Riding Patagonia's Open Spaces to reach Ushuaia
Update 6 (mid to late December 2022)
El Calafate to Ushuaia, Argentina
El Calafate was a fun town but it was time to move on. The town looked pretty good early the next morning, after celebrating the World Cup Final win. There was still a bit of cleaning happening.
It was getting closer to Christmas and I wanted to find somewhere nice to spend the Christmas period. Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina was my best option but still a fair way to go.
There was also a ferry trip and a couple of border crossings to get my head around.
The country was pretty dry and sparse after leaving El Calafate. After a while I got to a turn off that looked like a potential shortcut. I also noticed what I thought was a fuel truck coming out, so thought it must be a pretty decent road and took it.
There was about 40km of unsealed road until the main road again.
There were some wetlands in the low laying spots.
After about 10km it became obvious they were not fuel trucks but carrying water from Destacamento tomas sosa.
Destacamento tomas sosa and the mountains.
This was the second lot of Flamingos that I had come across in Argentina. They seem pretty shy and hard to get close to.
Abandoned bridge where I stopped for a break and a snack. Beautiful clear water with a couple of people fishing.
The border crossing from Argentina into Chile at Doretea was pretty routine and I forgot to take any photos. The exit from Argentina was fine and everything went okay with the bike.
This was a more traditional crossing with a no mans land of a few kilometres separating the two buildings.
Getting into Chile was fine also. Both countries seem to struggle with my Australian motorcycle registration paperwork. It doesn’t help that it is only in English but I think they expect a more official card or document which is fair enough, the Australian paperwork just looks like I could have typed it up myself. I now try to circumvent this by confirming it is an Australian moto and pointing out the número de placa.
Chile is also strict about bringing in plant material and I had forgotten to throw away some banana skins from my lunch. That caused a bit of fuss but I had declared them, so all was okay.
This is my Puerto Natales cabin below, that I just found while driving by. You normally get a better price this way, than using Booking.com. It can just be a bit hit and miss, but this one was okay.
As it turned out there was a Canadian motorcycling couple staying also and I caught up with them in the morning. They had ridden all the way from Canada and were heading south also. They gave me a good tip on the local ferry company here, that also runs the one further south from Puerto Arenas to Porvenir. And that I could buy a ticket here rather than risk not getting one down the road.
The ride to Puerto Arenas was simple, although I should have planned better on finding the actual ferry terminal.
Sniffer dog?
I met up with the Canadians at the front of the ferry queue. It was very helpful chatting to them. By now I had lots of questions about the details of life on a motorbike in South America and they were the first English speaking people I had come across, and were very happy to help.
We were due to arrive at Porvenir at 7:30pm. It’s a small town with few accommodation options but I had found a hotel room (suspiciously cheap though) and told them about the place, which they also booked.
The ferry ride took about 2.5 hours. Unfortunately the Canadians got an email that there was a mistake with their booking and no room was available, so I don’t know how they got on after riding off the ferry.
It was a decent size ferry with two levels of parking.
This is a good example of one way street signs in country Chile and Argentina. Easy to miss.
My accommodation turned out very well. I don’t know why a single room was so cheap but the building was almost fully renovated and very nice. I think they may have also made a mistake with my booking also, but instead of being turned away, I ended up with a beautiful “Junior Suite”.
I found the Porvenir Sushi Shop.
Simple but tasty, crumbed chicken with fresh chives and cream cheese.
I spent the night in Porvenir and then moved on. There was about 60km of unsealed road after Porvenir, the first section along the coast was particularly nice.
After a while I joined up with the main road south to Ushuaia. I also crossed back into Argentina at the San Sebastián border crossing.
It’s interesting how the geography of my location is having such an influence. The days are quite long lasting from 5am to about 11pm. And my GPS seemed to be having trouble picking up any satellites at times, and I was far from any mobile phone service. And it is getting quite cold.
I had booked an apartment for 6 nights in Ushuaia and was met by a lovely lady that spoke some pretty good English.
The apartment was nice and super warm, with under floor heating. Although it was further from anything than I expected. There was a supermarket handy but town and any restaurants were a fair distance. And it was cold. We had a dusting of snow on the local mountains for a couple of mornings. I walked into town for lunch on Christmas Eve but it was a super windy and a cold walk. So Christmas ended up a very quiet one.
Looking from town back towards my apartment building with the black block.
One of my neighbours was in a little trouble for a while, with a small fire in their roof.
Looking from town back towards my apartment building with the black block.
Looking across at the fresh snow from my balcony.
El Calafate Celebrations, Argentina
Update 5 (mid December 2022)
Ushuaia to Rio Gallegos, Argentina
Update 7 (late December 2022)