Travel tips for Southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego

Intro

I found it difficult to find info for some of these places, so here's some of what I dug up or tried out either alone or with friends/parents during my adventures in Southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Prices and places can change rapidly, so check into things yourself, but I tried to provide links where possible.

The lists of lodging and restaurants aren't anything close to exhaustive, just the places I tried that stuck out i my memory. Maybe someday I can get paid to try out all the restaurants and hostels and report back... ;-)

Prices listed here are what I paid or was quoted in November-December 2013. Especially in Argentina, prices change rapidly, and in this whole area there can be big differences in high vs. low tourist seasons.

If you have tips to add, pipe up!!

Towns visited (from N->S) and covered in this collection of tips and reviews:

El Chaltén, Argentina
El Calafate, Argentina
Torres del Paine, Chile (see separate "Planning your Trip to Torres del Paine" post)
Puerto Natales, Chile
Punta Arenas, Chile
Ushuaia, Argentina
Puerto Williams, Chile

With jagged peaks, the world's third-largest ice sheet, massive glaciers, luxurient forests, pasturelands, cobalt lakes, huge swaths of wind-swept desolation, fjords, charming port towns, soaring condors, frolicking guanacos, and warm and friendly people, this is an incredible part of the world.

General practical tips for the region

• Learn some Spanish. Many people speak English, many do not. A little Español combined with a smile will open doors.
• Bring cash in USD. In Chile, many hotels will offer you a significant discount for paying with cash in USD because foreign tourists paying in cash do not have to pay the 19% VAT. In Argentina, where the blue market exchange rate will give you almost twice the number of pesos per dollar as banks, ATMs, or your credit card, bringing dollars and exchanging them for pesos once you arrive in Argentina at blue market exchange houses, at hotels, in shops, or on the street (be careful that you don't get fake pesos) will essentially make your trip to Argentina cost half what it would otherwise cost.
• Bring your debit card and a credit card for emergencies. Put them in different places in case your main wallet gets lost/stolen. Many places accept major credit cards (Visa and MasterCard). However, many do not, and some towns don't have banks for doing exchanges or ATMs, so always have cash on hand before going to your next destination!
• Pay your reciprocity fee in advance. People from the United States, Canada, and Australia need to pay a reciprocity fee before they enter Argentina. For folks from the U.S., this is $160, which is what we charge Argentinians for a tourist visa to the U.S. (so it's only fair). This is true at all border crossings, and you will not be able to book a bus ticket that crosses a border into Argentina without it. This did not used to be enforced as strictly, but as of January 2013 it became mandatory at all border crossings. You can pay by credit card here (under "Log In" click "Sign Up" and follow instructions), be sure to print out your receipt and staple it into your passport so you don't lose it. It is good for the life of your passport. Chile also requires a reciprocity fee (again, $160 for U.S. citizens, Canadians and Australians also need to pay), but it only is necessary if you fly into the Santiago airport and you can pay it at the airport.
• Always carry tissues and hand sanitizer for public toilets. Toilets may not be stocked, and there's nothing worse than doing your business and realizing you have nothing but your t-shirt to wipe with.
• Bus tickets usually need to be bought in person at bus ticket offices. Some companies allow online booking, but only for residents with a local bank account. Not all will accept credit card, so be prepared with cash for your fare.
• Bring snacks for the bus. Some long bus rides will supply meals, but often a "meal" means two slices of white bread, a packet of mayonnaise, and a slice of cheese, or just a small package of cookies. Others supply excellent meals (I've heard rumors of steak and wine?), others nothing at all. It's wisest to bring a bag with some food and water. Note that when crossing the border into Chile, you will not be able to bring any plant or animal products (fruits, veggies, nuts, meats, dairy, honey, etc.), and they will check.
• Water is generally safe to drink, but if you're sensitive, ask if the water in the place you are staying is potable. Bottled water is widely available for purchase.
• Don't eat bus station empanadas. Trust me. Do eat empanadas, but eat them at a reputable establishment where they make them fresh. Also, empanadas are bigger, and therefore better, in Chile.
• Do drink the wine. All the wine. Best in the world. There are some really good microbrews here, too. When in this region of Chile, try the Austral beers. My favorite in Argentina has been beer by Berlina, but one restaurant in Chaltén served up a delicious Stout that knocked my socks right off.

Enjoying a local beer at the end of a hike in Patagonia.

Where to go, in what order, and how to get there

If I were to do this again, had more money and lots of time, and were to design a tour from Bariloche, I'd do this 4-week trip:

1. Go from Bariloche to Puerto Montt either by bus or via on the Cruce Andino cruise across the lake.
2. Spend a few days exploring around Puerto Montt, e.g. visiting Chiloé.
3. Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales on the Navimag ferry through the Chilean fjords.
4. Visit Torres del Paine for a week from Puerto Natales, hiking the O clockwise from Torres.
5. Return to Puerto Natales and go to Punta Arenas for a day or two and see the penguins at Isla Magdalena and/or Seno Ottway.
6. Take the Yaghan ferry or fly to Puerto Williams. Better yet if I had the money or connections, hop a yacht and explore some of the more remote fjords and estancias on the way.
7. Spend a week or more trekking around Isla Navarino. Skip this part if you aren't an adventurous trekker or love of extreme yachting.
8. Then take a zodiac (or catch a yacht ride) to Ushuaia and spend a day or two there hiking or going on boat excursions.
9. Take the bus to El Chaltén via Rio Gallegos, spend a few days or more trekking and rock climbing in El Chaltén.
10. Take the bus from El Chaltén to El Calafate and do a glacier trek.
11. Bus (or fly) back to Bariloche. Taqse/Marga buses are really comfortable and hit the scenic parts of Ruta 40 while blowing through the rest on mostly paved roads. Or if you want the experience from Hell so you can say you did it, get one of the Ruta 40 buses (seriously not fun, but maybe less miserable than cycling it...).

Alternately, for those with lots of time and energy (next time...):

1. After exploring Chiloé...
2. Bike the Carretera Austral from Puerto Montt to Villa O'Higgins
3. Magically ditch the bike and hike across the border to El Chaltén (description here) and play in the mountains there (rock climber's paradise, fun on the Southern Patagonian Ice Field.
4. Bus to El Calafate and do some ice climbing on the glacier.
5. Bus to Torres del Paine and do the O circuit.
6. Jump back onto the above list for parts 5-8.
7. If your butt hasn't had enough, bike from Ushuaia north on Ruta 40 (I've heard this is miserable! Yay!).

El Chaltén

Chaltén is a super-cute little mountain town and it wouldn't take much to convince me to live there forever. It is very touristy (goes from 500 residents in the winter to 3000 in the summer tourist season), but with plenty of charm to spread around. There are lots of hostels (I was staying with parents so didn't check them out), if you camp be aware that the winds can be very strong (welcome to Patagonia! brace yourselves!). The mountains are awesome, and there are trails and climbing everywhere. Also, with Fitz Roy rightupyournose there, it's a mecca for rock climbers and serious mountaineers. This would be a good place to stay for a while if you like the outdoors, a place to stick your claws into and scream "NO NOT LEAVING" if you love the outdoors (I know I did...).

The town of El Chaltén from the Fitz Roy trail

Lodging

• Senderos Hosteria (rooms $130USD and up) is right across from the bus station at the edge of town. Rooms were nice, wifi was extremely slow, breakfasts included the standard toast and jams and cereals as well as cold cuts and fruit. The hotel also has a restaurant most days of the week with very nice food. The "deluxe" rooms face the mountains and sort of have views. The "standard" rooms are on the opposite side of the building and can get very hot from sun coming in through the windows and only little ventilation.
• Lots of hostels in the town. Check them out online.
• Campgrounds in the national park (hiking distance from the bus station) all looked very nice.

Food

• La Cerveceria is conveniently located on the way back from the Fitz Roy trail (San Martin 564). Microbrews, a small outdoor Biergarten, and food (including excellent salads).
• There are several nice restaurants along the main street Jose Antonio Rojo. All were good.

Hikes

• Don't miss the Fitz Roy trail. Even if you only go to the viewpoints (there are several stunning ones) halfway and skip the final climb (it's steep and strenuous, I advise bringing trekking poles) up to the lake, this is the view you came here for. If you have a good weather day with low winds, do this and consider yourself incredibly lucky.
• If you want a nice walk when you first get into town, hike out to the waterfall. The trail takes you through the whole town (not very long), along the river, and out to the Cascada. You pass the Fitz Roy trailhead on the way.
• This trek across the border to Villa O'Higgins in Chile sounds amazing and I wish I had had time to do it.
• Climber? Then bring your gear and your friends and you know what to do. Because... this:

Mountain, you are so beautiful I just want to give you hugs. All the way to the top.

El Calafate

Calafate is a good transit point, a little wooded oasis in an otherwise barren landscape. Stop off, see the glacier(s), continue on to somewhere nicer (like Torres del Paine or El Chaltén). It has plenty of stuff for tourists including streets full of tour agencies, souvenir shops, and outdoor equippers. Restaurants tended to be overpriced, although the Cerveceria was great.

Glacier Moreno out of El Calafate

Lodging

• Los Dos Pinos offers up a range of lodging options from a lawn for pitching your tent to dorm rooms to little cabins. Nothing special, but prices were fine, the location convenient, the internet was decent, and transfer from the bus station was free (although it isn't a long walk). Tent site for a night was $40 argentine pesos, including free wifi, showers, and use of the kitchen. The communal kitchen area is nice and big, but woefully understocked due to backpackers stealing equipment from the kitchen.
• Stanta Monica Aparts has a series of very cute kit cabins complete with private living rooms, kitchens, and bathrooms (with tubs) surrounded by green lawn, trees, and lupine off at the edge of town. The staff were very helpful in helping my parents book activities and transportation.

Food

• Chopen cerveceria at the edge of town (Libertador 1630) serves up great food at a reasonable price as well as local brew, and the staff was fun. We ended up returning here after not particularly liking any of the other restaurants we tried in town.

Puerto Natales

Puerto Natales is a cute little port town with spectacular views of the mountains, but pretty much everyone who comes here isn't here to see the town, they are here on their way to or from Torres del Paine. For info on Torres del Paine, see my post "Planning your trip to Torres del Paine".

A cloudy day in Torres del Paine

Transportation

Lonely Planet is outdated: there is a new bus terminal (the glassy new Rodoviario) outside of town on Av. España 1455 where all of the buses come into and where the bus companies now have their offices. This means that, in general, you'll have a long-ish walk to any hostels downtown. Be prepared to walk in the rain.
There are so many backpackers, that despite high frequencies buses do fill up, sometimes days in advance. So leave extra time to get yourself on a bus!

• To Torres del Paine Park from Puerto Natales, Pacheco runs buses twice daily at 7:30 and 14:30 and returns at 13:00 and 18:00
• From Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales: Pacheco and Buses Fernandez both offer buses about every hour from 7:30 am to 8:00 pm. ~$5000 CLP.
• Navimag ferry runs Puerto Montt <-> Puerto Natales for a scenic 3-day trip through the Chilean fjords. Cabins start at $500 USD, although if you show up at the terminal the day of, you can get steep discounts (I’ve heard as low as $300 USD). I didn't do this (no time) but have heard wonderful things about this trip.

Lodging

Many of the hostels in town offer gear rentals (tents and sleeping pads, some also  have sleeping bags, stoves, packs, gas cans, etc.) and can arrange bus tickets to the park.

• Backpackers Kaweskar is clean, has a good breakfast, helpful staff, and enforced quiet hours ensuring the backpackers get their sleep. It is full of...backpackers. $9000 CLP/night for a dorm room.

Punta Arenas

A port town that has outlived its glory days but still retains a certain maritime coolness. Try the seafood, visit the penguins, move on.

Penguins at the Seno Ottway colony out of Punta Arenas

Food

• The mercado municipal is full of little restaurants, all reasonably-priced and offering up local seafood and other specialties (including, supposedly, sea urchin = erizo) although I didn't find it on the menu at any of the places I looked).
• La Luna is a fun place for dinner with excellent food and a nice wine and beer selection.

Ushuaia

Ushuaia bills itself as the "end of the world", which when you stand at the "End of the World" sign at the harbor and look out at the mountains beyond, kind of makes you feel cheated. But it's a fun little town in an absolutely spectacular landscape with a little something for everyone: hiking, boating, shopping, penguins, seafood...

Lovely Ushuaia

Hostels

Prices in $ Argentine pesos for dorm rooms in late November 2013.

Hostels in Ushuaia book up fast in Nov-Feb. Book in advance through HostelWorld or other booking site if you can!

All of the hostels I stopped at had good info desks for helping you plan trips and excursions.

• Hostel Antarctica has a fun atmosphere and a bar
• Hostel Yakush has a nice living room, kitchen, and dining area, $120/night
• Hostel Cruz del Sur fun and lively atmosphere with knowledgeable and helpful staff for planning outings, $100/night
• Amanacer del Bahia where I stayed, $120/night, all of the hostels downtown were full, this one is up on the top of the hill (a short distance from downtown, totally walkable) and sort of like a men’s boarding house, not a lot of charm, but it was clean enough and the people were friendly and the staff helpful
• La Posta is recommended in Lonely Planet but is a long way from the town center and is not very charming. Not recommended.

Food

• La Cantina Fuegina de Freddy for crab. Fun atmosphere and great king crab (cebolla) in this teeny, reasonably-priced restaurant.
• Dublin Pub for beer and hugs from R2D2

Transport

There is no central bus terminal in Ushuaia, which makes life difficult. To book tickets, you need to go to one of the agencies in town, all of which are closed on Sundays and holidays. Many hostel info desks can book tickets for you.
In general, Platforma 10 is the best website for looking for schedules for buses in Argentina.
Prices listed are in USD unless listed otherwise.

• From Bariloche: Marga 36 hours, ~$220 USD including meals and snacks, leaves 9 am, arrives in Ushuaia at 9 pm the following day with a transfer in the morning in Rio Gallegos.
• To Punta Arenas: Buses Pacheco ($60+) you can buy tickets on the bus the day of if seats are available, or book them at the Tolkeyen Patagonia office at 1267 San Martin. Other options are Bus Sur and Tecni Austral, check at the info center and at the offices in town to buy tickets.

Puerto Williams

Puerto Williams was my favorite place I've been in all of South America. Why? Read my Isla Navarino series. It's a tiny port town that reminded me of tiny port towns in SE Alaska. There's not a big tourist infrastructure there, and I liked it that way. So what I should say is that it's really hard to get to, there's not much there, definitely don't go. But I can't lie, I loved loved loved Puerto Williams.

View of the Dientes del Navarino from the legendary Club de Yates in Puerto Williams

Transport Options

Prices are in USD unless otherwise specified.

• Piratour zodiacs: Ushuaia <-> Puerto Williams, $130 including harbor fee, runs most days weather permitting. Buy tickets at the info center on the water front or their office on San Martin. Leaves Ushuaia at 9am, arrives ~12pm including customs. Check in Puerto Williams for leaving times (varies). This is how I got to the island and they were fine, even if I think the price is ridiculously high.
• Ushuaia Boating zodiacs: Ushuaia <-> Puerto Williams, office at Gobernador 233 was closed every time I checked there (despite posting opening hours that said they should be open) so I don't know what prices are or when boats leave, but this is a theoretical option
• DAP flight: Punta Arenas <-> Puerto Williams, $120, 2 flights/day Monday-Saturday, 10 kg luggage limit, $1000 CLP per kilo after that, flights leave at 11:30 and 8:00 pm, but arrive really early since they seem to actually leave when they want!
• Yaghan Ferry: Punta Arenas <-> Puerto Williams, $200 for basic seat, leaves Punta Arenas on Thursdays at 6 pm, leaves Puerto Williams on Saturdays or Sundays (check the schedule) at 4 pm, takes ~30 hours, boat to Punta Arenas arrives at around 9 pm the day after departure.

Lodging

• There are a handful of hostels in Puerto Williams, I only have experience with one. If you show up at one and it is full, they'll help direct you to one that is not.
• Patty Pusaki at the Residencial Pusaki is the best. She has private and dorm rooms, offers 3 excellent home-cooked meals a day (you can eat with her even if you aren't staying with her—her cooking is legendary!), is full of interesting stories, and she has a big map of the island on her wall that was actually really useful—arguably moreso than the topo maps—for planning my trek. Room and full board was ~$22000 CLP/night.

Other tips

• The info booth in the center of town was staffed by a very knowledgeable and nice Estonian woman while I was there, she was great.
• Yacht Club (Club de Yates Milcavi) on Milcavi on the waterfront at the west side of town. Good internet, club/bar open ~6pm most days, bar rages all night, great place to meet people.
• There is a bank with an ATM downtown. Stores only accept CLP. Don’t expect to be able to exchange money when you arrive, so bring pesos or use the ATM.

Hikes (starting from town)

If you only have…

• 1-2 days: Cerro Bandera ~3.5 hrs round trip, great views of the Beagle Channel
• 2+ days: Overnight camp at Laguna Salta, you can continue on to the Paso de los Dientes and back if you have time for awesome views over both ends of the island if the weather is good. Hike to Salta is ~4 hours.
• 5 days: Lago Windhond (2 days to the lake, 2 days back, one night at the Refugio Charles at the lake)
• 6 days: The Dientes del Navarino circuit
• Longer: combine Windhond and the Dientes circuit or explore some of the off-trail options

Notes:

• There are no fees for hiking.
• Campfires are allowed (using fallen wood only, no cutting new wood, but the beavers did all of the work for you), as is off-trail hiking, but be careful and responsible and follow leave-no-trace principles.
• There is apparently great fishing all over the island.
• The store across the street from the Municipalidad has lots of good stuff for trekking from topo maps to rental tents to ramen noodles and trail mix. The owner is very knowledgeable.
• For trekking, checking in with the carabinieros is mandatory and free.
• Be prepared to spend at least one extra night out and be prepared for some really bad weather—weather can turn awful (snow, torrential downpour, gale-force winds, etc.) really fast.
• Check out my post "How to pack for a trek to the end of the world" for packing advice.

And...that's all for now! Again, if you have tips to add, pipe up!! Hope this is useful!

Getting to Torres del Paine: hitchhiking on a yacht, long bus rides, and friendly faces

The Goal: Meet my friends in Torres del Paine

These past several months whenever people would ask me what my plans were next, I replied, “No se. No tengo un plan.” (I have no plans) I really enjoy the traveling life without a plan, doing what I want where I want when the mood strikes. However, there was one plan for this trip that I had been looking forward to for half a year: meeting up with my friend Serena and her fiancé Eric to celebrate my 30^th birthday in Torres del Paine.

Torres del Paine is Chile’s most renowned national park and is to Chile what Yosemite is to the United States. The park is centered around some spectacular walls of granite, considered by many to be one of the most beautiful place on Earth. It was recently named the "8th wonder of the world" by voters on VirtualTourist; also, my well-traveled friend Caleb recommended it as “the standard to which I compare all natural beauty”(check out his blog, he and his girlfriend are doing good things on their trip to SE Asia). Becaues of this, it attracts a zoo of backpack-laden tourists from all over the world to hike on its famous trekking circuit. It, along with the Andes in winter and the Atacama Desert, was one of very few “I must go here” goals for this trip.

The Torres. Pretty rad.

Serena and I met in 2005 when we were roommates during our three-month internships at NASA Goddard as part of the NASA Academy program. We bonded over things like arguing about which temperature to keep our room at (we worked out a compromise where I gave her all of my blankets and in exchange was allowed to keep the room at a cool-ish level), being the weirdos who biked to work, taking obscene numbers of photos with rockets, and sweeping the end-of-program awards ceremony. Unlike most summer program friendships where you stay in touch for a while but eventually drift back away into your own lives, many of us from that summer are still in touch eight years later. This is in part thanks to the Girls Heart Rockets running team that grew out of the program, first as an informal group named after an inside joke, but it quickly morphed into a seriously ass-kicking competitive relay team.

When I used “I’m going to be traveling in South America” as my excuse this year for not signing up for any Girls Heart Rockets races (glad to have a really legitimate excuse for a change versus my normal excuse that until we form a sister team “Cows in Space”, I’m too slow for Rockets), Serena responded, “Sweet, can I come?”

Serena, chowing down on a bell pepper after reaching Baso Torres.

Unlike all of my other friends and sibling who had said the same and even made promises to join me for parts of this trip for years only to weasel out in the end, within 24 hours Serena had committed, and within a few weeks we had made definite plans that the two of them would join me in Patagonia over my birthday.

So I had intentionally kept my trek on Isla Navarino “short” (if seven days can be called short) even though I would have liked more time to explore the island, because I wanted to leave plenty of buffer time to make sure that I could make it to Torres del Paine in time to meet up with them. Or at least I thought it was plenty of buffer time: I planned my Navarino trek to end on a Thursday, and the trek in Torres del Paine wasn't starting until the following Tuesday. Given that it took me 2 days to get to Ushuaia from Bariloche, I figured twice the time to make it half the distance should be plenty. Right? Right??

Leaving Puerto Williams: appropriately difficult for an island at the end of the world

There were only four options for getting off the island and to Punta Arenas (from which there are a good dozen or so buses a day to Puerto Natales):

1. A 1.5 hour flight with DAP airlines directly from Puerto Williams to Punta Arenas, leaving twice daily Monday-Saturday (the cheapest commercial option and by far the fastest)
2. Taking the same zodiac back to Ushuaia that I had taken to the island, then take an all-day bus to Punta Arenas the next day (with the bus, more expensive than flying)
3. A 36-hour scenic (but expensive) ferry ride that would get me to Punta Arenas Monday night: too late to meet Serena and Eric in Puerto Natales but maybe early enough to rush to meet them in camp after their first day of hiking
4. Attempting to hitch a ride on a yacht to Ushuaia, then bus to Punta Arenas

Since the flight was the cheapest and by far the fastest certain option, my first order of business once I returned from the trek (see Navarino Part VIII: The Feral Swampbeast Returns to Civilization) was get tickets for the first possible flight to Punta Arenas. I had been told before I left on my trek that getting onto a flight once I returned would be no problem—high season hadn't’t started yet—and that that would be better since the tickets were expensive and if anything happened to delay my return, I wouldn't want to have to forfeit the ticket.

But when I showed up at the DAP office (Puerto Williams is serviced by the famous Antarctic airline DAP via a small airfield outside of town) and waited the 30 minutes for whatever hamsters were running the computers to spin their wheels enough times to permit a search for ticket availability, I was informed that all of the flights were full. “¿Y manaña? ¿O Sabado?” I asked, and was then informed that the flights were full for weeks. I asked if there was any wait list or way to get on and they told me to return at 3 pm to see if there had been any cancellations. I showed up at 3 pm, and the office was closed. I tried again a few hours later and found them open, and they told me to return the following day at 2 pm. I did, and the office was closed. After this happened several more times I started to lose my patience with the folks at the DAP office...but I had yet to experience the full of their incompetence (I can only assume DAP pilots are as much above average as the staff at the office were below it...).

This has nothing to do with the story, but is a memorial plaque in the Puerto Williams museum honoring Captain Robert FitzRoy of the HMS Beagle, who visited Isla Navarino several times in his trips to South America

Meanwhile I went to scope out my other options. I was too late to get the next-day’s zodiac, the one for Saturday was full, and the weather for Sunday was looking iffy enough that they warned it may not go on Sunday.  So the zodiac was out. I wasn't keen on the expensive and slow ferry, despite the scenery (which with bad weather rolling in probably wouldn't be too spectacular anyhow) because it would mean missing the first full day of hiking with my friends.

So I spent a lot of time hanging out at the yacht club in hopes of meeting someone I might be able to catch a ride to Ushuaia with. It was a fun place to hang out regardless, full of fascinating people, and also had the town’s best internet signal (there are, it turned out, three places in Puerto Williams with an internet signal: the town library with terrible slow internet in a cramped space, the town museum with somewhat less slow internet that cut out often but in a really nice spot, and the yacht club which was about on par with the museum but had the distinct advantage of also having a bar). The first night back, this meant arriving with the intent of having a beer and seeing who was there, and leaving at 4am having drunk ALL the beers that the yachties and Chilean navymen kept buying me.

Inside the Club de Yates, coolest bar ever.

I had a great time there meeting and talking to people and especially enjoyed getting to know Ben and Anna (and their dog Osa), a San Franciscan couple my age who had sailed down from San Fran over the course of several years and were also looking to bum rides to Ushuaia in order to hop on a free trip to Antarctica that they had managed to charm their way onto.

My dancing all night after my trek got me two things: (1) very sick, and (2) an invitation to an asado at the yacht club the following day. The asado was being thrown at the club on Friday to welcome the sailors who were arriving for a friendship regatta being hosted by the Chilean Navy in order to celebrate the 60^th anniversary of the founding of Puerto Williams. Free wine, free food, and fun company? I do not say no to such things. At the asado, my host and I put out the word that I was looking for a ride, but there were no bites. Still, I got to meet some real characters including the famous Charlie Porter, a glaciologist (officially a research associate at the University of Maine) living out of his two boats and house in Puerto Williams, but in one of his previous lives was a pioneering (and still legendary) big-wall rock climber in Yosemite and Patagonia.

On Saturday the folks at DAP had suggested that I show up at 11:30 at the airport to ask the captain if he could squeeze another passenger on what I assumed was an afternoon flight (since I asked at DAP if I needed to bring all my luggage with me and they said no). Apparently this is pretty standard there and my chances were actually decent—if they weren’t hauling a lot of stuff, they might have weight left over for me. So I slowly dragged my sick, wheezing self the 40 minute hike to the airport from town. I made it almost all the way there at shortly after 11 when, first, a plane took off (this worried me). Shortly thereafter a car full of carabineros who were dropping a friend off for a flight drove by (this unworried me somewhat) and picked me up. We arrived just as a vehicle full of the folks I recognized from my many trips to the DAP office was departing, and they told us that the flight had already left. It turns out that the staff at the Puerto Williams DAP office have no idea when their own planes leave.

Bridge on the way to the airport.

My carabinero friend was furious in the totally calm, joking Chilean way (tip from Charlie Porter: “The key in Chile is you never, ever lose your cool. Chileans communicate in jokes when they get pissed off.”), since he had also been told to show up at 11:30, and he was a ticket-carrying passenger. We spent an uncomfortable hour back in the DAP office trying to wrangle our way onto the evening flight, although at that point I never wanted to set foot in the DAP office again, having written them all off as utterly useless.

We were promised that if we returned to the airfield at 7:30 pm, the carabinero would have a ride and I might be able to squeeze on as well. To me this meant that there might be a flight leaving sometime that evening but they definitely wouldn't have room for either of us when we showed up, but I kept my mouth shut and agreed when the carabinero told me to meet him at the police station at 6 pm to drive over nice and early (since he, too, did not trust the info from DAP).

Tired, sick, feeling quite miserable, frustrated, and hungry, I returned to Patty’s, stopping on the way at the waterfront to watch the regatta which was now fully underway and to catch my sick, wheezy breath. I cooked myself some soup and chatted with the latest arrivals. I told Patty my plans to leave at 6 pm and try to catch the afternoon flight and teared up when we said our “maybe goodbyes”.

It was the first time I had come close to crying in over a month. Walking back to the yacht club heavy-hearted it struck me how deeply the place had grabbed onto my heart. My wild soul had found a place wild enough to want to stay.

Colorful boats (with the Yaghan scenic ferry in the back right) in Puerto Williams

How I hitchhiked on a yacht to cross the Beagle Channel

I wandered back across town to the yacht club, feeling suddenly lonely and craving the company of friends. After chatting briefly with Ben and Anna I curled up on the upper inside deck of the club to catch up on emails, rest, work on getting a blog post up, try to map out my transport options, and update Serena on my transportation situation.

Suddenly Anna appeared with the news that they had found someone to catch a ride with, leaving the next morning to Ushuaia, and that if I asked there might be room for me as well but I’d need to commit right then because they were heading over to the port station to get their passports stamped out (since Puerto Williams is in Chile, and Ushuaia in Argentina). I waffled since if I could get onto the flight it would be a lot faster, but I decided to walk with them anyhow since I was going that way in order to meet the carabinero for our attempted flight-catching.

Sailboats participating in the Puerto Williams 60th Anniversary friendship regatta

On the way over, the yacht’s captain Marcel informed Ben and Anna that he wanted to leave that evening instead because bad weather was rolling in. When he said that, I jumped, thinking if I could get to Ushuaia that night I could catch the early morning bus on Sunday, get to Punta Arenas Sunday night, and be in Natales in plenty of time. So I put on my gutsy mooch pants and asked Marcel directly if there might be room for me, too. He gave a sort of noncommittal response, so once we got to the station I asked, directly again, feeling really awkward about being pushy but sufficiently driven by desperation. He said yes, sure, why not, and I promised to supply wine to seal the deal.

And that’s how it happened that my fourth experience hitchhiking in my life was on a yacht.

Iorana, Captain Marcel's yacht

I felt guilty about standing up the carabinero, but figured he would make it to the airport without me as Ben, Anna, and I handed over our passports and Captain Marcel checked us out of the country. I suggested Patty’s place as a place for dinner before we took off. Marcel laughed since he was friends with Patty and was already planning on having dinner there. Ben and Anna had to pack for Antarctica (how often do you get to say that?), so Marcel and I walked to Patty’s together.

We chatted on the way and Captain Marcel told me stories about how he’d landed in this part of the world. How he’d worked chartering trips (and still does) around Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn. How he was now old enough to collect his Belgian pension and that it provided plenty to live on while he worked as a gaucho at Yendegaia. How he loved living without a phone and internet. How he had been married once for seven years and that was quite enough. How “I’m happy, I have no problems, I don’t want someone else’s problems.” And I could only nod my head and agree on that count.

Patty had a treat in store for us: a mountain of fresh king crab, the last of the season. I supplied the wine, an “expensive” (for Chile, where excellent wine is about as cheap as water) $12 USD bottle of Casillero del Diabalo 2012 Reserva Carmenere. Casillero del Diabalo is my favorite wine back home, and since discovering Carmenere in Chile it has become my favorite wine, and sweet shit this was good. Patty and Marcel and the others kept loading me up with so much crab that I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to walk. It was absurdly tasty on its own, and Patty makes a magic Mapuche merkén (like chipotle) spicy sauce (as well as a really good garlic mayonnaise, but her magic spicy sauce is my favorite) that made it mind-blowing. It was a meal that in a restaurant in Ushuaia—or anywhere else for that matter—probably would have run over $100. And that was just a regular dinner with friends at Patty’s place. (I miss her!)

There were several of these trays served up.

King Crab dinner at Patty's

Me, Captain Marcel, and Patty

It was around 10 pm when we wandered back to the boat, me with all my stuff, and loaded down with a belly-full of what must have been several pounds of crab. We grabbed Ben and Anna, hopped on the boat, untied from the Club de Yates, and were off. Marcel’s yacht, Iorana, was very comfortable, with a large aft cabin where he stores his wine and dried meats (and where we dropped our packs), a kitchen and dining table that converts to a large bed, a side couch, and a fore berth where Marcel slept. He set the autopilot and got up every few minutes to check on things while we sat and chatted. I was exhausted and although I  tried to stay awake and chat as long as I could, I soon fell asleep at the table for an hour, after which I was given permission to curl up in a corner and was out cold until we docked in Ushuaia at 4 am.

What I hadn't factored into my flash decision to take the boat was that I’d have to check in to Argentina before I’d be allowed to go anywhere, and the offices wouldn't be open until 9 am—well after the morning bus I had wanted to take had left (and as it turned out I wouldn't have been able to get on that bus even if the timing had worked out). Well, at least I’d get to sleep.

Marcel turned the boat radios off, determined to sleep as long as possible, and we all fell asleep to the sound of the thumping bass of a Saturday night party raging onshore. He woke us up at 10 am to go check in. We had breakfast (I supplied bread, butter, juice, and oranges, Ben and Anna supplied what fruit they had left from their boat, and Marcel spoiled us all with homemade rhubarb jam. We all waked over to the police station where they took their sweet-ass time (over an hour) checking us in. Then we said our goodbyes and scattered: Marcel to deal with customs, Ben and Anna to find their friend to help prep the boat for the trip to Antarctica, and me to try to book a bus ticket to Punta Arenas.

Anna on arrival in Ushuaia

Escaping Ushuaia

Ushuaia has no bus terminal, which made things difficult. Buses in Chile and Argentina generally cannot be booked online as a foreigner. The booking offices were all closed since it was a Sunday. At the info center I was told that word I hate so much, “imposible”, when I asked where or how I could secure myself a seat on a bus for the morning.

In fact, the info I was supplied at the info center was wrong. I had spent many hours in the previous days mapping out my transport options and knew that there was a Chilean bus company that at least in theory ran a bus Monday mornings from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas. When I asked at the info center about this bus, they said “no existe” and handed me a printout of the “complete” list of bus connections, which did not include the company that had the Monday bus. It later occurred to me that all of the companies on their list were Argentinian, which further confirmed my finding that Argentinians generally refuse to acknowledge that Chileans can do anything right (contrary to my experience, where Chilean outfits generally do the same thing for cheaper and in a more friendly way). They also told me that it was not possible to pay on board a bus in Argentina, and that because tomorrow was a holiday nothing would be open, so there was no possible way for me to leave Ushuaia until Tuesday. I didn't believe them.

Ushuaia is, however, a very beautiful town.

I was tired and grumpy and sick of information offices feeding me blatantly wrong information and being the absolute opposite of helpful. I started asking around town in shops and tourist agencies instead about where I could get a bus until finally one person pointed me down the street with the words, “5 blocks that way, be there at 6 am”. Sure enough, 5 blocks away, I found the office of a little tour agency with a little piece of paper taped in the window that showed the Monday bus I had seen on the internet leaving at 7 am.

I found a hostel that would let me pay $60 Argentine pesos (~$10 USD, depending on who you exchange money with) for a day of internet, use of their kitchen, and shower, and settled in, crossing my fingers that I could show up and get on that bus the next morning. Meanwhile, I randomly connected with an acquaintance from Bariloche who was in Ushuaia celebrating her very successful exams to be a tourism guide in Bariloche, and we caught up over dinner. I hope she makes it into the business soon, because, I had decided, competent providers of tourist information are desperately needed in this part of the world!

Marcel had generously offered to let me spend another night on the boat, so after dinner I wandered back to the boat, crawled into my sleeping bag (Marcel was off partying with boat friends), and woke up early the next morning (Marcel was out cold, so I left him a note to thank him and say goodbye) to see about the bus.

View of the boat mooring in Ushuaia at sunrise

I showed up at the tour office at 6 am, walking up the streets while the discos were still raging. There wasn't a soul to be seen outside except a stand of groggy police officers up early to keep drunk kids from getting into too much trouble. The tour office was dark, so I left a “I need a bus ticket!” note at the door and then tried to sneak into the hostel two blocks away for the shower that I hadn't used the previous day. I was caught by thoroughly disgruntled employee who I only confused with explanations, but in the end I think he was too tired to deal with me and gave up and let me shower. I was quick, and back at the tour office by 6:30, at which point the discos had dumped their load and the streets were full of kids who looked way too young to be drinking legally and girls in platform shoes and mini-dresses in the frigid cold while I was bundled up in a down jacket. The office was still dark, but I was relieved to see  a small crowd gathered outside.

I chatted with a man who turned out to be a Penguinologist from Oxford until the bus showed up and, much to my relief, they let me in without a ticket. Not only that, but they let me pay in Chilean pesos and gave me a very generous exchange rate that meant I paid about 60% of what I thought I was going to have to pay ($30000 CHP, which equals ~$60 USD). Score! I settled into my seat with Professor Penguin and breathed an enormous sigh of relief. Professor Penguin had celebrated his birthday the night before and a friend had baked him a cake, which he shared with me for breakfast. I felt like the luckiest person alive.

A final Ushuaia photo

After that it was 11 hours of tedium (= rest, sweet rest) interrupted only by a long hour and a half wait at the border crossing where, for some reason, they never bothered to stamp us out of Argentina. Then another stop at the ferry crossing across the Strait of Magellan between Rio Grande and Rio Gallegos where, because of huge swells they took us out of the bus and put us inside  (I didn't have time to grab my camera, so no photos or videos, sadly). This was fortunate because unlike all of the other long bus rides I had been on, this bus didn't feed us meals or snacks and I was getting hangry (= hungry + cranky, thanks Tom & Ellen for the brilliant word). Professor Penguin and I got hot dogs.

Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales: the final leg

We arrived in Punta Arenas at 6 pm, and 10 minutes before our arrival I was informed at all of the buses continuing to Natales for the next 24 hours were full. By this point this neither surprised nor phased me, I just asked about other bus companies and the bus steward actually called ahead for me and made me a reservation with another company. Because—I know this may come as a shock to my Argentinian readers (giving you guys shit, but you know I love you)—Chileans are helpful! And nice!

We pulled into Punta Arenas, I hugged Professor Penguin goodbye (he was transferring between two Antarctic trips to visit his penguin colonies), and the bus steward gave me directions to the other bus company. On my way I was tempted to stop and get dinner—food other than hot dogs and cake and cookies—but thought I’d check in first just to be safe. I showed up and was immediately whisked onto an earlier bus. Food can wait. I was finally on the final leg to meet my friends!

Surprise friend addition to the birthday tour: Anneke, my Australian friend I had met in Bariloche.
No one got swagger like Anneke.

I arrived in Natales three hours later (after a total of 14 hours sitting on buses) at around 9:30 pm. I set off from the bus station confidently, with a carefully-drawn map that I had made up with the help of the Internets in Ushuaia the day before in hand—only to end up standing in the rain, confused, turning in circles, trying to figure out where I was, hopelessly lost, because Natales had built a new bus terminal that was well off the edge of my nice little map. But less than a minute later someone came to my aid and the chatty, frighteningly made-up but good-hearted woman walked me most of the way to the hostel while telling me her entire life’s story.

I arrived at 10 pm where I was greeted by the hostel owner, who was expecting me thanks to my Bariloche pal Anneke who managed to make it down to join us for the trek and who had arrived the day prior. I was so very relieved to see Anneke, a familiar face, a friend to go play with. Anneke even fed me. I slept like a rock that night. The next morning at 8 am, Serena and Eric were there with their rental car, and off we went to our trek in Torres.

On the road with Eric