After driving from the far south of Patagonia in our motorhome Vdos, we'd arrived at the Los Glaciers National Park and stayed in El Chaltén for one extraordinarily windy and wet night. Now we were heading to the windy and dry climate of Argentina's Patagonian Desert.
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| The rugged Patagonian Desert of Argentina |
This vast, sparsely populated Desert comprises barren mountains, river valleys, sandy and rocky soils, and scrubby vegetation. It is in southern Patagonia, and runs from the foothills of the Andes Mountains in the east, across to the Atlantic coast in the west, covering around 487,000 sq km of Argentinian Patagonia and some of Chile.
We had an 8-hour or more drive ahead of us, and had been told that there were no fuel stops or shops along the way. So, our first task before we left El Chaltén, was to fill Vdos with diesel.
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| Rainbow in our rear vision mirror as we drove out of El Chaltén, Argentinian Patagonia |
With that done, we left El Chaltén with a rainbow in our rear vision mirror, and began our drive east.
It took us around two hours of driving alongside the scenic Lago (Lake) Viedma, before finally arriving at the intersection to turn north. That put us back on Argentina’s famous Ruta (Route) 40, one of the longest roads in the world at 5,224 km, and one of the most challenging.
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| Muddy and rutted Ruta 40 in the Patagonian Desert, Argentina |
The condition of Ruta 40 was not so good. It was paved until we reached the tiny hamlet of Tres Lago, then it turned into a dirt and ripio (gravel) road. Because it had rained the night before, the dirt road was churned up into muddy strips and ruts, and other places were full of corrugations and holes.
With no other vehicles on the road, it was a very long, slow and lonely drive across that windy desert.
Then, just before the town of Gobernador Gregores, we turned onto Ruta 29, which is the old Ruta 40. We'd been advised against this road because of its remoteness and condition, but we were going to save ourselves over an hour of driving, so
took the risk.
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| Animals on or beside Ruta 29 in the Patagonian Desert, Argentina |
And it was worth it, as alongside the road we saw several herds of guanacos (like wild llamas) and rheas (like an ostrich), and on the road we drove around geese and wild horses, and very many potholes. The surrounds were desert-like, but with lots of colourful soils and desert plants. We found it interesting.
Around 63 km later, we met up with Ruta 40 again. Then, all of a sudden, the road was sealed with nice tarmac – Yaaay! We had been driving for over 7 hours by now and were pretty tired, but wanted to get as close as possible to a UNESCO site that we planned to visit further north.
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| A rare tarmac section of Ruta 40 across the Patagonian Desert, Argentina |
So, we decided to carry on, and enjoy the tarmac road while we had it. We could see what was ahead of us as the road ran in a dead-straight line right up to the flat horizon.
After another 100 km or so, we reached the tiny commune of Bajo Caracoles (population 33) which had a few houses, a hotel, and a fuel station. The fuel station consisted of just two pumps – one for petrol and one for diesel. They looked like solitary sentinels guarding an oily patch of sandy dirt.
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| The solitary sentinels of gas, Bajo Caracoles, Ruta 40, Patagonian Desert, Argentina |
At first sight, we didn’t know whether these pumps worked or not as they were very dusty, old-looking, and covered with travel stickers. But we needed fuel so we went into the nearest house to find out. It turns out that the pumps did work, so we filled up.
We wanted to make Bajo Caracoles our stopover for the night, and had heard that you could camp behind the hotel. Unfortunately the hotel, a small sandstone-block building, looked as though it had been shut for years.
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| The windy Patagonian Desert behind Bajo Caracoles, Argentina |
We looked behind it to see if we could park safely off the road there, but it was the desert and incredibly windy and bleak. On top of that, the next town was about 3 hrs away - not promising when you’ve driving in difficult conditions for over 8 hours!
But then we noticed that the house on the corner had a ‘camping’ sign out front, and a local man who was whistling like crazy, indicated we could park there for a small fee. It had no power, but was sheltered from the wind and we were able to fill up with water - all good – we decided to stay there.
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| The commune of Bajo Caracoles on Ruta 40, Patagonian Desert, Argentina |
The best thing about Bajo Caracoles, was that it is only about 3 km south of the access road to our next destination, the Cueva de las Manos (Cave of the Hands).
The Cueva de las Manos is the site of prehistoric cave paintings, made on rugged cliffs that look down into the beautiful Pinturas Canyon. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
So, the next morning we drove to Cueva de las Manos, having another bumpy ride for about 50 km on a ripio road – but again, the drive was worth it.
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| Pinturas Canyon with the Cueva de las Manos Information Centre, Patagonian Desert, Argentina |
Once we arrived at the Pinturas Canyon, we parked at the information centre, then bought a tour of the site.
The paintings were created over four different periods from up to 1,300 to 9,300 years ago, and are amazingly well-preserved. They are believed to have been made by the Teheulches people, and are considered to be one of the most ancient artistic expressions of South American natives.
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| A small portion of the rock art in Cueva de las Manos (UNESCO), Pinturas Canyon |
Many of the paintings were made by pressing a hand against the rock, then using a blowpipe to blow colour onto the hand, leaving the hand outlined on the rock surface. There were also paintings of guanacos which the Teheulches people would have hunted.
After a couple of hours walking the canyon and admiring the caves, it was time to move on. So we bumped our way along another dirt road, past more guanacos and rheas, and eventually met up with Ruta 40 again, where we carried on northwards
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| Colourful soils along Ruta 40 toward Perito Moreno, Patagonian Desert, Argentina |
It was a windy but sealed road from there through some spectacular scenery, including some beautiful coloured hills. Then we reached the small town of Perito Moreno. It seemed an attractive sight after hours of desert road.
We had read that we could top up our gas bottle there. We had free-camped a lot over the past week or more, and used quite a bit of gas for cooking, hot water and heating. So we went looking and asking around town, for gas.
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| Pink Church of Mary the Immaculate, Perito Moreno, Ruta 40, Patagonian Desert, Argentina |
While there, we had a good look around town finding an interesting pink church and a market, before finally finding the gas place. After lots of sign-language to make up for our lack of Spanish, we ended up buying a new bottle of gas instead of getting a top up.
We then left Ruta 40, turning west to cross back into Chile. We soon reached the small town of Los Antiguos (pop 3,400), located on the shores of Lago Buenos Aires and right on the Argentina/Chile border.
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| Proud of their fish in Los Antiguos, on Lake Buenos Aires, Patagonian Desert, Argentina |
It is a quaint place, and seemed to be full of fishing interests and small farms selling fruit.
As it was late afternoon, we decided to find a camp and cross the border in the morning. After a bit of a search, we found the Municipal Campground with its abundance of beautiful big trees adorning the lakeside. It was a nice quiet spot to spend the night before crossing back into Chile.
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".