Patagonia #2

Back over the Andes again and into Argentina we made yet another border crossing west of Coihaique and started the long two day drive down to El Calafate. Once over the border and into Argentinian Patagonia the scenery changed almost instantly from the lush steep mountains east of the Andean ridge to the low, arid sweeping scrubland that extends west all the way to the Atlantic coast. The roads changed as well from reasonably good paved roads in Chile to hundreds of kilometres of rough, dusty gravel. The main road we took down through Argentina, the legendary ruta 40, is being remade in bitumen parallel to the current gravel road; it was kind of cool to be able to make this famous journey in its original form before the tourist hoards come streaming through on the nice new road.

Coming up through a pass in the hills we stopped to take a photo of the view and by some freaky luck there was a big fat lizard on a rock right at our feet. Turns out this lizard is well known among the locals as having a poisonous bite (due to the bacteria living in its mouth). Good thing I didn't try to catch it....

That day turned out to be a great one for wildlife, the next sighting being an armadillo streaking across the road. I leapt out of the car and gave chase through the tussocks and after ten minutes of searching I found it hiding between two bushes. It was quite relaxed so we gave it a little pat (the armour was very hard but had little soft hairs between the plates) and followed for ten minutes as he snuffled around looking for bugs. Definitely a wildlife highlight for both of us.

There were also Guanacos (wild Llamas) everywhere and a lot of Rheas too (flightless birds like small emus).

Guanacos

A rare and welcome stretch of bitumen

There were little roadside shrines everywhere, even in the most remote areas. Mostly they are dedicated to the Mother Mary or one of the local gods of traveling. This one was half a boat sticking out of a brick wall, not sure what thats about......

We spent the first night in the unremarkable rural town of Gobernador Gregores and continued down to El Calafate, passing the spectacular lakeside Fitzroy Massif on the way.

We arrived in El Calafate in the early afternoon and after securing a hostel room for the night we drove out along the lake to check out the Perito Moreno glacier.

Coming in on the walkway, this thing is MASSIVE....

The left side

The right side

The 74 metre face close up

Perito Moreno is one of the very few glaciers worldwide that are actually advancing in light of global warming, with several feet of ice being pushed forward every day. We stayed for a couple of hours in the chilly wind, watching for and hearing the frequent calvings of icebergs and big ice chunks crashing down from the face. Then it was back to town for a dinner of supermarket food and another brief rest before more driving the next day.

Our goal was to check out Torres del Paine in Chile for a few hours on the way down and make it across to Rio Gallegos for the evening, which would mean two more border crossings. Unfortunately the weather was not great so our time at the Torres was spent searching for glimpses of the peaks between the clouds but we did manage to get a couple of snaps.

After the night in Rio Gallegos we started the final part of the drive down South to Ushuaia on the Beagle Channel, the Southernmost city in the world.

Ushuaia

In Ushuaia we spent a couple of days walking around checking out the "end of the world", catching up on laundry, shopping and going on a small train trip through the national park to the site of a former prison camp noted for its brutal conditions.

Also the sunset was amazing

The night before we left it snowed heavily, giving us some amazing views as we drove through the pass amongst the jagged peaks of the Martial range.