Road Trip : Ushuaia - El Calafate

On the 7th of january we rented a car in Ushuaia with Dan & Lisa. We also bought tents and all the nescessary equipment requird for a good road trip!

Target: El Calafate

ETA: 1 week

Day 1

Our first drive was a very short one. We drove to the national park 'Tierra del Fuego' just outside Ushuaia. We spent one night here inside the park on one of the free campgrounds! There we made a bondfire and roasted hotdogs on a stick!

We were lucky to spot some pretty cool wildlife (eagles, fox, beavers,...) here!

Day 2

The next day we started driving towards Rio Grande but as we didn't find a good place to set up our tent, we just kept driving. This unfortunately brought us to the Chilean border. As we didn't plan to cross the border that day, we were packed with fruit and vegetables. We didn't declare having food, and when customs found bananas in the car, our entire car was searched and most of our dinner & breakfast got confiscated. As we kept on driving we realised we weren't gonna find a very good camping spot before reaching the ferry (which we could only catch the next day).

So we decided to go up to a farm and ask if we could camp there. The owners were extremely friendly and told we could camp on their land and make a fire to cook.

Day 3

When we woke up, the farmer that worked on the land invited us in the farm where his wife made us breakfast and coffee! We donated her the boots that Max's mom left us, as a way to thank her for her hospitality. The woman was extremely happy with this!

We left after breakfast after thanking the farmer's family as well as the owners of the farm. We made our way up to Co. Sombrero, where we cought a ferry to leave 'Tierra del Fuego'.

We continued driving to Puerto Natales, where we set up camp in a lil place alongside the road. It was extremely windy there, but by the time we set up our tent and started a fire the wind died down. After dinner, we played a couple of rounds of Caracol (an excellent card game that Dan & Lisa thought us) by the fire.

Day 4

We drove to 'Torres del Paine', a national park on the Chilean side of the border near El Calafate. We camped in a beautiful campside alongside a river with our own firepit where we roasted some more hotdogs and Nikè even had cheese fondue! We had our own little sheltered area for eating, playing Caracol,...

Day 5

We drove around in the park to go see waterfalls, and stopped at a few Miradors.

The park is called 'Torres del Paine' because of 3 mountains forming very intimidating 'Towers' (=Torres).

Day 6

We left the park with the intention of driving across the Argentinian border to go to El Calafate, but little did we know, a strike was organized to paralyze the entire region. As we approached the border cross, the road was blocked by several buses. The strike was organized because the gas prices in this region have been lower than the rest of the country because the gas cames from that region. The goverrnment however has decided to raise gas prices, which affects every single person in the region.

The strikers told us that they we're waiting for an answer from tthe president before unparalysing the region. They were willing to stay there as long as needed.

We left the car at the blockade to go grab a bite and go to the library and use the internet there. We we walked back we suddenly saw a couple cars driving by! A police car told us we had to say that we went to Argentina, so that the strikers would let us through. We strated running back to our car, but by the time we got there the buses had blocked the road again. We explained we needed to cross the border, so after a while one of the strikers moved a bus and let us pass. But as we were crossing the blockade, we heard someone yell: "No! No mass!" (= No! No more"). We just floored it and drove to the border cross. There we heard that a retired german couple had snapped and started to yell at the strikers, and other people who where blocked started to destroy the roadblocks made out of tires. Since it started to get out of hand the strikers let a few people who needed to go to Argentina drive through.

We drove on, relieved, to El Calafate. But before reaching El Calafate, we had a flat tire after driving for almost two hours on a very bumpy road! Luckily that didn't take long to replace and we made it to El Calafate by nightfall.

Day 7

We spent the day in El Calafate and we heard more and more people talking about the gas strike and the borders being blocked. (We learned later that the border ended being closed for a week).

Day 8

We returned the car and took a bus to El Chalten.

The roadtrip was an amazing experience and it was awesome to travel through Patagonia with a car! There were great places we could stop and enjoy the beautiful nature! Our tent was great to have as well, because hostels are very expensive in Patagonia. But camping in the Patagonian nature was incredible. The nature is much greener than it is in the north, so although it was pretty cold sometimes, we enjoyed every little bit of it!

Comments

[Emanuele]

Hi! I also wanted to make the same trip. Could you share where you rented the car?

email is riboch at yahoo dot it.



Thanks!

[Brad]

we are thinkkng about doing EXACTLy this trip! Can I email you and ask some questions? bradmiller1231 at yahoo dot com -- Brad

[birgit]

Mikis vraagt zich af of Nikè misshien de kleur van de auto heeft gekozen?:)
nog veel plezier!!

[Clodetshhkkiiii]

man Zaaaaalig! Vooral de kaasfondue in Torres del Paine. En die grensoversteek... echt een filmmoment, iets wat je niet snel zal vergeten en nog veel over zult babbelen.
Geniiiieeeeettt ervan!

XXX