Border Crossing in the Middle of Nowhere

Over the next days we made our way to the famous Chilean Carretera Austral. For our border crossing we chose an especially remote border which sees very few (sometimes none at all) cars a day but promised some stunning scenery and wildlife.

The initial drive north through the Argentinian pampa was quite repetitive and boring. But when we spotted a prestine looking blue lake in the distance, we decided to take a detour and were rewarded with a windy, yet beautiful sight of this seemingly untouched piece of nature.
Hyped by this view, we quickly decided to take our drone for a spin! But...we quickly realised we were almost out of battery and someone 👀 packed the wrong charger. So, enjoy our first and last Drone footage of this trip! 🚁🎥

On the way to the main road, something sounded...wrong. Turns out: we had a flat at the front right 😑 This meant it was time to see if we had the right equipment on board to change the tire, and get our hands dirty.
30 minutes later we were back on the road and on the lookout for the next Gomeria - a tire repair workshop - to get the puncture fixed. Luckily there is a Gomeria in pretty much every village, no matter how small it is, to fix your tire for under 10€.

Before starting the actual border crossing we made an overnight stop at the last fuel station before the border (and only gas station within a several hundred miles radius) and spent our last Argentinian pesos, thinking this would be our last visit to Argentinia.

The next morning it was time to hit the gravel! Almost directly after turning off the main road the boring endlessness turned into a varied mix of colourful desert, pampa, lakes and canyons with lots of wildlife. We spotted many Guanacos, Nandus, birds, foxes and other animals, and the best: No trace of humans! This was by far one of our favourite stretches of southern patagonia!

After two hours of stunning sceenery we made it to the actual border: A tiny cabin in the middle of nowhere. First we were worried it was closed but soon spotted some movement behind the curtains. It was the border guard who probably had to put on some pants first before he could attend us. As there was no Internet, the whole migration process was done manually and without computers. Our information was carefully written by hand into big notebooks. Multiple stamps and signatures later, we were back on the road to the Chilean post, which was much more modern.

The guards there were very friendly and didn't bother to check our car for fruits or seeds and sent us on our way. We had finally made it back to Chile! Interestingly, the scenery changed pretty much immediately. The rocky and barren landscape made way for rolling hills with a lot more vegetation. Guanacos were still around, but they seemed fatter due to all the yummy green grass available.

Shortly after turning onto the Carretera Austral north of Cochrane, we called it a day and found a nice field with a view of the river to spend the night. Looking forward to a relaxing evening, we parked our car and were ready to get out the camping chairs. Until we spotted our rear left wheel... Another flat tire! Which turned out to be much more difficult to replace. Lots of cursing and imprumptu engineering later, we had our spare wheel fitted but not much sunlight left. We still managed to have dinner with a view and got to bed, not looking forward having to find another Gomeria the next day...

⛽️ Nr. Of fuel stations in 500 kms: 1
🚗 Nr. Of punctures: 2
🍎 Apples smuggled accross the border: 5
🤩 Sceenery beauty index: 11/10
🎥 Drone footage recorded: 5minRead more