the internet. The glacier is worth the $30 pesos ($10usd) park fee to visit. It was huge and impressive, though you have to put up with all the tour groups and buses.
Now we start of border crossings with Chile and Argentina…not they are hard… just many. Torres del Paine in Chile was our next stop. We spent about six days there in total. We all trekked up to the base of Torres del Paine, which is very gorgeous. Then Jason, Sean, and I did a two night camping trek up to the Grey Glacier, which is part of the ‘W’ trek that most people do. We didn’t have the proper trekking equipment for the temperatures and the possibly rainy conditions, or we would have done the whole circuit. Next time we are definitely coming back here. The weather was fabulous for us though, and we couldn’t have asked for anything better. It was so nice to be out in the forest and camping. Maude decided to visit Puerto Natales while we did our camping and meet up with us later.
We left the park and crossed back over into Argentina, where the gas is much cheaper, and so is everything else. We picked Maude up at Rio Gallegos and started our way to Ushuaia. Now, by the time we get back from Tierra del Fuego and head north again, we will have collected about 12 entry & exit stamps from each country since visiting Torres del Paine. I feel like we have crossed every Chilean Argentinean border we could 😉
Tags: 15 - Chile, 16 - Argentina, torres del paine
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