After we left Torres del Paine we headed straight back into Argentina. The border formalaties took longer then usual this time because the Chilenian border guy never saw a Thai passport in his life and did not know what to do with it – but of course in the end it was just the usual exit stamp. Once we crossed the border the scenery changed again dramatically and leveled out to be rather flat. We headed up north on Ruta 40 through Argentina. Just 50 km from the border was a 60 km shortcut – well that is what we thought!. It ended up being the worst gravel road I ever drove on a bike and the torrential rain didn’t really help. The road turned into a wild river after just 20 km and by the time we reached the asphalt again we were wet to the bone. Luckily we had a hotel booked for that night to warm up and get dry again. The day after we headed out to the Moreno Glacier. I have seen a fair amount of glaciers in my life but the Moreno glacier is truly breathtaking! The blue is so clear and the constant cracking and shifting of the glacier makes you feel small. We spend the whole afternoon at the glacier and every time I looked back at it I wanted to take more pictures – what a fantastic place. After a second night in El Calafate we headed further on to El Chalten – the mountaineering capital of Argentina. On the way towards El Chalten the Fitz Roy group and Cerro Torre were totally clear. Sadly that was the only time we saw the mountains without clouds. After this the next 6 days the mountain never peeked out of the clouds. We did go on some nice hikes around the national park though and camped in the mounatins for a night. After El Chalten the Ruta 40 called again. We managed to get easy through another 60km stretch of gravel. By now the strong winds of Patagonia are normal to us and even the 100km/h side winds don’t bother us too much anymore. We are heading back to Chile and towards the Carretera Austral now ....
Stay tuned for the next update....
some memories from the road