Hola & Adiós Argentina

It was an anxious night’s sleep in O’Higgins. The wind howled and shook our tent, and we thought there was no way the boat would be crossing as scheduled, to finally begin our journey to Argentina. After being in this tiny town for over a week now waiting for this moment, we were not overly optimistic. We packed up our tent and walked through pitch darkness at 4.30am to the meeting point for the lucky 16 passengers on the first boat to attempt the crossing.

10 bikes and many bags were loaded onto a trailer, and we were driven down to the port. This was the true ‘Fin de la Carretera Austral’, and we took a half-asleep picture with the iconic sign before boarding our ‘ferry’. The boat wasn’t what we were expecting, it was quite small, with the bikes were stacked efficiently on the deck, and passengers inside a small cabin. It felt surreal, but we were finally on our way! Of the 16, 10 were bikepackers and 6 of us hikers.

The start of the voyage felt a little eerie, gliding across the freezing glacial waters in complete darkness. Jelley was rocked to sleep until we reached the exposed section of the lake, and we finally understood why the crossings kept getting cancelled. The wind was unrelenting, and the waters choppy, waves crashing over the boat.

The sun rose behind us, and we felt even more exposed now that we could see our surroundings and the size of the waves. There would be some wet and salty bikes at the end of this! It was super rough, yet we got the impression we had already gone so far that there was no turning back. On the other side at Candelario Mancilla, many more travellers were stranded at a very basic campsite, hopeful of travelling to O’Higgins, surviving on eggs and any food incoming hikers had brought with them. Many had abandoned mission as the days dragged on.

On our arrival, 3 hours later, we found out from the captain that a second, slightly larger and slower boat, had also attempted the crossing shortly after ours, but had abandoned mission and returned back to O’Higgins with the next departure date unknown.

We felt grateful to be safely on the other side, released from our purgatory in paradise.

There was little information available on this border crossing, except one very informative blog post online from 2016, and through a conversation with one traveller we had met that successfully completed it in the other direction. This was the first season the border checkpoint had reopened since the pandemic, so any intel we did have was potentially incorrect anyway. One thing Jelley had discovered in her research was that it was extremely important to exit Chile formally at the border patrol office, before embarking on the 20km (12.5 mile) hike to the border entry point in Argentina. There were rumours of unfortunate travellers before us who had missed this crucial step, only to be ordered to return the 20km back to Chile to receive the passport stamp before returning to the Argentinian checkpoint. As we approached the office, we could see how easily the hand-painted sign could be missed, and we had received no instruction to go here from the boat.

Luckily we had also read in advance about the importance of keeping a tiny piece of paper we were given when entering Chile at Santiago Airport, which looked like little more than a receipt and is often thrown away. This was essential to have when exiting the country and we handed it over with our passports, waited a bit for some kind of security check, then we were on our way.

We leap-frogged back and forth with the bikepackers, as it was a bit of a climb and pushing their heavy bikes was at times harder than us just carrying our packs.

We had made the mistake of getting too much food in O’Higgins before we left (the supermercado was the one place that intermittently accepted card payments) , and had to carry all of this. Jelley did sacrifice her carton of ‘Gato’ cheap wine - it wasn’t worth carrying the extra weight, and a glass of red would be much more satisfying once we reached the town of El Chaltén in 2 days. We were extremely tired from a restless night’s sleep and early start, but knew we had a long day ahead.

This was ‘no man's land’; pure, rugged nature surrounded us. It was a stunning day, we were filled with gratitude being in this beautiful place in the world on a perfect day with every step we took. We enjoyed lunch in a meadow and continued the somewhat slow journey to Argentina. We passed the official ‘leaving Chile, entering Argentina’ signs, but still had a distance to hike before the border entry point. While there was no vehicle transport along the trail, we did encounter a somewhat abandoned random gravel air strip!

It was a special moment as we saw the iconic Mt Fitzroy in the distance. Some people visit Patagonia and never even get to see this peak, as it is often submerged in cloud. It is a unique and recognizable formation, best known from featuring on the Patagonia clothing logo, and has inspired many to explore the area.

With just 2 kilometres to go, we were fatigued. We hadn’t seen anyone else for a while, and had unknowingly ventured off the trail! There were no trail markings or map provided, so it had become a bit of a mental workout once we arrived on the less-maintained and narrower Argentinian side of the trail, and we hadn’t referenced our offline maps on the phone for a while. Once we realised we were at a dead-end near a small river, we had a bit of ‘bush bashing’ to get up the hillside back to the trail again. Luckily we had still been heading in the right direction, and correctly assumed if we continued following the river it would eventually arrive at our destination, being Lago Del Desierto (the desert lake). The extra 45 minutes felt like an eternity after a long day.

It was such a feeling of relief as we arrived at the border checkpoint - we were the last to arrive! This border checkpoint was even more remote than that in Chile, with the military guys stationed there keen for a bit of banter, loving the opportunity to chat with the foreigners that occasionally passed through. It was an extremely windy, exposed spot, but after getting our passports stamped we were able to camp for free here. The same military immigration officials invited us to a cooked dinner they would prepare for just US$2 each, but we were simply too exhausted to stay up until 9pm for their dinner and we wanted to lighten our load by cooking our pasta, then hit the pillow to get as much rest as possible.

Our fellow adventurers were getting creative, trying to build wind barriers with fallen logs, but we simply couldn’t find a spot that felt more secure than any others to escape the infamous Patagonian winds. Our tent would be truly put to the test! Wind tunnels were forming on the lake, and we could only imagine how spectacular Mt Fitzroy would be from this spot, but alas, it was shrouded in clouds as it often is.

We had a decision to make for the next day. There were 2 options - to continue hiking another potential 10-15km (everyone told us a different distance and difficultly level), around Lago Del Desierto to the nearest road end, or to take a ferry across the glacial lake which would take just 30 minutes. The forecast wasn’t looking great. A few of the bikers were trying to convince us to take the boat so we could accompany their bikes across and they could walk to save some money (the trail was impassable by bike as it was so narrow). The cost of this boat was a somewhat ridiculous $120USD each for a 30minute ride, whereas the boat for 3 hours the day prior had been much better value at $80USD. The other issue was at the end of the lake, we would still be 37km from the nearest town of El Chaltén, and had to rely on a bus being available to take us into town on arriving - if we took the boat we could pre-book an expensive bus with the same company, if we walked it would be dependent on a seat being available and negotiating a price on arrival. This would become tomorrow’s problem to deal with.

We were too exhausted to make this decision before going to sleep and decided to assess how our bodies felt and the weather in the morning. We slept for 11 hours !! It poured with rain and howled with wind throughout the night - we realised this was actually the first time we’d used our tent in the rain, as we had taken the option to stay in a cabin the first sign the weather looked bad earlier in our travels. Our little home did its job and kept us dry during its first real test.

We woke up feeling motivated, and determined to finish the journey by foot. Luke wasn’t quite as keen, and was feeling the pain of carrying a (slightly) heavier load, but we knew this was a unique experience and the feeling of accomplishment (and extra USD in our pocket) would make it all worth it.

Unlike the dry, sunny day prior, we contended with typical Patagonian weather today - it was windy, wet, sunny, dry, windy and wet again, multiple times in the hour. It ended up being 13 kilometres (but still felt like 20 with our backpacks and frontpacks), and we were so relieved to make it to the carpark at the end! This was a popular day trip destination for tourists from El Chaltén, and we were so happy to see other people, cars and buses around, for a chance of getting a ride to town. Upon arrival, it absolutely poured with rain, and we took turns asking every bus and van driver if they had 2 spare seats to buy a ticket. They were all completely full. Deflated (not for the first time this week!), we stowed our packs under the shelter of trees and stuck our thumbs out to try to hitch a ride in a car.

The carpark steadily emptied, and we were out of luck. By chance, we noticed one more tour van that didn’t look familiar from our initial walk around. We were hopeful as we approached, and overjoyed when they did indeed have 2 seats left for us to squeeze in! After having delayed this journey so long already, and being soaked through, we were extremely pleased not to have to go with our backup plan of camping by the lake in the rain to get a bus in the morning.

We fell asleep immediately on the bus journey into town, both unaware and unconcerned if our fellow day-tripping passengers thought we were totally disgusting, wet and a little stinky. It was a bizarre feeling when we arrived in town, we hadn't comprehended just how remote we had been on the Carretera Austral, where it was speaking in Spanish or nada.

El Chaltén is a town located inside a national park, and is the self-proclaimed ‘trekking centre of Argentina’, specifically designed for the hoards of tourists who embark on the region every summer. It truly felt like we were back in the 21st century again after going back in time on the Carretera Austral. The signs were in English, many roads were paved, and we were relieved to easily find wifi, exchange the USD we had carefully carried with us for the past month, have a cheap meal with good food, and a hot shower and comfortable bed to sleep in again. It felt like weeks since we were last in a bed with a roof over our heads, but in reality had been just 2 nights. Everything immediately felt a lot easier, and although we missed the challenge and isolation a little bit, it was a welcome change to be in familiar territory again.

Having arrived safely in Argentina, we quickly noticed some obvious differences to Chile. First and foremost, there was a noticeable emphasis on tourist infrastructure (i.e. tour companies, accommodation, restaurants, etc.). The second interesting difference was the value of the Argentinian Peso (ARS), and various exchange rates. Jelley had been in the capital city of Buenos Aires briefly back in 2015, but the difference between the official exchange rate and any other "blue" or "black" market rate was so minimal it wasn't worth investigating further. However, things have taken a turn for the worse for the Argentinian Economy, accelerated with the pandemic, and there were significant differences in the value of the ARS.

With multiple exchange rates and systems to access ARS, it was extremely complex and a lot to wrap our heads around. We're still not sure we understand 100%, but here's our summary from 5 days in Argentina.

Officially, when we were in Argentina in late February 2023,1 USD = 196ARS (and today, 1 July 2023 1USD=256 ARS), which is the rate most people get withdrawing cash from ATMs.

In November 2022, in an effort to combat the runaway inflation and stabilise the multiple exchange rates, the Argentinian government negotiated an agreement with Visa and Mastercard to offer an alternative exchange rate for credit card purchases from international cards only, known as the MEP rate. This was slowly being implemented while we were in Argentina, with some transactions taking weeks to self-correct to reimburse the difference in rates, and it could be somewhat hit-and-miss. Both the Mastercard and Visa websites have a vague explanation of what this rate is, but it still isn't very clear. Credit card payment was also not accepted everywhere, sometimes had additional fees, and often would be charged in USD by the vendor at the official rate, so the MEP rate wasn't guaranteed. In addition to this, there is a the 3rd unofficial rate, the "blue rate" is the rate accepted on the street, mostly commonly offered through restaurants, shops and hotels, where USD cash can be directly exchanged at a daily rate usually published on a hand-written piece of paper in a shopfront window. It felt like the 'black market', but it was really common and openly advertised. We had never done this anywhere else in the world, but with such a big difference from the official rate, it was the option we went with and we had brought several hundred USD with us for this reason to exchange on arrival, even though we didn't really understand how it all worked.

The fourth avenue, with usually the most favourable rate, is through Western Union , where a tourist would open a Western Union account in their home country, transfer the money to themselves to then make a withdrawal from a physical WU outlet in Argentina. The problem with this is the Western Union opening hours could be extremely unreliable, and they would often run out of cash or have maximum withdrawal limits, resulting in a lot of wasted time and multiple trips required. We saw many long queues around blocks for hours at WUs in the next town El Calafate, and there was no WU in El Chaltén.

In February 2023, 1 USD equalled:

• Official rate (cash from ATM) = 190ARS

• MEP (paying with credit card) = 290ARS

• Blue rate (exchanging USD cash on the street): 320ARS

• Western Union (lining up for hours to withdraw from a WU office) = 350ARS

As an example, if you booked a hotel room at 20,000 ARS per night, you could be paying $105 , $68, $63 or $57 depending if you withdrew money from the ATM, paid by credit card, exchanged USD cash at the blue rate, or withdrew from your Western Union account.

As at 1 July 2023, 1USD equals:

• Official rate = 256 ARS

• MEP (credit card) = 449 ARS

• Blue rate (exchanging USD cash on the street) = 480 ARS

• Western Union (lining up for hours to withdraw from a WU office) = 503 ARS

So if the same hotel room still cost 20,000 ARS per night, this would be a range of $78 to $39. Although the hotel owner would have probably increased the price of the room to 30,000 ARS by this stage.

Depending on how you obtained your Argentinian Pesos and make payments, Argentina is either an extremely affordable country to travel in , or just a moderately affordable one. These varying exchange rates obviously favour the tourist, with locals unable to obtain these same exchange rates and their currency steadily losing value. We really felt for Argentinian people suffering from this crisis, and those we talked to felt somewhat helpless in this situation entirely out of their control. Buenos Aires was a long way from Patagonia (2,600km!), but their decisions still had a huge impact on the daily lives of these hard-working locals.

To make things even harder, the largest note in Argentina is 1,000 pesos (equivalent to about $3) so that meant that we had to carry around huge wads of cash on us to purchase small items. Wild! Apparently the government have approved and plan to roll out a 2,000 peso note, which will still be less than 10USD in value at the official rate, and who knows how much when they are finally in distribution.

That's our best attempt at explaining the complicated economic and political minefield of Argentinian currency, which continues to be in a never-ending downward spiral.

We walked down to the bus station and bought our onward bus ticket to El Calafate for the next day - unfortunately with the week we stayed in O’Higgins, we had lost valuable hiking time here - we had initially planned for 10 days in Argentina (1 week in El Chalten and 3 days in El Calafate), but had to keep moving to get back into Chile to the town of Puerto Natales in 4 just days time!

Hiking was the last thing we felt like doing, but our accommodation host encouraged us to book the 6pm evening bus and go for one of the ‘shorter’ walks the next morning - Laguna Torre, a 5 hour 20km hike. The forecast was for rain, but luckily it never eventuated. It was a long but flat walk, and felt so good not to be carrying any weight. This trail felt crowded after our time in near solitude. We reached an extremely windy and cold glacial lake, with plenty of icebergs floating in it, pieces broken off from the glacier above. The gusts felt gale-force along the ridge line, and while we were a little over it, we were pleased we'd at least done one walk in this hiker's mecca.

We popped into the local panadería (bakery) for a well-deserved treat - only $3 for 2 empanadas and 2 cookies! After connecting to the wifi again at the local bus station, we double-checked what day of the week it was, and realised we actually had 3 nights left in Argentina, not 2. Bonus night! We spent a bit of time finding a decent place to stay in El Calafate, and decided to ‘treat’ ourselves to a lovely hotel to avoid camping in the high Patagonian winds blasting through. Our trip was nearing the end, and we knew we had another 8 nights of camping and hiking ahead of us. It was time to rest and recover!

Along with the excellent food in Argentina, Jelley was keen to enjoy some quality wine - just $2 per bottle for a world class Mendoza Malbec! Her love for red wine first developed during a short visit to Buenos Aires in 2015 - prior to this, her association with red wine was the ‘blood of Christ’ (Catholic school). Malbec changed everything and opened her eyes to the world of a nice, full-bodied red wine.

We took a comfortable, somewhat empty, double-decker bus for the 3 hour ride south to El Calafate. A couple of local entrepreneurial kids were loading luggage onto buses, blatantly ignoring the signs saying this is not allowed, and demanded cash to stow the bag. Luckily we had some small change on standby, and didn't have to enter a pointless argument like other gringos. Of course, any local people on the buses didn't pay these cheeky kids.

It was a scenic journey as the Argentinian Patagonia transitioned from mountain ranges and glaciers, to steppe. Vast, open spaces shaped by the howling winds, which had been moulded into high country ‘estancias’ (farms) by colonists from the late 18th century onwards. The landscape was beautiful, and the comparison was made again to the South Island of New Zealand, perhaps Central Otago this time. We could imagine dinosaurs roaming here many years ago and the scenes sparked our imaginations. The colours were crisp - a glacial blue lake contrasting with the bare, dry land around. The odd stock was grazing, looking almost out of place amongst the nothingness. A herd of guanacos was unperturbed as our bus drove by, and there were signs that development and the increasing number of visitors to the region hadn’t completely disturbed their peace yet.

Billboards greeted us as we approached El Calafate. It was a bit of an odd town, the population had exploded from just 6,000 inhabitants in 2010 to over 28,000 in 2022. It was a readjustment for us being around so many people again! We walked from the bus station to our hotel on the outskirts of town, then wandered into the town centre. Huge tourist souvenir shops lined the main street, with tour agencies selling tickets to the region’s biggest drawcard, Perito Moreno glacier, dotted in between. While the main tourist street was welcoming, leafy and bustling, just a few blocks away, the streets told a different story, of Argentina’s collapsing currency and difficult living crisis. Some streets felt a little sketchy, with police cars cruising by, as we avoided unfriendly ‘guard dogs’ and tried to navigate back to the more manicured town centre. It felt like a contrast from the comparatively wealthier Chile - noticeable through the cheaper cost of food, broken exchange rate, very old cars and general vibe since arriving in Argentina.

The walk along the lakefront was beautiful, and we spotted flocks of pink flamingos bordering a native bird sanctuary. The boardwalk on the lake may have been falling apart, but the scenery and wildlife distracted us from this, as did the extremely strong winds.

Our first day in El Calafate was a rest day - catching up on much-needed laundry, life admin (with great wifi!), eating great food and chilling out.

Although we had seen many glaciers (and even trekked on one!) up to this point, we felt it was necessary to check out the main attraction of the area, Perito Moreno glacier, and set about arranging this for the next day. Jelley was over organising things via WhatsApp and Google Translate (and never really knowing they were confirmed or not), so Luke took the reigns on this one and found the handwritten piece of paper at the bus station with the contact number to book it in. We were ready and waiting at 12.45pm for our 1pm pickup, but by 1.30pm we weren’t so sure the bus was coming to us, and questioned if we should’ve gone back to the bus station. There was no sign of a bus, but what seemed to be a local in a white car with bright pink seats pulled over and asked if we were going to the glacier. We were understandably uncertain and wondered if this was a scam, but after some questioning we discovered this guy had our names and details, and could indeed be our tour guide for the day!

After some discussion in our broken Spanish to ensure we weren’t being ‘taken’, we think we established the original vehicle potentially broken down but we would now have our own private tour instead of a group bus! The driver was super friendly, and complimented our Spanish (although we’re not sure if that was genuine or not!).

The first stop was at the National Park entrance booth to get our entrance tickets. We were surprised to be greeted by a room filled with literally piles of Argentinian Peso cash laying around, seemingly losing value by the hour. It appeared to be one ranger’s job simply to be constantly loading up the cash into toolboxes and driving it back into the city.

There are many ways to experience Perito Moreno - from walking the boardwalks, to boat tours across the lake, and trekking on the glacier. Lots of options at the glacier, from walking the boardwalks to boat tours to trekking on the glacier. The VIP experience even includes a shot of whisky served with ice carved from the glacier! We opted to just enjoy the glacier by the boardwalks, and to be honest, didn’t have high expectations of what we expected to be no more impressive than anything we had already seen in Patagonia.

We were immediately blown away by the size and scale of the glacier, even as we first spotted it in the distance, and as we drove closer, the absolute enormity of it hit us! Part of the Southern Patagonian Icefield, it is the third largest glacier in Argentina (and South America!). 5 kilometres (3.1miles) wide, and the viewable section 70 metres (230ft) high above the water level.

This was an extraordinary experience, and even though it was a really popular spot to visit, the different activity options and the layout of the boardwalks

to view from land by foot meant it was easy to enjoy the natural phenomenon in solitude. We heard thundering noises echo throughout the valley, with parts of the glacier crumbling away through a process called ‘calving’. It was so impressive! Despite this, the Perito Moreno glacier is one of the very few in the world which is currently still growing instead of shrinking.

We went out to a highly recommended restaurant for dinner, Pura Vida, where we enjoyed an exceptional last meal in Argentina. This was the best food we had eaten since arriving in South America! Sitting at the table next to us was Hugo & Sandra, a French couple who had also hiked the O’Higgins border crossing earlier in the week! We had wondered where they had slept that night next to the Argentinian border patrol, as they didn’t travel with a tent and we didn’t see them the next day. Somehow, they managed to score a once-in-a-lifetime experience with a gorgeous lakefront cabana and private dinner cooked for them by the immigration officials, all for just $20! They had left before us in the morning, also choosing to hike rather than take the over-priced boat, and tried to get the 1pm scheduled bus, but arrived 20 mins later and managing to book for a 5pm bus. They avoided the downpour of rain in the visitor’s centre, while we had arrived around 3pm, trying to hitch a ride in the pouring rain and never saw them! It was great to reconnect and share stories on our time in Argentina over the past few days. Hopefully we will cross paths with them somewhere in the world again!

We continued to be the only successful crossing of the week by the time we left Argentina 5 days later, with many others still stuck on the other side of paradise.

It was already time to say Adiós to Argentina, we had such a small (yet delicious) taste for this diverse country, and is definitely somewhere we’d love to return to and travel in more depth. We boarded our bus to Puerto Natales, Chile, and somehow scored the front seats with the best view into the sunset! We were a little nervous with the border crossing (Chile have strict biosecurity rules about bringing in food and plant products, much like New Zealand!), but we were let through with our packaged food, got our entry ‘receipt’ pieces of paper again, and arrived into the trekking hub town of Puerto Natales just before dark.

It was freezing, and we realised just how far south we had come now since first arriving in Santiago 6 weeks prior. It was now 1 March, and we were just one day away from hiking 8 days through the iconic Torres Del Paine National Park.

Until then,

- A Kiwi and A Cali

P.S. - This blog was written while waiting in virtual queue to buy Taylor Swift tickets over 2 days. Perseverance paid off, and our Swiftie friends are going to Sydney!