Detour back to El Calafate

It was time to cross back into Argentina once again. Destination: The Argentinian hiking Mekka of El Chaltèn!

But not without 2 maintenance stops.
The first one was at the border, where our rental company's road side assistance dude came to meet us to hand over a new pair of camping chairs/table (the ones we had received in the beginning were so broken you could barely use them) and some other replacement parts.

We then crossed the border, driving the 5km between the chilean emigration and argentinian immigration post twice, as they forgot to stamp our car's paperwork the first time around 😅

From there we were off to our second maintenance stop: A car paint shop in El Calafate, which we were told would repair our dripping roof. 💦

We had a quick stop in Esperanza, from where the drive to El Calafate was a mere 163 km through the Argentinian pampa. With a half-full fuel tank and an estimated reach of over 500 km, this seemed like no problem, so we decided not to refuel. Big mistake no. 1! We followed the road signs towards El Calafate and only 15 mins later checked our GPS. Somehow, we had driven in the wrong direction. Mistake no. 2! Now on the right way, but facing very strong headwind, the estimated kms of reach were dropping at an alarming rate. We started to get worried that we would not make it all the way to El Calafate. Turning off the A/C and reducing our velocity, we crawled along the road, baking in the sun like a pair of rotisary chicken. But luckily, we made it to the city with 60 km of reach to spare! Lesson learned for Southern Argentina: Take every refuel opportunity you can get and don‘t trust range estimates!

Despite our doubts, the mechanic in El Calafate knew what to do, whipped out his ladder, immediately diagnosed the problem showing us some crumbly bits of silicone and went on to renew the window sealant.
An hour later we were good to go!

Being back in Argentina we made use of the last Grido shop en-route and treated ourselves to some Grido Frappucinos for Argentinian prices 🥰
As it was already late, we opted to spend the night on a lovely camp ground in El Calafate, before heading to El Chalten the next day.

🛃 Nr. of border crossings: 2, officially 1
🚗 KMs detour for repair: 100
🍨 Grido Frappés devoured: 1 each
💧Leaks repaired: all of them (hopefully)Leia mais