Chili Chico (Part Deux) – January 19, 2015
Jan 20th, 2015 by rallyadmin
It’s just a beautiful morning in Puerto Murta. The sky is BLUE and the clouds are WHITE and the air is CLEAR. The roses have sparkling drops of dew reflecting the sunlight like so many crystals. But it’s back in the car.
It’s just the beginning of a very long day. We are headed to either El Chalten or El Calafate. But first we have to get to Chico Chile and clear the border, again, and that requires us to drive halfway around a beautiful but very large lake. Since the lake spans the border, it actually has 2 names. In Chile it’s Lago General Carrera and in Argentina, it’s Lago Buenas Aires.
As we reach the southwest end of the lake we turn back to the northeast and start climbing along the south shore. The beginning isn’t that interesting and the road turns away from the lake. There are rocky scrub land pastures on both sides of the road and, although we don’t see them, cows roaming free in the hills. Not much to see here folks.
Then the road turns back to the north and on one steep, short climb we crest the top and the road suddenly drops and there’s the lake hundreds of feet below us a the both of a very meaningful drop. The road takes a sharp right, gets very narrow and heads down hill steeply. Now we’re having fun.
The Lonely Planet had warned us that the road was very narrow, in some places only only one car width wide. And it appears that on some of the narrower, more notable turns, guard rails are and after-thought, be taken out by crashes or simply symbolic. Locking the brakes on descent and sliding off the edge is a possibly, though probably less likely than it appears. We don’t see any dead car hulks off the road but that may be because we can’t see far enough down the hill
After maybe 50 kms of this gorgeous roller-coaster ride, the road heads up hil away from the lake and then back down to Chili Chico. I’m sure glad we didn’t try this road at night. Into town for fuel and out the other side to cross into Argentina.
Still another border crossing with smiling, friendly immigration and customs officers. There’s never a hassle that isn’t solved by a phone call or some furious keyboard tapping. It’s very refreshing to say the least. Things don’t always go well on trips but in these 2 countries, the bad memories are not going to be because of immigration or customs.
The road from the border is paved and in 40 or so kms we turn south on Ruta 40 headed for El Chalten or El Calafata. In another 50 kms Ruta 40 turns right and heads due south. The pavement ends and we’re on gravel for the next 100 plus miles.
The terrain is boring at first. High plains desert straight out of northern Arizona. But soon we see our first gaunaco. Guanacos are cousins of llamas and alpacas. They are somewhat smaller than llamas and somewhat larger than alpacas with very thin legs and golden fur. They are very pretty and pretty skittish near the road. We slow to take some pictures but as soon as we do they turn and run away. We’ll be seeing these guys for days to come.
We also see nandus which are an ostrich like bird. The word nandu is Guarani for the rhea. They aren’t nervous at all and simply move off the road to let the car pass. Occasionally, we see one with a small brood of up to 6 smaller ones following her. Obviously, they are this year’s brood.
We get to the end of the gravel road and turn right on the paved section of Ruta 40. We decide to head for El Calafate for the night. It’s about the same distance but well be a 100 or miles closer to Torres del Paine National Park, our destination tomorrow night.
El Calafate is packed with tourists. This a jumping off place to visit the Perito Moreno glacier and it’s a required stop for all the bus tours. We don’t think we’ll find a hotel and expect to end up camping. But we luck out and find a hotel with secure parking right on main street.
It’s an old hotel but clean and serviceable with internet. Kind of. We park the car and check in. Up to the room to clean up and out for Italian dinner. Back by 10’ish and bed. It’s been a long day right after a previous long day.
Obi-wan