Or Dummies guide to getting Across the Chile Argentinian Border!
It seems that wherever we have had to purchase an entry to a Government run park or cross a border, that there are three defined steps posted on the windows.
- Fill a Form
- Take form to next window and pay.
- Take receipt and form to window three to get stamp.
There may be no one else wanting the said entry form, but there are at least three people employed to do the job that one could quite easily perform.
National Park Entry
When we arrived at the entry to Torres Del Paine (the National Park in southern Chile), we had driven for several hours and seen only a couple of cars. There had been zero towns or roadside stops and we arrived at what appeared to be a deserted park admin office. After going in and calling out a couple of people came and explained the three step process. Paid our 800 Pesos got our forms stamped and we were off! We may have been only one of half a dozen vehicles entering for the day judging by the so few cars and people we saw.
Border Crossing
After leaving Lago Grey glacier area we headed off with some uncertainty about our final destination. We had 250km of range in our vehicle and the final destination of El Calafate was just on 250km away. We had gone through no towns the previous day, and no service stations. We were originally going to return to Puerto Natales, 100km away and retrace our steps the next day, a 200km round trip just to get petrol, with the destination another 250km away. But decided we would try the border town of Cerro Castillo in Chile for fuel and if not ask about other places over the border.
We arrived in Cerro Castillo, which looked like a ghost town. 20 houses and a couple of shops all looked closed. We stopped near the municipal offices and then a truck with Rangers rocked up. In the freezing wind with google translate we tried for 15 mins to confirm if there were places within range over the boarder that would have fuel, after confirming that Cerro Castillo did not have any petrol stations (what do these guys do when they want to fill up?). They confirmed that a town about 45km south over the boarder had fuel for sure.
We were ready for coffee and they told us the place up the road was open. The outside was all boarded up and no sign of life nor cars out front, Ruth pushed the door, it opened and then the inner door opened a bustling litte ‘everything’ store with amazing soup and coffee! And despite no mobile coverage or wifi they accepted our Visa Card for payment, Amazing. More google translate and they confirmed that the one horse town of Tapi Aiki on the way to our destination does in fact have fuel about 70km away. So with some trepidation we decided we could do that, and if they didn’t have fuel we could then head back south and make a 150km round trip to get fuelā¦
Then we had to find the road to the actual border! Our trusty GPS showed us the road 50m up from the cafe was the one we wanted, but had a gate across it. On closer inspection we found this was the actual Chilean immigration office/border! So parked the car and wandered inside to find the three window Bureacracy here. We were probably the only people to go across the whole day, but we had to fill the form in one window, pay in another window and get stamped on the third, with all our Rental Vehicle papers and passports etc. Despite all the luggage x ray machines inside the building and other food warnings the dude just wandered out and unlocked the gate and we drove through!
Nope were were not in Argentinaā¦ but no mans land as we found out the moment the nice pavement road abruptly finished about 5km down the way and a muddy dirt road started and a single dog like chain was draped across the road next to some old buildings.
Guess what, Argentina uses the same three window system! More forms signed and stamped, and then we were not sure what to do, so headed out the car, finding a horse between it and the chain. So started to take the chain off ourselves, but then the helpful Argentenian official came and did it for us and waved us through. We are now in Argentena!
After suffering for half an hour on corrugated mud roads we hit a perfect highway with a sign confirming that the fuel station at the one horse town was 40km away.
After 40km we found one building with petrol pumps out front, pulled in and eventually a young guy comes out, confirms we have cash then goes and starts the generator up and fills us up with the preciuos stuff. We had travelled about 350km and 7-8 hours on good, bad and very bad roads without a single place to get fuel!
But now we were all goodā¦ then we saw the road to head towards El Calafate- more corrugated mud, ice, bits of snow, wild Llamas, and even some ostriches to avoid all whilst hoping the little Vitara 4×4 didn’t shake apart!
After about 60km of rough road we hit a perfect highway and made it to El Calafate with half a tank of fuel!
We met maybe 4 cars in the whole day with mostly wide open spaces with nothing to see barring the snow covered mountains in the distance.
Patagonia Adventure for sure.
