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+ Log & Blog December / Dec 16

 Progress log and blog report

16 DECEMBER 2005 - An early start and long delay


At 5.30 am it is absolutely freezing! For those encased in Austin Healey, with a working heater and protected from the elements it is not too bad, in the Vintage style Westland….. within minutes fingers and thumbs wrapped in wool lined gauntlets were white and numb with the cold. Other coverings include T shirt, shirt, two body warmers, windproof jacket hat and glasses. The glasses are more about keeping the ever present wind out of your eyes than seeing better. It was also raining, a little. This was actually good, as it meant the dust was kept down on the gripa roads.

The winds today were immensely strong, the car didn’t seem to feel them, but we were thrown from side to side in the cockpit. By 1pm we had successfully crossed from Argentina into Chile and arrived again at the Straits of Magellan. A nasty surprise. The winds were too strong for the ferry and no one knew when it would be running again. It did seem that once running it would keep running until all cars/lorries/busses were transported. We piled into the café for a very late breakfast, a ‘sandwich’ which meant a fried beef strip covered in cheese and in a large bap. Chile sauce and ketchup helped it go down.

The-cafe

Seeing as the queue of traffic must by now have been almost a mile it was amazing how quiet the café was. I guess people must be used to this and come prepared. A very smart building a few hundred yards down from the café looked like a hotel, and with no news whether the ferry would start at all today we decided to see if we could book in and beat the rush. It was in fact a rest area, somewhere for kids to stretch their legs, adults to get hot water for their yerba-mate drink (like tea) and had immaculate toilets. The rest of the building contained various offices for officials. It actually put anything similar in the UK to shame, it was immaculate. Piped music played everything from Tracy Chapman to Ultravox.

Rest-area

Patience

There was still no information on the ferry, so we dozed in the rest area, it was too wild to be in the cars. At about 5 we decided a coffee was in order, so we pushed our way back against the wind into the café and had drinks and nibbles. We then noticed the ferry on the other side of the Strait was moving! Hooray. The wind was dropping, so we went for a little walk, but avoiding going into the adjacent mine field behind the ‘Welcome to Chile’ sign, and by 7 we were on board. A 6 hour delay, but a lot better than it could have been. A choppy crossing, but very welcome. At 60 pesos one way it is also very expensive, more costly than a room in some of the hotels we have been in!

More gripa road up until about 20km from the border and then the good road came back. There is much evidence where ever we go of roads being tarmaced, soon this trip will be relatively easy. Apart from the Argentine customs making a mess of the Carnet form, hopefully that is corrected properly, the rest of the trip back to Rio Gallegos was uneventful. All the Customs/ immigration offices have a little shop inside, sweets, drinks, souvenirs from China(!) it is amazing what you can find there. Keeps the kids amused I guess.

The Guanacos (Alpacas) have turned out to be amazingly common. When we first saw them we thought them some rarity, but now we regularly see groups. That doesn’t reduce their grace and attractiveness.

We also see a lot of shrines at the side of the road or in little shaded pull-ins. These shrines are often decorated with plastic bottles neatly piled around the little hut-like shrine which usually contains a cross or small statue. We have never seen anyone at a shrine, but there are a large number, probably indicating ownership by families.

We checked into the Hotel Santa Cruz. Again a very nice hotel with secure parking. That seems to come with every hotel we have stayed at so far. We checked in at about 10.30, ready for food and bed. A very obliging waitress without a word of English looked after us and gave us the last 4 cans of beer in the entire hotel! Normally it takes more effort than that to empty the beer cellar. So we turned to wine. The hotel was impressive, not only did it have the first modern lift we have been into in Argentina (we have been in some old boneshakers), but there were movement sensors all over the hotel to switch lights on for you. All good stuff.

 

Tomorrow we wanted a reasonable start, 9am – so a chance for some sleep.
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