Argentina Here we come...
Updated: Mar 25, 2022
(This is Vitali's first post! Leandra's commentary is added as picture captions or in parentheses.)
Day 1: February 12
The alarm clock went off at precisely 4:15 am…
Last night we drove to a town called Chile Chico nearby the Chile and Argentina border and were planning on crossing this morning into Argentina! We have read online that this border passing only allowed 100 people per day due to the Covid restrictions. We did not want to risk it and not be among those 100 so…
As we were debating the strategy of passing into Argentina, we thought we would go with the following options that for sure will get us in:
Wake up super early at around 4 am and get to the border pass in order to ensure that we will be among the first 100 people in line. This sounded good and was a good plan but also could have two possible outcomes:
If many people were passing every day we would be early enough there to ensure that we would among the first 100 people, GREAT!
Or if there are very little amount of people passing into Argentina we would sit there from 4:15 am to 8 am and then pass into Argentina feeling that we could have slept a bit more and we rushed for nothing, but never the less, we decided to roll with this option… Failure was not an option.
And so, we rolled towards the Chilean side of the border at around 4:15 am, and to our relief, there was no one there. It was dark and the only signs of life were some bunnies hopping from side to other side of the road. We were in line first to pass, GREAT SUCCESS! Leandra asked if I wanted to do turns of sleeping in the back of our car until the border will be opening at 8 am… I did not care, and said that I’ll stay awake, and she could go and get her beauty sleep in while I enjoyed some cell reception and was catching up on my YouTube videos.
At around 6:45 one of the workers came by on a bicycle and proceeded into the main building. After a while he came out and started to turn on sprinklers, which had been positioned all over the grass area. As soon as the water was turned on, and it hit the grass at least 10 to 15 bunnies that were hiding inside of the grass jumped out and sprinted away.
At around 7:45 another van showed up and we were 2 cars in line now. At around 7:55 the main gate was open and we proceeded inside to the next stop sign where the guy that was dealing with watering the grass asked us if we slept in the car since we were so early there. We smiled and told him that, “no”, we just showed up very early in order to make sure that we would cross and be among the first 100 people… he smiled and giggled and continued his gardening duties.
At 8 am we went inside of the main building with all of our paper work for the car, our passports and COVID cards. There was a couple minutes of confusion inside, as one of the agents did not show up yet, but after about 10 min of questions and us showing every possible paperwork, our passports were stamped and we were cleared to start driving to Argentina’s side of the border. (We were missing one slip of paper they gave us upon entry to Chile -- inexplicably we had Vitali's but not mine.)
The drive was short, after about 3 kilometers we came to yet another border building that was on Argentina’s side. A border patrol agent waved to us and we were guided to park our van and approach him with all the papers.
Usually we would have to have COVID test done before any border crossing, however, Argentina just changed their requirement for entry. Basically if you have stayed 14 days or more in an Argentina border country you would did not have to do any COVID testing, the only thing that was needed, a form that could be filled online 48 hours before entry to Argentina. Leandra did all the research and we were ready for it.
The agent asked for the forms and we were glad to present him it on our phones, to which he replied “EXCELLENT“ and smiled with a big sigh of relief…. We watched him explain this process to someone else who was there and it seems like this requirement was very new and most people just did not know about… So, he was very much happy that we had it all under control and he did not have to explain it to us.
After another 10 min inside of the building we were all set and stamped and we were out and drove into the Argentina side! Yes, we did it. Well that was easy!!!
The immediate difference between Chile and Argentina that we both noticed was that the road was paved and very smooth, a great change after driving for the last 3 weeks on dirt road and wash board filling our van with dust.
We drove for about 20 min and got to Patagonia National Park, Sector Ascension.
(East of the Andes in this area of the world are Estancias -- country estates or cattle ranches -- reflecting the primary livelihood of the area historically).
We parked and very nice lady park ranger showed us some options for hiking and gave us a map of the park and guided us to our free camp site.
We parked and I took a 20 min nap :) After that we decided to go and do some hiking …
We set our eyes on Cerro Negro, a short hike, about 6-mile-long to a top of the mountain, which overlooked the whole area. We park our car and proceeded to the trail, but not before we had to climb a fence … lol.
The hike was not difficult however, it was hot, we started the hike around noon and it did not take long until the drops of sweat were rolling down…
Somehow, we managed to lose the trail and started to climb up the hill overcoming sand dunes and shrubs. After couple of minutes of wandering around we spotted the trail which led us to the top :) This overlook had a view of the entire area, and we could see for miles and miles down and into the distance…
After spending some time at the top, we made our way down and to our van…
We came back to the camp and I went for a 4.6 mile run with an average of 7.26 per mile, it was hard due to the high temperature but it was worth it, I had to continue running and maintaining my running form.
When I returned, I desperately needed a shower, however the camp site did not have one, only a lake nearby so I decided to jump into it. The water was cold and super refreshing, and much needed!
We made dinner and enjoyed some cinematic entertainment (Picard) and went to sleep.
Day 2: February 13
We woke up and drove to the nearby town (Perito Moreno, we were also stopped at a police checkpoint where they looked at us and waved us through), stopping by a big store that to our surprise was open on Sunday morning, not like in Chile, where on Sundays everything was closed. (I also noticed the homes were all brick instead of wood like in Chile, and while every single property in Chile had a fence, about half of the properties here had none.)
We were excited and bought a lot of food to add to our exceedingly depleted food, at least now we will not starve. Also, to our big surprise, the store had a very big selection of gluten free stuff, and Leandra was pleased, picking a lot of gluten free cookies and other delicious goods.
After parking at the town for a bit and enjoying fast internet, we were set for our next stop, a national park about 54 kilometers away with cool caves and hand pants of ancient people.
La Cueva de los Manos is a UNESCO world heritage site -- an assemblage of spectacular cave art dating to between 9,000 to 1,500 years old.
We parked our van on the opposite side of the canyon and then proceeded to hike down and back up the other side, soon we came across a welcome center for the caves.
We paid 2,000 pesos each and got on the 16:00 tour, the tour guide was nice and while walking along the caves and explaining everything in Spanish also explained everything in English just for us .
(These are the oldest pictographs in South America. They estimate 30 to 40 people inhabited this cave, returning here periodically every winter. Anthropologists know nothing about this cultural group -- who they were. We know they used rhea bones to blow pigment over their hands.)
We even saw a hand that had 6 fingers. Polydactylism was common then.
Some hand prints were child size hands.
Some were showing the correct way to hunt the guanaco.
After the tour was over we hiked back to our van through the canyon, very steep downhill following by a steep uphill.
Canyon was very interesting with small river running at its bottom, and reminded us very much of Utah or its surroundings.
After hiking back uphill to our van we drove down the road where we discovered a free camp site which had toilets and even running water to wash our dishes.
We made dinner with some gluten free pasta and parmesan cheese and enjoyed it while watching the sun set.
We also met a nice French guy who lived in Chile and was driving his van as well. His van was much bigger and had a full solar panel set up and you could actually stand inside of it.
After that we climbed into our “Tiny” and watched another episode of Picard and went to sleep.
Day 3: February 14
When we woke up, it was super windy and during the night the van was shaking from the wind.
Last evening we also met a couple that spoke good English, they were using a tent to camp and in the morning I saw them again. They said that’s they could not sleep at night due to the strong wind and their tent flapping in it, and everything inside of the tent was covered in dust and sand. Our van also had a thin layer of dust inside due to the fact that I decided to keep both front windows cracked just a bit to have some air circulation.
(Turns out the winds in Chile were a joke compared to Argentina. THESE were the real Patagonian winds. A stiff 50mph+ basic.)
After we had a coffee and some breakfast, we drove to the head trail of SENDERO LA GUANACA.
It was a short hike around 3.8 miles round trip and as usual the information about it was wrong :) After about 40 min. of hiking we ended up at the top of the mountain overlooking the canyon and it was beautiful :)
After this hike we drove to the entrance of the park and did another short hike SENDERO
TIERRA DE COLORES about 1.8 miles where we saw some interesting colors within the fabric of the earth.
(The colors are from unique combinations of minerals in the soil.)
After hiking we stopped by the visitor’s center to look at the internet and then drove south for 300 kilometers (through multiple zonas de baches (potholes!) and passing brave cyclists and even walkers battling the extremely high winds) to Gobernador Gregores where we decided to stay inside of an apartment and enjoy a real meal.
After all, it was a Valentine’s Day and we decided to spoil ourselves! It cost us 4500, which was around $40USD. We went to the store and got ourselves a local steak and some green veggies.
The steak was cheap ($9) and very tender, apparently, there are more cows than people in Argentina.
I also enjoyed a bottle of wine that previous guest left, and it was great!
Day 4: February 15
Today we had around 250 kilometers of driving to do, but I was not too concern, the road in Argentina, unlike in Chile was paved so far and the drive should of been fine.
Part of the road was not paved, but even that was way better then Chile. Google maps said that it will take us around 4.5 hours, however by the time that we made it to El Chalten it was clear that it was not true. I was able to shave close to 2 hours and drove all the way at about average speed of 90 kilometer per hour.
The only issue during the drive was very strong winds, where in some parts I was struggling to keep our van straight , but it was still better then dealing with roads in Chile, so I did not complain too much…
(The approach to El Chalten was spectacular -- even with half the mountains shrouded.)
After we got into El Chalten, we have discovered that Parque Nacional Los Glaciares had a place for free rig camping, so we did not have to pay for camping once again.
Today we decided to just park and rest, however we went to a waterfall called “Chorrillo del Salto“. There were a lot of people around this one, like they never seen a waterfall in their lives.
We went to bed very early around 8 pm, because tomorrow we had a big hike to Laguna de los Tres. This hike was around 14-mile-long and we wanted to do it for a sun rise which meant that we had to wake up at 2:15 am and start hiking by 3 am, Fun fun fun!
(We had asked the rangers for the weather and we were very fortunate to have a clear morning the next day across low and mid level clouds. We had read stories were people came to El Chalten and were rained on for 3 or 4 days and socked in before the sun came back out).
Day 5: February 16
We woke up at 2:15 am and quickly transformed our van and drove to the trail head of Laguna de los Tres, which was located in town. We parked our car and noticed that the parking had another 2 cars already parked in. Someone else must be ahead of us on the trail, great let’s catch them up! We had 10 kilometers ahead of us until we would get to the top of the mountain before sun rise. 10 kilometers… or at least that what we though… in reality it was close to 7.8 miles with elevation gain close to 3300 ft. The theme of the incorrect mileage at the trails was present everywhere, including this one! LOL
Leandra had the head lamp and I was following her, we tried to buy another head lamp the night before in town but the camp shop had only “special “ ones for $125, what, why? Does it make breakfast? Or will scratch my back? Or maybe give me a back rub? Why so expensive? Oh well…
First couple kilometer we were going up until the trail leveled off and we were walking without any gain… that meant only one thing... the rest of the gain would be towards the end and will be very steep, just like we like it.
Anyhow, after couple kilometers we came across couple of people that strangely enough spoke Hebrew, I said "Shalom" and we continued… I thought to myself, what a coincidence… lol, little I knew that it will get even stranger at the top of the mountain.
(We hiked by moonlight for a long time. As we approached the last few kilometers the moon set and lent its ghostly cast upon Fitz Roy.)
We passed some camping sites mid-way up and had more people joining us, we also passed another couple of girls that spoke Hebrew… hum, strange I thought to myself…
The last mile to the top was very steep and required a bit of climbing and making sure not to trip on big stones, lucky for us with only one head lamp, it started to get lighter, so the visibility was not an issue and we were able to climb fast.
When we got to the top we were joined by at least another 40 people, from which around 30 were Israelis, couple big groups and some couples.
(We found a spot to set up my tripod and await the show. It was not too windy but it was very cold.)
I spoke to one of the couples and they told me that this place is very popular with Israelis and a lot of them coming here right after the Israeli mandatory military service and sure enough, I heart some military slang… lol… kids I thought to myself… “I remember my first beer”.
(Behind us, the sun was beginning to turn the clouds orange and pink.)
(And finally, the sun fell upon the peak of Fitz Roy and the lesser peaks around it, perfectly illuminating the otherworldly massif.)
The view was amazing and the light was sublime.
(We watched as the entire cirque was lit up and then slowly fade out as the clouds obscured the sunrise. How lucky we were to see the light that we did.)
After spending about an hour at the top and taking numerous photos and freezing our asses off we started to climb down…
We decided to also walk and do a small portion of another hike, since we were in the area.
That would add another 5 kilometers to overall route, but we did not care, we were well conditioned at this point and had many miles of hike under our belts, what is another 5 kilometers?
After walking to Laguna Piedras Blancas, and seeing a glacier melting into the lake, we turned around and started to make our way down to our van.
(As we walked back towards Fitz Roy and down towards the trailhead we got to see the view of the massif that we missed this morning in the dark.)
(This picture below doesn't even look real! The variety of rock texture and color in such a small area was incredible.)
Many people were coming up, including many campers that were carrying too much camping equipment with them, huge bags, almost like they were going into wilderness for at least several weeks.
It took us 7 hours, round trip with about an hour at the top. Total hike was 18.6 miles, which was our new longest hike! YAY!!!!
After that, we drove into the town, checked internet and got gluten free pizza and burger from place that was vegan.
The food was tasty! Not a real pizza, more like vegan stuff with humus but still great!
After that we payed 200 pesos per person in a hostel for a hot shower! Yay...
Parked our van at the free camp site and I treated myself to cookies and beer.
Once again, watched some cinematic adventures on my laptop and went to sleep.
Day 6: February 17
(We watched the sunrise from the free parking lot and felt even luckier as the light didn't hit the massif until much later and then quickly went away behind clouds.)
Today we decided to hike to Laguna Torre and the Maestri Overlook, which on paper was 9 kilometers one way and an additional 2 k to higher spot, so 22 kilometers round trip, which turned to be 14.4 miles and 2516 ft of elev gain, once again, the mileage on park map was not what it was in reality… LOL (We placed top 10 in two segments.)
The hike was not hard, starting with small climb and transforming into flatter and more leveled up terrain. We walked at first through some big stones and then through trees with roots poking out of the ground, a bit annoying!
The trail itself was not anything special, some wind some stones and some roots… we passed couple people on our way and despite our late start at around 8:20 am there was no one on the trail…
After about 3 hours we got the laguna and saw the Glacier Torre and the base of Cerro Torre.
And the trail we'd have to take to the Maestri Overlook, up and to the right.
We finally made it to our destination and wow, the view was amazing and the glacier was cracking once in a while and making an interesting noise.
Me and Leandra tried to capture the cracking noise on video with our cameras and we did get some cool videos with amazing sounds.
We met a couple up there which to no surprise at this point spoke Hebrew, they were from Jerusalem and also quit their jobs and were taking some time off work same as us.
The guy was an architectural designer and we ended up talking about the architectural industry in Israel and to no surprise it sounded almost the same as in states. We spoke shortly about Israel and about the fact that Argentina was a huge destination for young Israelis.
After enjoying the cracking glacier, we decided to get going back, and on our way back we saw many people at the lower point of view and many more coming up to enjoy this trail.
While going back we got stuck behind 3 girls with their camping gear, we followed them for a while expecting them to let us go through… finally one of them stopped and said something in Hebrew to another, we passed and I said “ toda raba”, they looked surprised … me and Leandra spoke English so I bet they did not expect to hear Hebrew…
It’s been interesting to see the reactions of Israelis on this trail and everywhere else. Every time I starting to speak Hebrew the reaction was always identical. There is a surprised face with a delay of response, almost like they are processing slow the fact that I do speak Hebrew, just because me and Leandra are speaking only English… lol
We got back in town and got ourselves a steak, made some mash potatoes and it was amazing.
We did go to take a shower and the water was not as hot as the day before, but still good.
After that we watched a movie and called it a day :) (We also watched an armadillo dig a home!)
Day 7: February 18
Today we decided to take a break from long hikes and do something easy and short. We woke up around 6:20 am and waited till about 7:15 for the sun rise.
Had some coffee and drove about 37 kilometers on ripio to Glacier Huemul.
The trail was short at about 3 miles round trip, but a bit steep one, our legs were fatigued after last two days but we made it up and enjoyed a great view of the glacier.
After driving back in town I decided to go for a nice run. Did not plan to go any particular time or distance, but just kept running. 8 miles @ 8 min per mile, just felt like running.
After that we went into town to get some food and shower and called it a day .
Day 8: February 19
We spent all day driving to a new town, El Calafate. (We were stopped at another police checkpoint and we had to explain we were going to the national park.) It rained all the way, and when we got into the town and parked, we discovered that we might have a flat tire! Oh well, something else to take care of :)
(We looked for some souvenirs and even paid to have our laundry done! It was something crazy cheap, like $7 for all of our stuff. They had free wi-fi so we waited outside for it to be done.)
This town did not have any camp sites that we could rent and take shower, or maybe it had one camp, but it was expensive.
We found a free wild campsite outside the town near by lake. This spot as usual was just on the edge of the LTE and 3G connectivity, which made our phones to switch there and back and the reception was not great.
Day 9: February 20
We woke up, drove into the town to upload the photos for the blog. (We also watched a dog get hit by a car, but he was able to walk away.)
The weather was shitty and raining, and it got colder :( the mood is like this weather, shitty!
We did stop in a campsite that had great camp sites that had a thin layer of bushes that were tall to separate the sites
Showers were good, everything was great.
I went for a 4 mile run and the segment within was 1.2 miles long. The whole run had an average of 7 min per mile, while the segment I ran a bit faster with 6.23 min per mile. Got another International CR, this will add nicely to my CR records in Canada, Mexico, Hawaii, and now Argentina :)
The weather got better and me and Leandra decided to clean a car from inside for a bit.
We decided that we will clean the car ourselves and not pay 28.500 pesos about $35. We cleaned the car and eat dinner.
Called it the day, tomorrow we had some business to deal with such as covid test for reentry into Chile and flat tire fix and much more.
Day 10: February 21
It was Monday, we woke up around 7 am, and got ready to roll out.
Today we had a covid test scheduled for 8 am not too far from our camp site (10 min drive), after that we wanted to visit Perito Moreno Glacier at Los Glaciares National Park and look at the glacier.
When we woke up I noticed that my running shorts were missing, of course I forgot them in the shower yesterday… I went to the reception area and asked one of the owners of the campsite if they saw my shorts, she replied, nope… oh well nothing I could do… Someone stole my running shorts.
After returning to our car, the “case of mondays" really hit hard.
We discovered that one of our wheels was loosing more and more air, so we had to drive to repair place and fix it… but after our COVID test for our crossing back into Chile.
I put the key into the car and turned… the car went, click click… nothing… shit!!! I drained the battery last night trying to charge our laptop... silly me!
I asked Leandra to try and push the car, while I put it into 2nd gear with clutch pushed in. You need to get the car rolling about 5 miles per hour and then drop the clutch, and car should start!
After one try we could not get going fast enough, so I asked one of the bikers who was camping near us to help Leandra with pushing and the car started!!! Yay!!!
We got our COVID test done that cost us $90USD per each, holy shit!!! So expensive. Had some minor issues with pulling money out of ATM (case of Mondays).
Got the money from ATM, eventually, and drove to patch our wheel, with no additional "case of Mondays". Patching the wheel cost us $600, approx. $6USD.
We drove to the Los Glaciares National park and parked at the parking area, took a shuttle to the observation area to the glacier, saw some big pieces of it crashing into the water, it was awesome !
Then Leandra's battery died ( "case of Mondays" ) had to go back to our car, get a new one, and go back to watch more of the amazing glacier!
(The glacier was surprisingly interesting and fun to watch. We'd stand there waiting for 15 minutes for something to happen and then crack something would!
We stopped at a mirador on the way back out and saw a beautiful view of the glacier AND a fox!)
Tonight we decided to camp for free at the park's campground, located only 28 kilometers from the glacier, but we discovered that we might not have enough gas to return to town if we would drive straight to camp, so we went to the town, got gas, got some food (steak) and went to the campground.
Food was awesome, and we both needed it for our tomorrows hike!!!
Overall today was an interesting day, a lot of “case of Mondays “ but everything ended up working out !
Day 11: February 22
Today we had a 6-7 mile hike planed in the morning and then we would drive all the way out to see some penguins.
We woke up, packed and drove to the trail head that was couple miles down the road.
Parked our car at the Cerro de los Cristales trailhead and started our hike.
(We heard chirping birds and Vitali spotted these parakeets in the tree! There were a bunch of them!)
The trail was not too steep at the beginning but today we had about 3500 feet of elevation gain which meant that the end of the trail promised to be something else. (There was another couple that we passed here that never made it up, we met them when we were all getting back to our cars at the bottom).
After about 2.5 miles we climbed only 2400 ft, and we were wondering is it gonna be super steep? And yes, it did not disappoint, the last 0.5 miles the grade changed to 24.5 degrees and officially became Cat 3 according to Strava!
I decided to do this part as fast as possible just because I saw that there was no segment up there and I wanted to create one!
It took me about 15 min to climb the last 0.5 miles and Leandra followed me with 20 min effort, great !
We were both up and the view was great! It was definitely worth the climb and we took many selfies and panoramic photos.
(In the distance we could see Torres del Paine PN in Chile, our next stop!)
(A bit closer, we also saw some unique plants.)
After some time we started our way down, and soon we saw some people climbing up, to which we said, “the fun is about to begin” ;)
I decided to create 2 segments on Strava, one would be the full hike segment:
And the other one would be the last 0.5 miles “where the fun begins“.
After creating those segments we both placed in top 10 overall .
After coming down to our car we started our drive to Penguins. Google says that it will take us 5 hours and so by the time we would get there it would be long dark. Our scheduled arrival was around 10 pm, however when we came by a police checkpoint just before turning to Penguins road, the guy said it will take us an additional 3 hours due to the road conditions which would put us around midnight.
(We argued with this guy in Spanish trying to tell him we knew it was a bad road, we were used to driving on bad roads in south america, and that yes, we really love penguins!)
We assured him that we know what we were doing and after him looking at our gas gauge (it was full) he said ok… good luck.
We turned into the road and the pavement disappeared, at first it was not too bad and I was able to drive around 50km/ hour, we had 124km to go… however the conditions got a bit more tricky when the sun set and the road became more unexpected with some deep pot holes and a lot of bumps which forced me to reduce the speed to 30km/ hour.
After 3 hours and 20 minutes the battle with shitty road and suicidal bunnies -- It looked like they were playing a game, who can run the longest in front of the car without being hit, and at the last moment jump to the side. No bunnies were harmed! -- were finished we pulled into a wild camp by the beach. (We passed a single small penguin walking along the track to the beach and didn't see any more. We hoped he was okay!)
It was 12:30 am and we made it, we quickly set up the van and went to sleep.
Day 12: February
Next morning we woke up around 6:30 and and drove to see the penguins.
We parked at the rangers house and walked about 1 mile and started to see penguins all over the place. (We smelled the penguins long before we saw them!)
Such cuties! These are Magellanic penguins. There were a fair amount of penguin corpses lying around too.
We also discovered that you can actually adopt a penguin of your very own!!!
This is done via the link below:
For your cool $59, you will get 8 updates per year, where your penguin is and what is it doing? Did it have chicks or did it find a mate, and also a photos of it. You will also get a notification if something happened to your penguin. All this data is of your penguin, not some penguin that they had walking around, but yours!
We thought that would be a great Christmas gift to maybe our families... Like, "hey Merry Christmas, we adopted a penguin for you, please name your penguin!"
All the money is going towards research!
Of course, there also an another side of it, only 20% of chicks makes it to be an adult penguin, so before adopting, ask yourself a question! If something happens to your penguin, and it does not come back or its transmission is gone, will you be ok?
Me personally, would rather not to know, I will ask them to NOT notify me if my penguin is missing! Just lie to me, you already have my cool $59! Or maybe you adopt 5 of them, so one of them will make it for sure, that's fine as well!
After spending some time admiring those cute guys we went back to our car and began to drive back.
The drive back took us only 2 hours and 15 minutes, I was able to drive way faster with daylight avoiding holes on unpaved road.
Today we had to cross back into Chile via the Monte Aymond border crossing and did not know how long it will take.
Crossing into Argentina took us only 30 min and was very easy, we did not expect the same easy crossing but also did not know what to expect …
Leandra wrote this on the overlander app about our paso experience.
(We have a rental vehicle with Chilean plates. Argentina migraciones and aduana took 20 minutes, easy. Chile on the other hand... they have a "sanitization break" from 13:00 to 14:00 and 17:30 to 18:30. We arrived right at the start of the lunch one and stood around in an unmoving line waiting, unsure of what was going on. Right at 14:00 someone came through the long line that had formed and grabbed people who were not crossing to Ushuaia but whose final destination was in Chile and directed them to another window at the Paso 1 Container. This guy checks your PCR results, pasaporte sanitario, and that you have 30k usd of medical insurance. The window says you need a mobility pass but they did not ask since it should be linked to the pasaporte sanitario. Then you go to the autobus to get a rapid antigen test and wait ten minutes for results. The lab stamps the paper that the first guy gave you (if all your documents were digital -- if not he stamps your paper copy of the pasaporte sanitario I believe). Then you take the stamped paper back to the Paso 1 Container and he stamps it again. Then you go into the building to give immigration the triplicate stamped paper from Paso 1, and to get your immigration stamp on the TIP, then pick up the declaration form for food, then to the aduana. Then you wander back to your car in a daze wondering where the heck you are and how long you had been there. Be prepared for hand to hand combat to get into the vehicle queue for the final step where they take the food declaration and your TIP, and inspect your vehicle. For us was a cursory look in one rear passenger door and the back of the van. It took 3 hours from entering the Argentina building and exiting the Chilean paso. Phew!)
We were back in Chile and decided to drive an additional 300 km to town, Punta Arenas and called it a day.
Next post will be covering the rest of our trip in Chile and the "O" Trek with 80 Miles / 130 kilometers round trip 8 day and 7 night adventure...
Stay tuned :)
great job!
meow Meow