January 10, 2023

Argentina to Chile

The bus ride from El Calafate in Argentina to the Hotel Rio Serrano, which is right outside of Torres del Paine National Park in Chile took about 6 hours. This included a stop at the Argentina border to go through customs. The custom office was a small building that can handle only a group at a time, so the bus drivers go inside and get us on the list. Luckily, we arrived just before a couple of other bus tours. When it was our turn, we all went inside and had our passports inspected. Argentina doesn’t stamp your passport, so everyone was kind of bummed about that. While waiting outside, we were entertained by herding dogs and gauchos on horses moving a large flock of sheep. It was amazing to watch.

We then got back on the bus to drive about 5 minutes to the Chilean border crossing. This was more intimidating because they have lots of rules about what can and cannot be brought into Chile. There was a form to fill out, our passports were inspected and stamped (yeah) and then our carry-ons were x-rayed. All the luggage on the bus was inspected by dogs. We were told that if the dogs are not there, all the luggage must be x-rayed which adds significant time to the border crossing.

Going thru this border crossing took longer than normal because the small group in front of us tried to smuggle a significant amount of fruit in their bags and in their van. Fruit is the biggest no-no and there are fines for bringing it in. All the fruit had to be weighed and then disposed of. We never did find out how big their fine was going to be. This process pulled away a couple of the employees so it meant everyone had to wait in line. Again, we were fortunate to be the next group because the line behind us continued to grow as more buses arrived.

We then had to get back in the bus to drive about 100 feet to the small souvenir store where we changed busses because the Argentinian driver could not drive in Chile. No one was allowed to make this short walk. This is the shop where I purchased my good luck Puma baseball cap. More on that later...

Scenery during the drive.

Most of the drive looked like this. The scenery on the Argentina side of Patagonia includes steppes, grasslands and deserts. Ranches are on both sides of the road with fences that go on for miles and miles.

Guanaco

Guanaco is a camelid native to South America, closely related to the llama. Guanaco are quite abundant and groups of guanaco are called herds. We saw them all over during our drives. The wool is very expensive. Guanaco meat is used for stews, fillets, and steaks.

Grey Fox

The grey fox is very elusive and fast. We did see a couple but I had to get this picture from the Internet.

Scenery during the drive.

Rhea

They are known as South American ostriches and are the largest birds in South America. We saw these on various ranches as we were driving.

Scenery during the drive.

Scenery during the drive.

The Chilean side of the border tends to be greener and more mountainous. The Andes Mountains are more noticeable.

Andean Condor

We were fortunate to see a couple of these condors. There are only about 6700 of them left in the wild. They are the largest flying bird in the world. They soar and circle on thermals. Both times we saw them, it was the shadow on the ground that would draw your attention first. According to Wikipedia, they can glide at speeds of up to 125 mph. This picture was taken by a woman on our bus.

Torres del Paine NP

A scenic outlook as we are heading down to our hotel. The small town is right outside the entrance to the national park. During the winter, only 2 ranchers stay while everything else shuts down because of the cold and snow.