Photo Album: The Chilean Patagonia
Note: Click an image to enlarge, tap "ESC" key to return.
Links for previous posts are on the left. Expand the month tags to see posts for that month.
On our tenth day and after 3,500 Km in Argentina, we woke up early at our hotel in Rio Gallegos, and reflected.
Over the pass few days, we passed and explored so many places, which were only a name, less than a fortnight ago, on a map, a piece of blog or whatever information that the research came up with. Now they were non-erasable part of our memory, experiential memories. It was really an enriching thought.
Language had not been a problem so far, hand signs and google translate helped.
Along the highway, quite a few police check points were hesitating in letting us through, but none presented any problems. I always ensured the headlights were turned on after the car was started.
The next task on hand was to keep pushing that boundary, this time, into the Patagonia of Chile.
But something slowed us this time. The logic was, there must be a service station to refuel our car before the border post, so I did not bother filling up on our way out of Rio Gallego, as it was quite rainy. But further down the road, all I could see was no man's land, it got the better of me. I doubled back 13 Km to refill. This proved to be the right decision, as it turned out, there was no service station for the next 300Km between Rio Gallego and the first town in Chile, Puenta Arenas.
It was a rainy day, with a cold drizzle, when we saw the Chilean Flag in the air, we know we reached the border post. It housed both the Argentinian and Chilean border offices all under one roof.
It was just after 9:15, I presumed that we were a little late, the car park was quite full, and a long queue was waiting for us. So we joined the queue with all our papers, not knowing what were the procedures.
Next to the long queue, it was this long line of vehicles waiting in another queue, presumably waiting for custom checks, as I can see uniformed officials were going through some of the cars before letting them through a boom gate. But there were no obvious information in any language to tell us what are the steps.
The queue was slow. After a few interminable minutes, then one guard waved us to follow him and go inside, what, jumping the queue?! Was he after a few dollars ? Didn't know any better, we followed. Inside the building, it was filled with people, the queue snaked a few folds, the queue outside was only the tip of the iceberg.
The guard seated us in a booth, took out some forms, and took our documents, and started filling them. When finished, asked us to sign. I had no choice, and presumably those are immigration and custom forms, so we signed. It can't be that easy, I thought, what about those people still queuing outside. Before I could say anything, he took us back out and put us back to the same position of the queue, which had not advanced much. Disappointment was an understatement, he was only trying to help us to fill in the forms, not to expedite our waiting !!
Nearly two hours later, we fronted up with the Argentine officials to stamp us out, followed by the Chilean official to stamp us in, and was pointed in the direction of the Customs ( Aduana ) booth, the same process ensued, stamping out and stamping in. The most disappointing thing was, they did not even bother to check the details of the document, just stamp, ka-cha, that was it.
By the time we collected all the necessary stamps, it was 2.5 hours later, but we did it.
Then our car joined the aforementioned car queue, with stamped paper works ready, awaiting the Custom officers search and final clearance. Another 40 minutes or so of waiting. It appears that Chile has a very strong quarantine regime, not unlike Australia, no plants, seeds or animal products are to be allowed in, they took away the small amount of nuts we had as a snack, and the boom gate lifted for us. THAT WAS IT, after over 3 hours.
An hour later, we were at Puerto Delgada, the narrowest point of Magellan Strait, where there is a ferry for crossing the strait.
This would be the closest we would get to Tierra del Fuego, as we did not plan to cross the strait, it would have to be left for later, perhaps tying into a trip to Antarctica sometime in the future.
So we drove along coastal Magellan Strait, and headed south for Puenta Arenas.
The unstable weather continued, the gathering cloud over the flat seemed a worry, but also an interesting sight. Patagonia is well known for this.
Legend has it that the Portuguese explorer Magellan named Pacific Ocean because their fleet found calm waters after sailing through the Magellan Strait with its strong wind, narrow channels and unstable weather in general. So here we were, awaiting our share of the calamity.
But the drive to Puenta Arenas was otherwise good, bouts of stormy downpours aside.
Another 4 hours, saw us in the middle of Puenta Arenas, the southern most town of Chile, the Capital of the Province of Magallanes. It would also be the southern most point of this trip.
It is basically a tourist town, relying on fishing and the tourists who come here for their Antarctica trips ( expeditions !), and more importantly, the launchpad to our next destination, Torres Del Paine National Park.
We got into Punta Arenas after 5 pm, with no Chilean money, and the official street parking attendant wanted 300 Peso ( about $0.60 ), a princely sum when one has no place to change money. I thought he was out of luck or we were! But I did manage to remember deep in my travel bag there were some Chilean money left over from my last trip in 2000, wow... and I found 8,000 worth, we are rich! So that problem was solved.
Despite the over three hour long wait at the border, we still did 330 Km from door to door, a 10 hour day, by the time we checked into our hotel in Puenta Arenas.
Things are quite expensive in Puenta Arenas, but the services are good, and people are very friendly. We had a very nice and pleasant dinner with another family from our hotel before turning in.
Up early in the morning, trying to take advantage of the sunny weather, we walked around the small town a bit.
 |
| A Chilean kitted up 4x4, but where was the spare wheel ! |
It was nearly 10:30 before we hit the road going north, the only highway to Puerto Natalis, the capital of the Province of Ultima Esperanza.
And there were none of the regular police check points as in Argentina, at least so far, from the Rio Gallegos border point.
244 Km from Puenta Arenas, Puerto Natalis is really a very small town, much smaller than Puenta Arenas. There really were nothing special or reasons for us to stay for longer than 5 minutes.
But we must first refuel, as there would be no service station until we reached the other side of TDP, and possibly back into Argentina.
As soon as we left Rt 9 going north, onto Y290 towards Torres Del Paine National Park ( "TDP" ) the road became a gravel road, and the remote mountains were gradually approaching.
We were entering Wild Patagonia. Remote wilderness awaiting.
Torres del Paine, a name in words, was slowly becoming a reality. The scenery along the entire 90 Km towards the southern gate of TDP was shear majestic, snowed capped mountains, lakes, rivers and steppe.
By the time we reached Rio Serrano near the south gate, we decided to find accommodation, We were totally unprepared with no booking, the first hotel we encountered was FULL. Panic!
The next one, Tyndall Lodge found us a small room for tonight, but not sure about tomorrow night, check with them in the morning were the words. The price was a whopping US$ 170 for a small room with modest setup. But the view out of the window was....
These are called the Cuernos ( Horns ) of Torres Del Paines.
And that's just the starter.
So it was an rewarding end to a 10 hour, 350 Km day, at Rio Serrano.
Next Post : Day 12 - 13 Exploring Torres Del Paine National Park
Other Posts: Index - 2013 Argentina-Chile self drive.
Other Posts: Index - 2013 Argentina-Chile self drive.
No comments:
Post a Comment