October 13, 2023

We awoke to sunshine in El Chalten, Argentina, and hit the road for Rio Gallegos.

On the way, we saw likely around 1,000 Guanacos (fuzzy llamas).

We also saw about 500 dead Gunacos…

Day #10 & 11 Details:

Miles Driven: 669
Total Miles Driven: 2,112
Hours of Driving: 13
Latitude: 49.3ºS → 54.8ºS
Good Food Eaten: Isabel in Rio Gallegos – Care al disco | Buena Vista in the Lennox hotel in Ushuaia – pumkin ravioli
Lodging: Random Airbnb in Rio Gallegos – Finisterre in Ushuaia

Most of them were on the fences that constantly line both sides of the highway.

When jumping over the fences they get their highlegs caught at the hip or they get their hind feet caught in the top 2 wires.

Brutal and sad…

We also saw a ton of live Rheas.

We even saw what we interpreted as mating behavior.

Some Rheas were sitting on the ground and another waw flapping its wings and kicking them…

The towers of El Chalten. image: snowbrains

Was weird and cool!

We arrived before dusk in Rio Gallegos.

Gallegos is a funky, beat-up, oil town in a place that isn’t very inspiring.

If tourists come here, it’s just a night between Ushuaia and El Chalten – as we did.

October 14, 2023

We got up and out of the house early and headed to Ushuaia.

Obstacles of this journey:

2 border crossings
Crossing the strait of Magellan on a ferry

As we left the grimy funk of Rio Gallegos in the early morning, we saw a funky pond surrounded by telephone wires and industry and there were 7 flamingos in it 🙂

Made my day.

The 1st border crossing was brutal.

Waited for 1.5 hours to get into Chile.

Huge lines, only 2 people working…

Then we had to cross into Argentina.

Greggy got called out there that his car insurance was expired and it took a while to get new insurance via the poor cell service we had.

Then we got on the ferry to cross the straights of Magellan.

There is something magical about this crossing.

The history
Knowing Magallan was there
The wind
The waves
The current
The thrill
The exoticness

The Strait of Magellan (Spanish: Estrecho de Magallanes), also called the Straits of Magellan, is a navigable sea route in southern Chile separating mainland South America to the north and Tierra del Fuego to the south. The strait is considered the most important natural passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It was navigated by canoe-faring indigenous peoples including the Kawésqar for thousands of years. The strait is approximately 570 km (310 nmi; 350 mi) long and 2 km (1.1 nmi; 1.2 mi) wide at its narrowest point. In 1520, the Spanish expedition of Ferdinand Magellan, after whom the strait is named, became the first Europeans to discover it.

Magellan’s original name for the strait was Estrecho de Todos los Santos (“Strait of All Saints”). The King of Spain, Emperor Charles V, who sponsored the Magellan-Elcano expedition, changed the name to the Strait of Magellan in honor of Magellan.

The route is difficult to navigate due to frequent narrows and unpredictable winds and currents. Maritime piloting is now compulsory. The strait is shorter and more sheltered than the Drake Passage, the often stormy open sea route around Cape Horn, which is beset by frequent gale-force winds and icebergs. Along with the Beagle Channel, the strait was one of the few sea routes between the Atlantic and Pacific before the construction of the Panama Canal. – Wikipedia