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Published: December 13th 2012
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We haven’t reached the end of the world, aka “La fin del Mundo” in Ushuaia, but trust me, this place feels much more remote than Ushuaia does. Once we left Esquel north of us, it’s on for a land where men are pretty rare.
Most tourists will hop on and off of planes to Bariloche, El Calafate or even Ushuaia. Then you’ve got the more courageous, who are taking busses in between each point of interest. But by doing so, you lose all the fun of getting alone in the middle of nowhere. Ideal was to rent a 4x4 to go around…but trust me, prices are steep. I went for the “crazy” option of renting the cheaper car Avis had. Made sure to let them know ahead we were heading 1500++km south….took the insurance, and we’ll see, but if I burst the excess on the insurance, let it be....as long as we make it!
Petrol is actually cheap around here…at 5 pesos per liter, this is lower than 80 cents USD at the blue rate per liter. Not that bad! Now there is the road, or rather the road conditions. Route 40 run from North
to South of the country…there is asphalt, but not everywhere. Today, I was going to drive from Esquel to 60km south of Perito Moreno, and yes, we hit our first 40km of gravels. Well, this is not gravels, this is a track full of stones…and I only wish that by the end of the 2 weeks, I won’t have to change too many punctures tires.
This also means that I have stocked the car with enough drinks (not only wine!) and food to be able to hold 24 hours if we ever have too. It shouldn't be, but as we are crossing maybe one car every 30 minutes, it’s more than useful. And another point, here you just simply don’t stop at lunch to try to find a restaurant, as sometimes, the closest grocery is simply 200km ahead!
High season here is January and February. Summer is coming soon on the 21
st December…you know, the stupid day the world will actually end! Smile! Which means for the moment, Patagonia is empty…of people. We had a hostal for ourselves in El Bolson. Had few people around the hostal in Esquel. Tonight, we are sleeping South
of the little city of Perito Moreno, and our Estancia has only 2 more couples…well, we spotted one for dinner, and the other one for breakfast.
Perito Moreno is actually a famous hero of Argentina…so you’ve got Perito Moreno the city, Perito Moreno the National Park, and Perito Moreno the glacier…and none is close to the others!
Perito Moreno is around 520km south of Esquel…and between the 2 cities, there is nothing…worst…even in Perito Moreno, there is nothing. Only point of interests around here are restaurants…when they have food, and more important, the gas stations….refill while you can…between Perito Moreno and El Calafate, more than 600km…and basically 2 pumps…that can be dry in January or February! You’ve been warned!
The sun was out, and the wind was blowing full power…no FM radio around here…get equipped ahead! By 4pm we made it to Estancia Cuevas de los Manos, after a lunch stop at Perito Moreno, and what I would find later, my last access to internet for three days!
Estancias have nothing fancy around here. There is no link to the outside world….there is water, but it can be
pretty brown, and a generator will provide electricity from 8pm to bed time…which is pretty early as we are waking up each morning at 6.30am.
Once at Estancia Cuevas de los Manos…we all needed a good walk…or even a little hike. Leslie pointed a hill….and there we went, 50 minutes to reach the top….40 to get down…Tiffany was dead, but we had a lot of fun…didn’t spot that many guanacos (lamas) that later afternoon, but that issue would be more than solved the next morning.
Dinner was a simple affair…and yes…one more time….beef…Leslie and Tiffany wrote their journal, had a game of Frisbee at sunset, and it was time for a good night of sleep.
Next morning, early breakfast and we made our way to the Unesco World Heritage site of Cuevas de los Manos. For info, it’s rock art, in par with what you could find in Lascaux in France. They have very few visitors here. At the top of the high season, we speak of maximum 100 persons per day….in July, it’s more like 2 visitors per day. I paid the 50 pesos entry fee for three of us
(kids go free), and we had a full hour with our private guide…really interesting visit! Only bad thing…won’t be the last…a good 80km on gravels, sorry no, stones track…made it…but hey, crossing that canyon was something with our little car. I was to learn later that evening that I should have ride it backwards in reverse....are they mad or what....but yes, good advise!
The good news is, the Routa 40 is getting her fair share of asphalt for the moment. So when the road is there…it’s a brand new ribbon of asphalt…and I guess the speed limit is not really an issue with less than a car every 30 minutes!
It was already time to make our way to our next stop…First little refueling in Bajo Caracoles…a really out of this world type of “Bagdad Café” place…
Next entry will be from an even more remote place…but what a place!
Did I write that we love Patagonia!
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
NO HAY?
Wow Peter...in a truly magic part of Patagonia...true wilderness. I hope you have spare petrol in the back as well. We drove to Bajo Caracolas to get petrol...but the pumps had a sign "No Hay"...ran out of petrol...only saved by the spare in the back. Gotta say I'm delighted there are still rough sections on Ruta 40...kind of a shame the bitumen is being laid...that section north of Perito Merino is insane.Love your pictures...Cave of the Hands...the rugged & flat landscape...your kids are sure lucky their Dad takes them to such diverse locales. Looking forward to seeing where to next.