Parque Nacional Nevado Tres Cruces

We instantly decide to stay 2 nights and the second day ascent spontaneously the peak “Las siete Hermanas” (4900 m) the ascent of which conveniently starts from the campsite. The hike offers a pretty view of the Laguna Santa Rosa but the sandy path, wind and altitude slow somewhat our ascent. The way back feels like a video game where we just need to conteract the wind to stay on the path 💨💨. We arrive back to find 3 groups of new neighbors, the range goes from a polish expedition team to chilean city tourists.

The day started with a flat tire, so we could practice our skills changing the wheel. Only little bummer: the spare wheel was consequently smaller than the others, limiting our speed to 80 kmh. Well, on not a problem on the off roads, where we mostly can only drive up to 50 kmh (well, 30 kmh). We depart full of positivity towards the Santiago pass and start by missing a turn (Billie was recording Whats app podcasts 🙈and not paying attention to Google maps). We realize a couple hundreds meters away but a nice ranger had already spotted us and asked where we thought we were heading. The incredulity on his face when we said Mendoza was hilarious but he obviously thought we were stupid unprepared tourists (“what, you don’t have a 40 liter reservoir of gaz with you? you only have one spare wheel? do you have enough water?” although we had plenty of water, he kindly gave us 2 liters more with the directions). After a beautiful ride of about 3 hours we arrive to the Argentinian border. They take our passports and just tell us that the pass is not open for chilean cars today, we simply need to go back from where we are from. The pass will only be open on Tuesday (today is Sunday). We need to sign a document that states that we don’t have the necessary documents (although the official did not want to see our documents). We later learn that there is a whatsApp group with daily updated information about the pass situation between Chile and Argentina. Lesson learned the “hard” way, we drive all the way back and spend the night in Vallenar (so good food and veeery comfy beds after about 11 hours drive, remember, we could (or should) not exceed the mighty speed of 80 kmh). We will try to cross the border with the Paso de Agua Negra instead.Read more