Chile to Argentina

30 March, 2023 - We have to leave Chile and drive 7 hours to El Chalten in Argentina. At least we are the only ones in the van and we hope the roads won't be too awful.

We left at 8:30 after a relaxing breakfast. We were rather glad not to have a big hike and happy to have a day off.

The road out of the park was not paved and it was cold, rather icey and very windy. Our driver went too fast for conditions, in my view. Along the way I think there were black headed swans on some of the lakes, but we were going a bit too fast to really see them. A lot of frost and ground fog.

As the sun rose higher we drove through ground fog and saw wild horses along the side of the road. Unfortunately, the horses don't come in the below pictures....

When we got out of the park we saw ranches with cattle and wild guanaco were not far away.

We were lucky in that the road was paved from the Torres park entrance to just past the Chilean boarder exit. The Exit was in a small building and very manual. Our driver took care of the formalities and soon we were on our way.

The road between the Chile exit

and the Argentine entrance was not paved, but luckily it wasn't a very long distance.

The Argentinean passport control was the same sort of remote small building and it took longer to enter Argentina than to leave Chile. I guess we were lucky it only took about 15 minutes. Later we heard stories of people waiting for hours. Outside the building was a big black dog that barked at cars as they entered Argentina.

The weather was still good, cold and clear. The initially bad road gradually turned into a paved road and we could see sheep in the fields. Shortly before we entered Argentina we came across some vacaroes, complete with local hats, herding the sheep

We saw quite a number of wild guanacos and then saw something that looked like an Emu. It turned out to be a Greater Rhea which were wild in the area.

The scenery was unremarkable except for its expanse.

For those who know the area, this section was a bit like 101 South of Prunedale and after the oil field.

We had a couple stops and the first one was at the Hotel Esperanza. There was nothing very interesting to eat there, so we didn't stay long.

The second stop was just before we turned right onto Highway 40 and this stop had lemon meringue pie and tea. It was cold. We learned some history of Highway 40, which include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. And a kitty came out to say hi.

The Rio Santa Cruz reflected blue in a brown landscape and we finally got to Lake Verro which is a huge lake just before we got to the entrance of Glacier National Park.

It was about now that the driver killed a bird that hit the windscreen. It was also about now that the driver started weaving, as though he was falling asleep.

About 30 minutes after entering the National Park

we finally got to the town of El Chaltén. There were many people celebrating something in the town center square. The town itself was reminiscent of a ski town in the west. Lots of hikers. (no photos)

We lost the pavement just outside of town as we continued another 30 minutes to the Explora. The drivers really needed to know the width of their cars

It was during this time that we came very close to having another accident as the driver went a bit too fast around a corner on a blind corner and unpaved road. Luckily both parties were going slowly. At about this time I also noticed the "check engine" and "flat tire" dashboard lights were on.

We arrived and were shown to our room after the seven hour drive and immediately had to leave again on a welcome hike which I could have done without as I was rather tired. The nice thing was the difference in scenery. Torres was almost completely steppe landscape and very little forest due to a large fire in 2011. El Chalten has a lot of beautiful lenga tree forest and it was changing into the Autumnal colors.

Here is the pano shot from the lookout point at the hike's mid-point

Along the short hike we saw

Fired eye diucon

Thorned tailed rayadito

Magellan woodpecker

and a Hare (no pictures)

Here is our room - not much difference between the two Explora rooms, except this one was shower only.

Before dinner there is always a cocktail of the day and hot appetizers and provided while you arrange for tomorrow's explorations.

Dinner menus in El Chalten is different - locally sourced food with three choices: a meat dish, a comfort food choice and a third choice. Along with this were always three side dishes and all the food was locally sourced. Tonight there was charcoal grilled chorizo steak, a guanaco pie, or risotto. I had the risotto and Chris chorizo and we shared. Desert was dolce de leche ice cream. Below shows their grilling house we came by on the way back from the hike.

In general it is a more relaxed and cozy place. That said, the view at Torres was more dramatic.