After 2 weeks in Patagonia Chile, it was time to check out the Argentina side. With some careful packing, we were able to get all four of us and our backpacks into our rental car.
After a quick stop for a photo opt, we were off to the border.
We were assuming the border crossing would be a very structured process but when we came to the crossing there were no guards, no lines, no one directing traffic. Just a gate arm across the road.
We entered the small building, handed over our passports, and were sent on our way no questions asked. The road instantly turned to dirt. We drove for over a mile before we say the “Welcome to Argentina” sign.
Finally, we came to a small building on the side of the road. Nothing said this was customs. No guard, no line, no road arm. Nothing to stop us from just driving through. Inside there were two agents behind the windows. Does this crossing ever have a line?
We gave all our passports and the documents for the rental car to one of the agents, there was a whole lot of stamping and then everything came back and we headed out. (This is all important later in our adventure.)
We arrived El Calafate in early afternoon. It was finally time for some Argentina wine tasting. At $4 a bottle, we tasted a lot of wine and brought some home.
We were all happy our hotel had a nice courtyard and a loaner kitty.
The next morning, we got up early to try and get in front of the tour buses on the road to Perito Moreno Glacier. The drive was over an hour on a windy road. Josh loved the drive. There were no buses or any other cars for that matter.
Jim and I have seen our share of glaciers so we weren’t sure how much we would enjoy visiting the glacier. OMG! The southern ice fields are huge.
The glacier comes right up to the viewing area. The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the glaciers that is currently not receding. It was pretty evident that this was true since the viewing area has clearly been here for years yet the glacier is right there.
The glacier was quite active. We could here calves about every 10 minutes. There is so much movement and texture.
By the time we finished at the glacier, it was raining steadily. Our afternoon plan was to do a nearby hike with a view of the ice fields and then car camp for the night. With limited views, we decided to head back to El Calafate for lunch and then on to El Chalten.
During lunch, we looked at our upcoming weather forecast. Our weather was turning bad. Very bad. Thankfully we were no longer in Torres del Paine. The forecast there was for 22cm of snow. Yicks!
We decided to take advantage of the nice weather for the next two days and hike into Fitz Roy a couple days before our original schedule. This meant we wouldn’t have lodging in El Chalten tonight, but we did have our tents, so car camping was still on the schedule.
On the way into El Chalten, the clouds started to clear and there was Fitz Roy on the horizon. We took advantage of having a car and pulled over for a photo opt. Some people never get to see Fitz Roy. This might be our only chance to enjoy this beautiful mountain.
We did struggle to get a group selfie in the Patagonia winds. We found that if you took 20 photos, one would show our faces.
Josh and Brooke even took the opportunity to do a photo shoot in the middle of the road. Jim and I were in charge of watching for cars. Can’t wait to see Brooke’s Instagram post with this photo.
There happened to be a festival in El Chalten so there was no available lodging. We were able to camp in a hostels parking lot with several other people.
It did have a nice view in the morning light.
Even though the festival went until well after 2am and the music bounced off the high walls surrounding town, we were all up and heading to the Fitz Roy trailhead at first light.
Even though we were at the trailhead in the early morning light, there were already several cars in the parking lot as well as lots of hikers on the trail. Our plan was to camp at Poincenot campsite which is the closest campsite to Fitz Roy. This would allow us to take the day slowly and enjoy the hike in.
When we reached the first viewpoint, Josh and Brooke settled in for another photoshoot. Jim and I took a few pictures and then headed on. This would be the last we would see of Brooke and Josh for 3 hours. They are two peas in a pod when it comes to taking pictures.
Just before camp, Jim and I decided to stop in a meadow with a view of Fitz Roy for lunch. Every time we would start to eat, the cloud would move off the top. We would reach for our cameras and the cloud would move back in. Were we ever going to get a clear shot of the summit?
After lunch, we hiked a short distance into the trees and set up camp. Not sure Jim and I will ever get used to camping so close to other tents. We are more comfortable with no other tents insight.
Brooke and Josh showed up just before we headed out. We would meet them up at the viewpoint. The trail up to Laguna de los Tres is not easy. We were impressed by all the different people making the trek to capture a view of Fitz Roy.
Look at the line of people hiking in the rocks. More importantly, look at the clear blue sky above Fitz Roy. How did we get so lucky on the weather?
When Jim and I reached the ridge crest, we were in awe over the shear number of people who had hiked into this viewpoint. We wondered if there was any other mountain view in the world that would attract so many people. Especially considering how far they had to hike and how rocky the trail was.
Jim and I spent an hour enjoying the view. Trying to take it all in.
We then hiked down to the lakeshore and up a nearby high point. As we started hiking back up to the ridge crest, we saw someone in a florescent yellow sports bra waving. It had to be Brooke.
Brooke and Josh were having fun taking all different photos with numerous poses. These are the few I got from Josh’s phone. The rest will have to wait for Brooke to post.
After a family photo and another hour of enjoying the view, Jim and I started the hike down to camp while Josh and Brooke headed off for more photos from a different angle.
One of the nice things about staying in established campgrounds is having an outhouse. The outhouse at Poincenot campsite was so disgusting that no one would use it. The local rangers were smart enough to put this sign next to the outhouse. It was the most fun I have ever had digging a cathole.
That night was super winding. Blowing dirt everywhere and right through the mosquito netting in our tent. Brooke won the award for the most sand in her tent.
In the morning, the winds were still howling but they were warm winds. I took the opportunity to walk out to the nearby clearing to watch the sunrise on Fitz Roy. There weren’t any bright colors, but the mountains were still worth getting up for.
Today, we would take a leisurely hike and move camp over to D’Agostini campground near Laquna Torre and hope to get views of Cerro Solo, Cerro Torre, and Cerro Grande. Brooke took off ahead of us with a plan to hike up to a viewpoint on the way to camp. Josh, Jim and I strolled along enjoying the lake views.
Before long, Cerro Solo appeared on the horizon.
And so did the clouds. I wondered if our luck on the weather was finally running out. Would we get views of Cerro Torre and Cerro Grande? We had already been luckier than most people with the views we had gotten. Could we really score them all. As we approached our final camp and Laquna Torre, I was pretty clear we would not get a final view. Brooke was waiting for us in camp and we optimistically headed out to the lake and the viewpoint.
The clouds had settled in on our mountain view. Jim and Brooke were not ready to give up yet, so they battled the gusting winds and headed up the moraine for a better view. Josh and I sat in the rocks so we wouldn’t get blown over.
Eventually even Jim and Brooke gave up and returned to camp. After last nights adventure with the wind, sand, and a mouse in her tent, Brooke was done. She convinced Josh to hike out and get a hotel in town. Jim and I opted to stay at the campground. We were done for the day.
Soon after Josh and Brooke left, it began to lightly rain. Like a Washington rain. Jim and I enjoyed dinner in the tent as we reminisced about our amazing Patagonia adventures.
It is important to note that Jim and I didn’t bring our best rain tent to Patagonia. We brought our best wind tent. We had already been in several rainstorms on this trip and our tent had leaked a little but nothing we couldn’t keep mopped up. Tonight, it rained steadily. No breaks. By midnight, it was raining in the tent.
We were plenty warm, but everything was getting soaked. By 5am, there were visible puddles in the tent. Nothing was dry expect our down coats which Jim and I were keeping in dry sacks for an emergency. We decided it was time to get up. Josh had sent a text to our inReach the night before letting us know they were able to get a hotel in town.
We started out hiking with headlamps. Trying to avoid the puddles in the trail. At least there was little to no wind and the rain was just steady. Nothing downpouring. About 30 minutes before we reached the hotel, we were reminded that we were in Patagonia. The wind kicked up and the temps dropped. Perfect hypothermia weather. We need to find the hotel and get out of this weather.
When we reached the hotel, they let us use the “left luggage” room for our wet gear. I am not sure they knew what they were agreeing to.
Brooke and Josh had been able to get the same room we would have for tonight. We knocked on the door at 10am. They had woken up just a few minutes before and were still in bed. After showers and sharing tales of our night before, we headed out for a nice hot lunch.
We had a nice leisurely day of drying things out and checking in with our lives on the Wi-Fi. Tomorrow we would begin our adventure home.
We woke to snow on the ground. It was definitely time to get out of the mountains. Winter was coming.
We dropped Brooke off in El Calafate so she could catch a flight to her next adventure trekking as far south as you could go without being in Antartica. Jim, Josh, and I drove to Punta Arenas with an overnight stop in Rio Gallegos. Our drive south was like being on safari. We saw herds of Guanaco (like a llama) and Nandu (like an emu).
During our time in Argentina, we also saw several foxes, armadillo, and a condor sitting on the side of the road.
After we checked into our hotel in Rio Gallegos, we drove out to see an old, beached ship, the Majorie Glen. Way cooler than it sounds.
Since we were only 3 hours from Punta Arenas, we decided to catch a ferry to Tierra del Fuego, the farthest south inhabited island. First we had to cross the border back into Chile.
When we came to the Argentina Immigrations, there seemed to be no one there so we continued on to Chile Immigrations. They immediately sent us back to the Argentina building. When we said there was no one there, they laughed and said that was typical. Thankfully the distance between the two buildings was only a 1/4 of a mile instead of the 2 miles of the other border we crossed.
When we reached the Argentina building, we parked and walked inside. There were several agents behind the desks. We handed over our passports. After a 5-minute discussion, it was clear that we didn’t immigrate into Argentina correctly. Frankly, we didn’t immigrate at all. They asked to look at the paperwork for our rental car and it had immigrated correctly. This was a head scratcher. Our rental car was in Argentina legally, but we were not.
A group of agents started checking all our paperwork and talking faster than Josh could translate. Jim and I stood there like deer in headlights. If not for Josh, we would probably still be there. After another 20 minutes, they figured it out. The immagration office we came through only immigrated the car. There were two agents in our entrance office: one for immigrating people and the other for immigrating the car. Why didn’t the agents tell us? Both Josh and Brooke speak and read Spanish. There were no signs. No communication. No one else in the building. We handed one agent all our passports and the rental car documents. They immigrated the car but just handed us back our passports. Crazy!
In the end, we were told it was our fault and we needed to pay a fine for immigrating incorrectly. At this point, we just wanted out of Argentina. We were in no man’s land. We weren’t in Argentina legally so we couldn’t leave, and Chile wouldn’t take us until we could prove where we had been. We paid the fine.
It took another hour for all our paperwork to be processed. We were finally ready to immigrate back into Chile. When we walked into Chile immigrations, they had a sign explaining step 1, 2, 3, and 4. Each agent had a sign above their booth saying which step they were. This was how immigration should work.
We still wanted to check out Tierra del Fuego, so we headed to the ferry. It was moving when we were cruising across the Straits of Magellan.
Since we spent so much time at immigrations, we only had limited time on the island. We decided to just take in the Straits of Magellan. The boys took to skipping rocks.
We had a lovely dinner in Punta Arenas. Our flight the next day was not until early afternoon so Josh and Jim decided we should check out a 1:1 replicas of Victoria, Magallan’s Ship and The Beagle, the ship Darwin sailed on in Argentina.
After Jim and I headed to the airport, Josh walked the Punta Arenas waterfront…
While Brooke (and her friend Ryan) sailed across the Beagle channel on a fishing ship enroute to her latest hiking adventure.
Jim and I love all our adventures with Brooke. Josh made this trip extra special. We hope he joins us in more of our adventures.