On the way to Chile and Argentina
Jan 12th, 2015 by rallyadmin
Here we go again. John and I are just starting a new trip. This one is back to Chile and on to Argentina via Patagonia.
I can already hear the question: “Haven’t you already done that?” Well, almost. Yes we went to Chile during our round the world exercise. And, yes, we had planned to do Patagonia and Argentina. But there was a problem. ” (And they ask, “Why don’t you plan?”)
We had shipped the trusty Jeep Cherokee from Sidney, Australia to San Antonio, Chile to complete the last leg of the trip. We arrived in Santiago just about the same time that the ship with the Cherokee arrived in San Antonio. That was the end of the good news.
At that time, a port strike had been going for 20 days and during that time, no ships were unloaded. When we asked about the strike we were told by the importer that the strike would end in 2 days. Great. When do we get our car. When the ship lands. When will that be. We have no idea. We’ll call you. Not great.
(Trivia alert: the shipping company that moved or car to Chile was Hoegh Autoliners on their ship the Hoegh Trooper. Hoegh was recently in the news for running another of their autoliners, the Hoegh Osaka, aground at the mouth of the Southampton, UK, Estuary on Bramble Bank. The Hoegh Osaka had just load 1,200 Jaguars, Range Rovers and Minis.)
They called, finally, 10 days later. They ended the strike and started to process the 22 day long backlog of ships in and around San Antonio harbor. It took 12 days but we finally got the Cherokee. But because of those lost 12 days we had to cancel our plans to drive south in Chile to Patagonia, cross into Argentina, continue south to Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego, eventually heading back north in Argentina on the famous Ruta 40 and crossing back into Chile for the rest of the drive north up the Ruta PanAmericana.
And that’s the plan for this trip: drive a Hertz rental car down to Tierra del Fuego and work our way back up Ruta 40 and return to Santiago for the flight home. I’m leaving for the airport at 4. John just called an his American Airlines flight was cancelled and he’s now on a Lan Chile flight.
Looks like our usual kind of trip.
Obiwan