Don't Talk To Her, Just Pay Your Money and Smile ...

We Had a Rough Time Getting Started ...

 

It's still the beginning of our Santo Fuego trip - all the way overland up to Oregon from the End of the World

Well, ... we spent more time the last few days than we had planned in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.  Our original plan was to take a bus up to Punta Arenas, Chile, but all the buses were full. We were ready to go.  We tried and tried.  No luck.

With the holidays, this time of year is travel season down here at the bottom of South America.  We normally are pretty good planners, but were caught unaware that there was a shortage of tickets.  You can't get online to do this ahead of time, you just have to show up at the bus station office to get a ticket.  

We had to get real creative to even get out of town and begin the trip north.  

Here is a blow-by-blow recap:
We were able to get a short run (three hour) bus up to Rio Grande, Argentina: a trip over the beautiful mountains of Tierra del Fuego, shown in the picture above.  We figured maybe our luck would change if we got to another spot up the road. 

Rio Grande itself is not the most exciting, and our initial response there was much the same for tickets.  We checked every possible avenue, but nothing doing - no bus seats until Thursday. That's way too long to cool our heels in a remote town, although it is on the south Atlantic Ocean and had a boardwalk.

We did meet an really interesting African guy named Elias working at the bus station there who spoke good English and took pity on us. He tried some ideas but ran into the same brick wall we did. 

This trip we were trying to make is across the wasteland of Tierra del Fuego, crossing the remote frontier border from Argentina into Chile, and then crossing over the Straits of Magellan followed by lots more driving.  It would take 8 or 9 hours.  

We briefly entertained taking a taxi which would have been outrageously expensive (one quote was for a thousand dollars!).   There has to be a way ...

When we got back to our Hotel that evening, our South African ticket operator called us - he had some luck. He pulled some strings with another agent who was quite hostile to us the evening before.  There was a cancellation on another bus line, and two seats were available in the morning!   Dude!  We're in!

The next morning we saw our friend Elias, who arranged the seats - he said to me - "This lady is grumpy and rough, don't talk to her! Don't speak a word, just keep quiet, pay your money, and smile."

So we made the bus and set out.  It was a nice day and we drove for a couple hours to the border.  It was remote, like a setting from an old wild west movie.  There ain't nuthin' out there. 

In the interest of keeping things real, I sneaked a picture inside the immigration office (you're not supposed to do that) and Fiona got pissed - "PUT THAT PHONE AWAY!"  She whisper-yelled at me  "Good Grief!  Are you trying to get arrested?"  Well ... it's happened before.  

  

Anyway, as we left the border station in Argentina, we found out that the border in Chile was about ten miles away.  What?  Who ever heard of such a thing?  Aren't borders shared, like next to each other?  There was a big gap between these two countries in the middle of nowhere. On a dirt road. We were warned ahead of time that this is a no-man's land.  Don't wander off. 

So after that, we were in Chile, and we drove several more hours on the bus and we came to the body of water that runs between Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia.   
We loaded onto a mid sized ferry boat that seemed to get smaller as we crossed the cold, windy, choppy, stormy sea. Keep in mind that this is summer down here, what on earth is it like here in winter?

 
We landed, unloaded, and another few hours we made it to Punta Arenas, Chile.  We felt triumphant.  At one point it looked quite dubious - we had wondered if we were ever going to make it.  

Punta Arenas is a good sized city.  It is a launching point to amazing sights further north.  Chile is a great country and we have spent a lot of time here in the past.  The next few weeks will take us back and forth across the border between Chile and Argentina, as we make our way north.  


We have to make a couple more arrangements here and get some supplies before we set out for more adventure.  

The Straits of Magellan - he was the explorer who gave this place its name - Tierra del Fuego