Ruta 40

Ruta 40 in Argentina goes all the way from the Bolivian border in the North, stretching some 5000kms South all the way to Rio Gallegas and the Chillean border. It's one of the longest highways in the world and passes through some extremely diverse landscapes.

We joined Ruta 40 pretty much right after entering Argentina and followed it some 1600kms all the way down to the Chillean border near Puerto Natales. From the pristine lakes, mountains and pine forests of the Argentinian Lakes District, through the barren scrublands and deserts of the Patagonian Steppe, all the way through to the snow capped mountains and vast glaciers of the Southern Patagonian Ice Cap.

Sometimes the road is smooth tarmac, sometimes it's riddled with pot holes and falling apart, sometimes it's nothing more than a gravel track. There's not much traffic, but plenty of wildlife along the way with lots of guanacos (Patagonian llamas), foxes, wild geese and flamingos. We even saw a few armadillos! (we actually came really close to running one over but luckily managed to swerve out of the way).

In Patagonia Part II

After El Chalten, our next stop in Patagonia was El Calafate. If I'm being honest, El Calafate is a fairly unremarkable little town. However, it acts as the gateway to the incredible Perito Moreno glacier 80kms away in a different part of Los Glaciares National Park.

The Perito Moreno glacier is one of a small handful of glaciers in the world which is still advancing. The infrastructure around the glacier is pretty impressive and thanks to the help of the extremely handy Magallanes Peninsula, the National Park have been able to build a pretty good network of boardwalks really close to the face.

Put quite simply, it's a natural wonder. You could sit for hours and watch pieces of ice the size of houses calve from the face and drop smashing down into the lake below.

In Patagonia Part I

Our first stop in Patagonia was El Chalten in Argentina, a nice little town nestled right against the spectacular Fitzroy Massif (mountain range) in Los Glaciares National Park. This place is a mecca for rock climbers and trekkers alike. While the mountains aren't the highest in South America, they are among the most beautiful, Cerro Fitzroy being the tallest, but the insanely steep and jagged Cerro Torre remaining the ultimate prize for any alpine rock climbers visiting the area.

Since Mai and I's rock climbing experience is limited to an 8.5m high indoor wall in St Leonards (Sydney), we thought it'd be best to give the 3128m Cerro Torre (once thought to be the hardest mountain to climb in the world) a miss this time.

We did however do a pretty amazing 3 day hike through the park with it's many mountains and glaciers, camping and cooking each night whilst carrying heavy packs. We were reasonably lucky with the weather, the day before we started our trek it was snowing all day. However, we had relatively clear conditions the whole time. The second morning we were lucky enough to wake to a beautiful clear morning and as we'd been the only one's camping near Laguna Torre, we had amazing clear views of the lake and Cerro Torre all to ourselves.

The surrounding areas of El Chalten were equally stunning with lots of amazing scenery and wildlife. We couldn't help but like El Chalten itself too. It's just a nice, simple little mountain town that, despite it's incredible location, hasn't completely given in to tourism and holds a real Patagonian character.

Border Patrol

We finally crossed a border in our car, WOOHOO!!! Of course in true South American style, it wasn't as easy as we thought it would be. After finally getting the car registered in my name just over a month ago and getting a special insurance for Argentina, we thought all would be okay.

However, upon entering the customs office on the Argentinian side we learned that Mai (being an Australian citizen) had to pay an entry fee.

Tim and Mai - "Okay, no problem, where do we pay?"
Customs Official - "Oh, you can't pay here, you have to have paid already"
Tim and Mai - "Great! So, what do we do now then?"
Customs official - "Well, you can pay online. I'd ask at passport control if you could use their internet, but they're having lunch, so it just wouldn't be right! I think you'll have to go back to the Chillean customs and ask them"
Tim and Mai - "Right, okay, great!"
Customs Official - "Just before you go, I'll show you the website on my computer"
Tim and Mai - "Oh, you have internet? Can we not do it on your computer?"
Customs Official - "Well, I'm not really supposed to and also, I've tried before and the computer crashes when you go through to the payment page, so you'll really have to go back to Chile I'm afraid."

The computer looked like it was working just fine to me!! So back we went to Chile where, the really nice man and lady basically did the payment (to get into Argentina!!!) for us.

Besides that little hiccup, as border crossings go, it was actually a pretty nice drive through some amazing mountain scenery and right past Volcan Lanin.

Pucon and the Volcano

Pucon's a nice little traveller friendly town in the Chillean Lakes District. Apparently it gets unbearably busy here in peak season, but lucky for us we arrived in the off season, found a nice little campsite close to town (with WIFI!!) and ended up staying for a little while.

Most activities in Pucon revolve around the volcano, so the first thing we did was to climb it. We were lucky to get good weather and made it all the way to the top. The views were pretty amazing and it was great to look down into the crater.

The day after, the climbing company had thrown in free tickets to some thermal baths nearby so we took a drive out through some beautiful countryside to go and revive our aching bodies.

We decided to ski while we were here as it was the last week the chair lifts were operating for the season and worked out pretty cheap (approx $100AUD for ski and snowboard rental and lift passes for the day). I was feeling pretty rusty not having skied in a couple of years, but Mai was killing it snowboarding like a pro.

While we treated ourselves to a couple of meals at restaurants, I think the meals we were cooking up on the camp stove and BBQ were even better. All in all a good stop on our journey.