Leaving Rio Gallegos in the southern part of
Argentinian Patagonia, we drove to the border to cross into the southern Chile to visit the Chilean side
of Patagonia. We were in our hired motorhome Vdos, and aiming for the famous Strait of Magellan as our first stop.
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| Leigh at the Magellan Strait, Patagonia |
The Strait is a rough channel of water that runs across the bottom of South America, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
But, before we could get there, we had to cross some borders. Getting out of Argentina was fairly quick. However, entering Chile was much slower. Chile is like our own New Zealand when it comes to what is being taken into the country, and you cannot take in raw fruit, vegetables, or fresh meat.
We'd dined on the last of our meat and vegetables the night before, but still had fruit.
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| Chilean Customs building, Patagonia |
We were eating our last avocado for lunch
while sitting in the border queue, then all of a sudden it was our turn at
customs. We declared all that we had left in the cupboard, and in the end one banana, ½ a tomato and a ¼ of a lemon were confiscated by
customs – not too bad.
Eventually we made it to the Strait of Magellan. The Strait was discovered by Ferdinand Magellan in 1520, and is known for providing a safer passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, than sailing around dangerous Cape Horn.
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| Punta Delgada Lighthouse, Strait of Magellan, Patagonia |
But the Straits looked dangerous too. Once there, we marvelled at its ruggedness, as we watched a car ferry rocking across its turbulent waters. Then we visited the nearby Punta Delgada Lighthouse - now a naval museum.
The Strait runs for around 570 km, and is between 3 and 32 km wide. There is a road that runs alongside it for around 250 km. So, leaving the lighthouse, we travelled west along that road.
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| Driving across the end of the world (Fin del Mundo), Chilean Patagonia |
The road is aptly called Ruta del Fin del Mundo - Route at the End of the World, as it traverses the southernmost region of the American continent.
Eventually, we turned off it heading north toward Puerto Natales, one of Chile’s southernmost towns. We were going there because it is the gateway to the Torres del Paine National Park, and its famed mountains, lakes and
glaciers.
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| View from our overnight camping place in Puerto Natales, Patagonia |
There were no camping grounds open in Puerto Natales, so we camped overnight in a waterfront carpark, with a wonderful view of fishing boats and snow-capped mountains.
That night was really cold and well below
zero Celsius. We had to use our extra blankets, and fired up the gas heater in our motorhome Vdos. Our gas heater is an erratic little thing but when it gets going, it
warms us up nicely.
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| Puerto Natales, Chilean Patagonia |
The next day, we set out to explore Puerto Natales. We found it to be smallish (less than 20,000 people) and lovely. It’s on Señoret Channel opposite the Patagonian Andes.
The weather was crazy, being wet and overcast on one day, then sunny (but not warm) on the next. Actually, it was mostly very cold, with daytime temperatures at around 4 to 6 degrees Celsius.
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| Road to Torres del Paine National Park, Patagonia |
A few days later, we headed out of Puerto Natales driving north on Ruta CH-9. After about 1-hour, we turned west onto Ruta Y-290, a dirt road that would take us to the Torres del Paine National Park.
On the way to the Park, we stopped at Cueva del Milodón, a
200-metre-long cave in which the remains of a gigantic and extinct Milodón – a
sloth-like mammal - were discovered in 1895. The remains have been dated at more than 10,000 years old.
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| Leigh at the Cueva del Milodón, Patagonia |
Outside the cave, was a large statue showing what a Milodón would have looked like. It does look a bit like a sloth, but it also reminded us of a polar bear, albeit with a longer tail.
Moving on, we reached the entrance to the Torres del Paine National Park. This is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve full of mountains, glaciers, lakes, and rivers, in the extreme southern region of Chilean Patagonia. We were really looking forward to spending some time there.
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| Cordillera del Paine mountain chain and rough road in Torres del Paine National Park (UNESCO), Patagonia |
But the roads to and around the National Park are not paved and many were washed out, making it hard to drive. So after a long day, we decided to stay at the first campground we could find, which was on the Rio (River) Serrano. It was a great camp with electricity and fresh water at each site, clean toilets, and hot showers.
It was extremely cold that night. We were
right up in the Southern Andes Mountains on the edge of the great Southern
Patagonian Ice Field, the largest ice field in the Southern
Hemisphere.
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| Lago Grey beach and icebergs, Torres del Paine National Park (UNESCO), Patagonia |
The next morning, we paid our park fees at the Park Administration Office, then bumped our way over the rough road to Lago (lake) Grey. The lake has Lago Grey Hotel at one end and Grey Glacier at the other.
Lago Grey Hotel runs a boat trip to the glacier and we wanted buy tickets for it.
However, no boats were going out that day because of the high winds.
Trusting that the following day would be
better, we booked for the morning trip.
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| Leigh on the beach at Lago Grey, Torres del Paine National Park (UNESCO), Patagonia |
After that, we headed to the lake for a walk along its shores. The walk led to a lookout over the Grey Glacier. The wind was so strong and so cold, and the
stones on the shore so big that it was really tough going.
Forty minutes later
we were climbing to the lookout. However, the bad weather had washed out the
trail and, disappointingly, we could not get to the top.
Heading back, we were entranced by the
icebergs, but were very glad to be wearing our thermal tops, long johns, and
puffer jackets in the extreme conditions.
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| The lake and distant glacier from Grey Hotel, Torres del Paine National Park (UNESCO), Patagonia |
That night, we camped in the sheltered carpark at the Grey Hotel. It is a very lovely hotel, and so we decided to
treat ourselves to dinner at the hotel restaurant.
We had an expensive but very delicious meal and
some nice Chilean red wine, sitting by the panoramic window, with a fabulous
view across the lake to the glacier.
The next morning, we and a small group of other
tourists boarded a catamaran for the trip to the glacier base.
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| Grey Glacier from a distance |
This glacier is about 6 kilometres wide, 30 metres high, and 28 kilometres long. It has three separate ice flows into the lake and we got a good view of them all.
It was frigidly cold out on the boat deck, so we made little forays in and out of the cabin to observe and take photos.
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| Grey Glacier up close |
The boat took us right up to the glacier wall, while we gazed up in awe of its glacial greatness. Then the captain gave us all a small glass of the local calafate sour to celebrate a smooth trip.
Calafate sour is a sweetish and potent little drop, distilled from the blue-black berries of the calafate bush which grows everywhere here. It certainly helped to warm us up a bit!
After the trip, we decided to head back to
Camping Rio Serrano for the night. The next day, we drove toward our next
stop, El Calafate and Los Glaciares National Park, back in Argentinian Patagonia.
The above blog is part of our 4-month tour of South America. The
first blog on this tour is called "Buenos Aires here we come".