Chile again - Puerto Tranquilo

When we woke up this morning, we wanted to get going quickly because we were going back to Chile today. The last time the border crossing took quite a long time and we still have to drive 4 hours to Porto Rio Tranquillo today. But when we wanted to pack our backpacks into the car, we noticed that one tire was flat. So Christian wanted to go to the gas station first to get the tire changed. But he didn't even make it there because the tire was so flat that Christian couldn't drive any further. So he stopped on the side of the road and changed the tire himself. Then he drove back to us. By now it was already 11:30 am. Since the broken tire took up the entire trunk, we had to hold all the luggage on our laps.

Fortunately, we quickly found an auto repair shop. We were also taken care of immediately. And for the first time, we could watch how a flat tire on a car is patched up. We all found that very exciting, much to the delight of the employee. I think no customer has ever shown so much interest. He had to pose again and again for photos with us. A sharp nail was to blame for the trouble.

Now it was already so late that we were all hungry again. We went to the nearest restaurant to enjoy Argentine food one last time. Since we had had enough meat again, we ordered gnocchi. And these gnocchi with meat sauce and homemade parsley pesto were the best we had ever eaten. Of course, we had to ask the chef for the recipe, which he gladly revealed to us. The portions were huge, so we couldn't eat everything. The chef packed the rest for us.

Since the border was only 3 km away and we knew that we were not allowed to transport any food to Chile, Heike tried to sell the delicious gnocchi to the men or women. However, it seemed that everyone in the town had already eaten lunch because no one wanted our delicious food. Not even the backpacker by the roadside. He was already looking forward to being taken along. Shortly afterwards, we met him again at the border. Backpackers are usually picked up relatively quickly. That's how it is here. Unfortunately, we have no more space in the car.

Shortly afterwards, we reached the border post. At first, we thought we were alone. Because neither a border guard nor anyone else was visible. If we had wanted to, we could have just kept driving. But dutifully, we stopped and went into the border hut. There we actually found an official. She was combining all functions: border official, customs, and border police. She looked at our IDs and then actually sent us to the next counter. There, another person appeared who had remained undiscovered until then. He then looked at the documents and simply gave them back to us. We thought something else was going to happen now, but she only said we had to continue driving and visit the Chilean border post 6 km away. So we did. We almost felt like they were glad to be rid of us. It was that easy!

The Chilean border post was visible from afar and manned by several border officers. Once again, we were the first car. So we went in and handed our passports to the border official. She scanned them meticulously. But it seemed that she was still new. Because another officer explained to her again and again how to place the pass on the scanner. But since there was only one way to place the pass on it, it was not clear to us why the lady had to receive new instructions every time. It was also not clear to us why she removed the paperclips from our passports, which we found very practical. When entering Chile, you receive a small document that you must present again when leaving under all circumstances. If you don't have this paper, you have to obtain it somewhere (we don't know exactly where) with great effort. We definitely want to avoid this stress.

Afterwards, we went to customs. There we had to declare if we had fresh food with us. Truthfully, we declared everything and so our car was completely searched. We even had to open the hood. We also had to carry all our backpacks into the border station so that they could be scanned like at airport security. All travelers did this before and after us. After we had handed in 2.2 kilos of bananas, 0.2 kilos of garlic, and 0.4 kilos (everything was weighed meticulously before it was finally discarded!), we were allowed to continue driving. When we had driven a bit, a very depressed feeling came over us. Everything suddenly looked less cheerful, even the horses by the roadside seemed dissatisfied. This was because all the houses were surrounded by fences again and looked as if they were only held together by a lot of good will. It is a mystery to us why the standard of houses in Chile is much lower than in Argentina, even though Chile is richer than Argentina in terms of numbers. Also, the sense of security among people in Chile must be much lower, since even the oldest house has to be protected by a high fence. It is always depressing for us to see how poorly the people in Chile live. The houses are made up of various makeshift materials. Unfortunately, this is the standard in most of the places we have been.

The road to Puerto Tranquilo was breathtakingly beautiful. It was quite windy, but we still ventured outside once to enjoy the view. Again and again, we encountered cyclists and we could only wonder how even older people could motivate themselves to ride such a distance without e-bikes. The road wound steeply up the mountain for kilometers, despite extremely poor road conditions and strong winds.

When we arrived in Puerto Tranquilo, we immediately started looking for tours to the Marble Caves and the glacier. It turned out that the first offers were also the cheapest. This place lives off tourism. Almost every house either rents accommodation or operates a supermarket or offers tours to the attractions. The prices are such that we now think a few zeros were added too many.

We miss the warmth and smiles of the people here that we encountered everywhere in Argentina.

In freezing cold weather (10C), Flora and Heike kept hopping out of the car to look at accommodations. Christian and Mattis stayed cool in the car. Since this place is very small, Flora and Heike eventually got tired of driving around in the car and started exploring the town on foot. Christian didn't even bother to follow us, even when it started raining. Flora had discovered an accommodation that she really wanted to see. Unfortunately, we couldn't reach the landlady. We had already given up hope when Christian casually walked around the corner with the landlady. It turned out to be the cottage we eventually took. When comparing the accommodations with those in Argentina, this one is much smaller but costs three times as much.

Since it was very cold in our cabin, Christian immediately tried the wood stove. An hour later, it crackled cosily in the stove. With a warm soup in our bellies, we fell asleep contentedly.