Blogs from Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz, Argentina, South America

Quand on a quitté Buenos Aires on n'etait pas sûr de vouloir descendre jusqu'à la Tierre du feu. Pour y arriver, il fallait traverser deux fois la frontière pour y aller, et deux fois pour le retour. Avec le Kangoo et les saucissons qu'on a acheté, on avait peur que ça soit un peu compliqué. Cependant on a rencontré des israeliens qui nous a dit que la traversé en bus s'est bien passé. Donc on a demandé les papiers d'assurance pour le Chili à l'agence de location de camionnette. La descente sur la route 3 a vite passé. En fait ce n'est pas trop la bonne saison sur la côte. Les villages de Puerto San Julian et Puerto Santa Cruz, qui sont desormais mentionnés dans les guides touristiques de l'état de Santa Cruz, étaient pluvieuses et ... read more

Frueh weg, diesmal war es ein laaaaaaaaaaaaaanger Tag mit etwa 800 km, verschoenert durch Regen bei der Abfahrt. Der Regen hielt 2/5 des Weges an, ich nehme an, dass die meisten bis dahin recht feucht waren. Dazu kam der Wind (heute kein Sturm) - wegen dieses Windes war ich den 2. Tag im Van. Und ich war ganz froh, denn der Tag war schrecklich lang. 99 % der Strecke sassen wir im Van und maulten ueber die langweilige Landschaft: brettel-eben, kerzengerade Strasse, leicht wellig, ganz leichte Kurven, Guanakos, Schafe, sonst garnix. Erst die letzten 1 % hatten wir einen anderen Grund, um zu maulen: Valdivia ist eine extrem scheusliche Stadt, auch wenn sie direkt am Meer liegt. Hotel modern und schoen. Zudem hatte sich die Temperatur im Laufe des Tages von 5 Grad bei der Abfahrt ... read more

Hello everyone We have made it quite far south, to the city of Rio Gallegos. What an amazing journey we have had getting here. We left Rosario for Bahia Blance and then took a little bus to a small town called Monte Hermoso and there Thor got to swim in the Atlantic for the first time. There was not too much happening in that town but we got to set up our tent and have the beach all to ourselves and watch bunny rabbits in the sand dunes. Then we headed further South to Puerto Madryn, a gateway city to the Peninsula Valdes which is a huge wildlife attraction. We set up camp in a campsite on a cliff overlooking the ocean and just about everytime you looked to the water you could see right whales ... read more

So after the long road south, it was time to head north again and hopefully to the warmer weather! There is nowhere to go from Ushuaia but north. Our plan from here is to head north through Argentina up the coast to Puerto Madryn and then crossing the country to Bariloche and the lakes region, heading north again, up to Mendoza and finally crossing back into Chile around 14th or 15th March. Only 4 weeks of our big road trip left! We expected to see Liz and Phil somewhere along the road on our way north through Tierra del Fuego, and sure enough, about 40kms north of a small town called Tolhuin, we saw them and their bikes stopped at the roadside having lunch. We pulled over and made them a cup of tea and offered ... read more

After my first visit about 6 weeks ago, Rio Gallegos had made it onto the list of places that I didn't want to spend time in again. I should really dispense with this list ASAP because, like with eating calafate berries in El Calafate or rubbing the toe of the Ona Indian on the monument to Magellan in Punta Arenas, once a place ends up on the list I invariably end up visiting it again. In the case of Rio Gallegos, it was entirely my own fault. I have a routine when flying in which, soon after take-off, I change my clock-containing gadgets such that they are all set to the destination time. Despite the travelling I've done over the last couple of years, I unfortunately haven't internalised that same routine for land-based border crossings. Thus ... read more