Strait of Magellan

From Friday December 1 to Tuesday December 12, from El Calafate to San Sebastian on the Argentinian border

Wind, pampas and borders

This December 1st we leave El Calafate, very early to avoid the strong afternoon wind. During the following three days, we will cross the Argentine pampas. Arid and desert areas where nothing grows. The guanacos , on the other hand, are present there in very large numbers and seem to feel comfortable there. The first evening we arrive at Claudio’s house, the road guard. He ensures their good condition and clears them of snow in winter. We camp on the porch of his house. The following day after 70km of poor quality gravel path and a strong headwind, we slept in an old bungalow at Damien’s. The third day the wind still made life just as difficult. We cross the border posts of Argentina and Chile located in the middle of nowhere, we camp under a bus shelter in Cerro Castillo.

A buoyant wind and yet another bus station

After a more than quiet night, this December 4 we leave very early again. Today luck is with us, we have the wind at our backs and we quickly arrive in Puerto Natales, a pretty little town. Along the way we had the opportunity to observe numerous flights of vultures. We also found nature more abundant with trees but unfortunately many died, the reason seeming to be linked to climate change.
The following 2 days the wind pushed us, we drove regularly at more than 30km/h, what a pleasure. In Tehuelches we sleep again in a bus station. On December 7 we reached Punta Arenas. A city of 130,000 inhabitants without much originality located along the Strait of Magellan. It makes its living from fishing, sheep farming, the mining industry and tourism. We stayed there for 4 days while waiting for a boat to continue our journey.

The king penguin and friendly customs officers

After 4 very quiet nights we take a ferry and cross the Strait of Magellan. We dock in the tiny port of Porvenir where we don’t linger. We again take a dirt road “called Ripio in Spanish”. We drive again in the wide open spaces of the pampas where the landscape seems frozen, only the guanacos are having fun there. Tonight we sleep in an estancia in the middle of nowhere.

After a very refreshing night we continue our journey and always with a favorable wind. On the way we visit the king penguin park. A colony was established on an arm of the sea about fifteen years ago. There are now around 200 of them and are subject to exceptional protection; they are an endangered species. The end of the day brings us at stratospheric speed to the Argentinian customs post. With the agreement of the customs officers we sleep in the kitchen of the border post, well sheltered.

Our journey

During these 12 days we covered 791 km. A route that you can find on our map by clicking on this link

Met :

• Charlotte and Yannik, a German couple, on their way to Alaska.
• Carlos an amazing person of 74 years old, he insisted on offering us cakes and coffee. He lives alone with his cat in an old bus 60km from the first village and without electricity. It feeds on fishing.
• Daniel, an Uruguayan also on his way to Ushuaïa

Did you know: penguins and penguins have two fundamental differences. The first do not fly and live in the southern hemisphere. The latter reside in the northern hemisphere and can fly.