Chile Chico

Day 72 – From one windswept outpost to another

The bus rolled into Perito Moreno in the middle of the afternoon. Like the glacier, the town is named after Argentine geographer Francisco Moreno who extensively explored the area and disproved several Chilean land claims in the area by demonstrating that many lakes belonged to the Atlantic basin, not the Pacific. Unlike the glacier, which is quite scenic, Perito Moreno doesn’t have much going for it, and we were soon on another bus toward Los Antiguos, a bit more scenic sitting on the shore of Lago Buenos Aires, but equally windswept and remote.

Onto the day’s third bus for a quick hop across the border to neighbouring Chile Chico. The Argentines insisted on hand searching our bags on the way out of the country (but wouldn’t say why) and the Chileans did it again on the way into Chile (this time out in the wind with all our possessions threatening to blow away). We’d been listening to people complaining about how strict Chilean customs are about bringing in food and about all these people who got fined hundreds of dollars. But we just showed the guy all our food, he picked out a couple of things we weren’t allowed, complimented me on my Spanish (!) and we were on our way.

The tourist office in town gave us current ferry times and pointed us toward the office. When we got to the office all the times turned out to be wrong, but we got a boat the next morning all the same.

Day 73 – Hitchhiking = fail

The ‘Pilchero’ ferried us across the lake. On board were a couple of Australians who’d been caught out by the randomised ferry timetable and were rushing to meet their flight north to Santiago. Paul and I made occasional dashes onto the freezing cold deck to take photos of the deep blue lake and rocky coastline while our wives sat inside in the warm!

El Pilchero

Clouds threatening to envelope the Andes

Two types of whitecaps

From Puerto Ibanez where the ferry dropped us we could only get a bus to within 10km of our destination. So we started walking figuring we’d be able to thumb a ride before long. There was no shortage of traffic but it seems that the locals are a bit sick of hitchhikers along the Carretera Austral so two hours later we had walked all the way into Villa Cerro Castillo.

Still optimistic at that stage

Erin’s canine photography tour continues, this time the dog that befriended her while I was off looking for a campground.

And the dog that befriended us once we’d set up camp.