Merry Christmas first of all. By the time you see this we will have been hanging around around Ushuaia for a while so there will be photos and stories about the end of the world as they like to call it down here. But that will be tomorrow after this holiday which as I write we plan to spend in the wilderness wild camping. Owing to our direct journey south through Chile people we have traveled with are still zig zagging through Argentina and Chile up north while others have finished their sabbaticals and are returning to Europe. Courtney and Andrew whom we last met in Punta Arenas are shipping their Jeep to the Netherlands soon. We Americans are alone at the end of the world.
We awoke from our wild camp outside Rio Bravo to find an actual Argentine gaucho (cowboy) training his horses outside our home. Walking the unbroken horses in circles while teaching them to obey his commands.
Then he rode off, as did we.
Part of Ruta Nacional 3 runs along the Atlantic here.
Most overlanders ignore Argentina’s Atlantic Coast but we plan to drive much of it on our way north along Route 3 before crossing the famous plains crammed pampas back to Andes and the Chilean border. That will be later.
Tierra Del Fuego is mostly flat or rolling prairie. It’s about summer now so there is sunshine but also lots of ice cold wind. Out of the wind it’s quite pleasant even with temperatures in the mid fifties but in the wind your digits freeze and hats gloves and wind proof jackets are mandatory.
The highway isn’t quite as good as the perfect roads of Chile but the potholes aren’t so many and can be avoided and we can travel at 50 miles per hour without stress.
The winds mostly from the west have been quite intense and I can feel GANNET2 yielding to the gusts, which have been up to 40mph.
The cell signal cones and goes but it’s never very strong except right inside towns so we are glad to have Starlink packed ready to deploy if we need it. Gas stations have showed up in each community and there are more villages here than in Chile but every time the fudge goes below three quarters we fill up.
Headwinds can increase fuel consumption and if a gas station were to run out this isn’t where you want to be driving on fumes. It is desolate out here and there aren’t even any electrical lines or power poles.
We got stopped by the Gendarmeria Nacional at the checkpoint before the town of Tolhuin, and in keeping with all the other trove countries we have visited they were cheerful and friendly and did a quick check of GANNET2’s Temporary Import Permit and my Florida driver’s license which is a novelty of course and we were quickly on our way. We have yet to meet a cop on the take but there is still time I suppose.
There seem to be more towns and villages in Argentina’s narrow strip of Tierra Del Fuego than across Chile’s huge chunk of the island and Tolhuin is a small town about an hour and a half north of Ushuaia.
We decided to stop here because it has a laundry with good reputation and a campground with hot showers. What more do you need after several nights of wild camping?
A bakery perhaps? Hmm…
There is a library dedicated to the Falkland Islands, still a point of contention around here.
I’ll express my thoughts on that subject later. We have considered flying to the Falklands for a visit but you can only fly from Punta Arenas in Chile, Britains ally in the war fought forty years ago. And we’d have to leave Rusty in doggie daycare for a week and you can imagine how I feel about that.
Argentina is said to make the best empanadas in Latin America and they weren’t bad at all for lunch. Because yes indeed, Tolhuin has a few excellent bakeries.
It’s an okay town with the services we need but nothing to write home about.
He explored it enough to put him in a coma my gradually aging dog. It was time to go camping.
A dirt road… sigh… but only a few miles. Check out the rolling wooded hills in the distance.
You can rent a space for your tent with a fire ring and you might get a teepee with an electric light inside.
An innovation the indigenous people didn’t enjoy. Rusty used them to escape any sudden showers.
They call them kawi (kah-wee) around here.
The communal kitchen was a bit too informal for us.
The views are special while the decor is eccentric.
This lake called Fagnano curls around the mountains like a fjord into Chile but is cut off from salt water by a spit of land.
We took a spot by a kawi for shelter from the wind.
The reason we were here wasn’t the decor or the views but the abundant hot water in the shower. It looks funky but it worked really well.
This is as wintery a Christmas as we have spent in a very long time. But here at 54 degrees south latitude it’s easy to mistake summer for winter.
Best wishes for a peaceful holiday season.
