Chile '25 • Day 6: El Calafate, Argentina
- Bob Aron
- Jan 22, 2025
- 2 min read
WHERE’S THE MONEY: SEGUNDA PARTE
WHERE’S THE MONEY: PART TWO
Whew, a long day today. Up at 4:30am for the 7am flight to Puerto Natales. Then picking up the rental car, followed by a 4+ hour drive to El Calafate, Argentina. For this part of the trip I’ll have to do all the driving because only the renter can drive in Argentina. When we return to Chile, we can split up the driving load. Not gonna lie, I was pretty tired by the end of the drive after 12 hours of traveling.
SOUTHWARD BOUND: PART THREE
Once again, there is a challenge for getting cash. From what we’ve been able to research, many places only take cash in Argentina, but actually getting it is more challenging. No dice on our first ATM attempt. Second attempt had a limit of 1000 Argentinian pesos (that’s around $1)! We were able to exchange some US dollars at the hotel, but the 4 of us did not have much (I had none :-( ). The biggest bills they have are 20,000 (around $20 right now) but mostly we received 1000 and 2000 bills. So you have to walk around with wads of bills! Would be fun to use for poker!
Thankfully, the border crossing permit was all in order when we arrived in Puerto Natales. When crossing, you have to stop at a Chilean station to do a passport check, and a 2nd check for driving in the Chilean vehicle. Then again the same at the Argentinian station.
A little scare at the Argentinian border. Just a couple kilometers after we had stopped at the Chilean station, we had to stop at the Argentinian border and Yvette had lost her passport. Crap, not good. We couldn’t find it anywhere in the car. Not sure why Yvette even checked Maribel’s bag, but somehow Maribel had been carrying Yvette’s passport and had left her own in her bag. Crisis averted…on we go.
The terrain through Argentina reminded me of driving down the San Joaquin Valley to LA. Lots of dry open space.
El Calafate seems to be a hopping little town. The main street has tons of restaurants and a lot of people about. Like Yosemite, there are lots of international travelers here. All to see the glaciers. It looks like meat is once again on the menu, and Lay’s has some more regional flavors!
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