Argentina, here we come! El Calafate

1.2. To the border

Back in the room after breakfast, we contact the car rental company. We don't know what to do next and even consider flying to Panama earlier... Unfortunately, the gentleman doesn't have any brilliant ideas either and only emphasizes that he (and we) will be in big trouble if the car is not returned in Puerto Montt.

While going through the regulations, Roman finds our salvation on the official Argentine page: if you have been in a neighboring country of Argentina for more than 14 days, you can cross the border WITHOUT a test! There it is, our chance!

Although we have booked for 2 nights, we immediately pack our backpacks and decide to drive to the nearest border crossing to confirm the regulations. As usual in Chile, no one knows more than the bare minimum, but we get a phone number for the open border crossing. Roman calls and finds out that the regulations have really changed! We set off immediately and head to the border about 300km away. If we don't make it across tonight, we'll definitely make it tomorrow morning.

After a little over 3 hours, we arrived at Paso Monte Aymond. Nothing is signposted, but Ulf and Gina prepared us for this: it will be chaotic.

The counter opens again at 6:30 p.m. and they explain to us that tourists can only cross the border until 4:00 p.m. but we are allowed to stay there overnight. We quickly set up our roof tent in a sheltered spot, even though they kindly offered us to stay in a waiting room in the border house. Suddenly, hundreds of cars with Argentine license plates arrive and quickly pass through the border. It hurts to see that tourists are treated differently for reasons unknown to us. The border closes at 10:00 p.m., but reopens just one hour later. The chaos is over at midnight and we can finally fall asleep.

2.2. To El Calafate

So, the day has come to cross the invisible border between the two countries in the middle of nowhere. We're already there at 8:00 a.m., although we know that tourists (everyone else, of course, already at 8:00 a.m.) will only be allowed at 9:30 a.m. Everything is quite calm on the Chilean side and things are moving pretty quickly. Only two counters need to be visited and in 10 minutes, it's all done. On the Argentine side, there are already about 90 people waiting in line outside the station. We ask where we need to queue and after an hour and a half, it's our turn. We pass the waiting time with great conversations, especially with Baruch and Veronika, two great people from the USA! But since we are tourists, we should have queued at the neighboring house first to clarify the medical questions. So, we line up there again for another hour before we get the OK to enter. Then we have to line up at the other line under watchful eyes before they stamp our passports. Amelia was worried because she made a mistake on one online form. But the mistake is overlooked, what a stroke of luck! Now, to the last counter where we need to deal with the paperwork for our rental car. We have to feel sorry for the poor man who has to fill out some digital forms for about 25 minutes just so we can take the car across the border. After about 5 hours, the entry is perfect, and we are extremely relieved! The one-hour drive to the next city flies by. Here, we need to refuel to make the remaining 300km through the middle of nowhere to El Calafate today. But the journey becomes nerve-wracking: under normal circumstances, our car has a range of 400-450km with a full tank. Unfortunately, we have to cover the entire distance against the wind and mostly uphill. The fuel gauge is our nasty opponent, and we are really not sure if we will make it. The fuel light comes on about 30km before El Calafate. About 15km before that, the gauge starts blinking. When we see the gas station at the entrance to El Calafate, our hearts skip a beat. We have a 40-liter tank, and there were still 2 liters left... phew. We first have a coffee with cake and then look for a campsite that is located almost in the city center. El Calafate is very touristy with lots of visitors and a bit posh. The contrast to the last 10 days is enormous. After Roman has withdrawn money (they charge 15% fees!!!), we decide to pay as much as possible with a card. The short walk along the main street is interesting, and we visit another souvenir shop, but it is completely overpriced. We reserve a table at a well-rated and incredibly cozy restaurant, and we go shopping until it opens. The restaurant impresses with a huge wine list and does not disappoint with the fine wine! However, the food is far from the level it should be, so we skip the tip. On the way home, we meet the Dutch and the Austrian couple who were on the border odyssey with us again, it's going to be a fun evening.