Ill and föurty

After the rain started it rapidly developed into snow and this was still ok for the chilenean border control, but as soon as we crossed the actual border the street pavement vanished and the road very fast became a muddy dirt road, especially because of the rain and snow. Linda was driving and we were really happy to have a 4×4 van at this point. Even with the 4×4 turned on it was pretty slippery and the snow fall became stronger and stronger. After passing the chubbiest border patrol house we have been at so far for Argentina we were driving in a snow covered country side. Everything was white, while we could watch Andean condors flying by and foxes strolling through the white landscape. After a while the road became better and we made some kilometres.

At one crossing, that I had seen on the map before, I told Linda to turn left on 70km unpaved road, which would be a shortcut compared to the 180 km paved road. But the road was in bad conditions and after 15 km and some discussions we decided to turn around. It was not even a road in bad conditions, It was almost like driving on a freshly harvested field with rocks the size of a head all over the street. Afterwards we checked iOverlander and there it was clearly advised to NOT take the road. Lessen learned: Always check in iOverlander first. After the detour and almost two hours lost time, we stopped at a gas station and stayed the night there. It was the worst night I had so far on the trip and the gas station was not the reason. I had incredibly strong stomach cramps and even the painkillers did not help at all. Next morning I was a complete mess and Linda drove the missing 2h to El Calafate where we checked in a camp ground, that we had completely for ourself…. and it was just in time for me. I did not know what kind of virus I had caught but I was completely out of order for the rest of the day and the full next day, that I spent in bed and on the toilet. I was happy and grateful to have Linda with me and really struggling to drink enough water and tea to compensate for the liquids I lost…. I know that is part of travelling as well. The last time I had such a bad virus was while I was travelling alone in Guatemala and I felt way better with Linda at my side this time. Linda used my bed time to wash some clothes and read. The heavy wind did not allow for anything else. Even though the camp ground was wind sheltered Rosi was shaking.

Luckily enough the next day I felt way better and by coincidence it was my 40th birthday. So we started the day slowly and planed a first trip again to the Glacier Perito Moreno. We have seen pictures before, but when we arrived in light rain and saw the glacier for the first time while walking the trail we were stunned. The ice wall at the end of the glacier is up to 70 meters high in the middle, 30m on one side and 40m on the other. It is pretty much the prefect glacier to look at, because the viewpoint on a peninsula you  look directly at the end of the glacier. This peninsula and the glacier separate two lakes from each other and unlike most of the the glaciers from the big southern ice field, the Perito Moreno glacier has been in an equilibrium state for decades and is declining faster only since 2020. Before that the glacier hit the peninsula and functioned as an ice dam that blocked off the water flow between the two lakes. That lead to a water level rise of the one lake of up to 30m until the ice breaks again and an equal water level was reestablished.

The Southern Patagonian Ice Field, located in the southern Andes between Argentina and Chile, is the world’s second-largest contiguous extrapolar ice field and „is home to“ approximately 48 glaciers, most of which (but not all) are rapidly declining, mainly due to climate change. Of course this is a huge and very important fresh water source. The boarder between Chile and Argentina runs through this ice field and is part of a border dispute that is not yet cleared. If you look at the official maps, you either do not find a border or see just a big rectangle over the disputed area. 

The place is just amazing and we took thousands of pictures from every angle or caught ourself just staring into the deep blue of the crevasses in the glacier. None of the pictures shown here do justice to actually being in front of this incredible force of nature. Every now and than you could hear pieces of Ice falling down the front lip and the sounds were like gunshots at the end of our visit a huge part broke down and it sounded like an incredible thunder. It is still hard to put into words how impressive this glacier is and how much it is a sign of what we as humans are jeopardising by not being able to slow down climate change…

Here is some glacier porn:

After visiting the glacier we drove back to El Calafate, which is named after the Calafate berry (similar to a blackberry but less sweet), which is typical for Patagonia. There is the tale that, if you taste a Calafate you will return to Patagonia. (I haven’t tried a fresh one yet, but if calafate jam counts as well, we will be back for sure)In town we sat down in a very cute little germany bakery. We decided to not go out for a big dinner, since I was not back at 100%, but a tiny piece of birthday cake we both wanted to try. 

After coming back late that evening, we found out that the camp ground had locked the toilets, that have been my second home for the last two days and we left early to our first visit at a mechanic. Since the bad road we had a loud sound every now and than in the front left shock absorber and wanted to make sure that everything is fine. We found a recommended mechanic at the outskirts of town and after walking through a pile of old mate tea, that had just been thrown in front of the door, I found Nico sipping a mate in his workshop. He was really friendly and said that he will have a look at it later that day and we shall come back at 4pm. After a coffee house visit, grocery shopping and visiting the glacier museum we came back and Nico immediatley looked at Rosi. Even more I was impressed by his colleague who was the perfect symbiosis between himself and his cigarette while leaning deep in the wheel cases of our van. After 30min Nico explained me that all was fine and only one part of the steering module has a little too much movement which can make loud noises and need to be fixed at some point in the future but was not a security issue. I asked him how much he wanted and he said: „Nothing“…. I did not know what to answer. There were two people in a two person workshop, so 100% of the workforce that worked each 30min on a Friday afternoon and he did not want to have anything….  The only idea I had was to give him all the Uruguayan Mate I had left, since I have heard that it is different than the Argentinien one. He accepted that as a „payment“ and we still talked a little about our trip before we drove of in the wind in the direction of El Chalten.

P.S.: Feel free to check out our planned rout and the places we actually and up on our Route. It does not always correlate to the blog posts, but that way you see where we are…. more or less.