27th January El Calafate Argentina to Rio Serrano Chile

 Had to get up early as pickup from the hotel scheduled for 7:00 am

When the driver arrived, we had to scan a document that was an affidavit for entry into Chile, to state that we are not carrying any prohibited goods.



We then boarded the bus that drove us to the Chilean border. A long tedious drive broken up by a stop at a restaurant halfway along the route where we could stop, use the toilet, and have a coffee. Heidi backed up her photos and culled some of them during this part of the trip.

Lesser Rhea (Darwin's Rhea)


The posts were at SOS stations along the way

The journey did become interesting when we got close to the border, as there were several interesting processes that we had to go through first of all on reaching the Argentina side of the border we had to go into a little office and show our passports. our driver spent quite some time in the office having to go through some sort of Admin. We then continued along a very rough road until we reached the border between Argentina and Chile. At this point, we had to take our bags out of the van. Driver had to go and do more admin processes and we were met by our guide. Natalie showed us what we needed to do. We lined up at a window and showed our Chilean visas and passports. We then had to put all our bags through a scanner. Next, we put our bags back into the van we came in and were driven over the border our bags were then taken out of the van we had just been in and taken to another van that was to drive us the rest of the way.

We had a chance to have a brief stop at a cafe/souvenir shop with very yummy Empanadas.


Natalie gave us a commentary on the journey to Torres Del Paine, telling us about some of the Chilean history the indigenous peoples, etc.






We finally arrived at our destination Hotel Del Paine at about 2:30 and were taken to rooms 13 and 15 - right at the end of the row of cabins.









After settling in Bill chilled in the room while Linda, Heidi, and Tejal went for a walk. Heidi and Tejal decided to head towards the river to walk along the river's edge. Linda decided to explore the area nearby and coincidentally Liz and Lewis drove up in a car.

Tejal and Heidi's walk...









Drinks before dinner- delicious Calafate Sour.




We had booked into the 7:30 dinner and wow what a spread. It was a help-yourself situation, with so many delicious fresh options.






Comments

  1. Ron BFebruary 4, 2024 at 9:38 PM

    No photo of spread. A bit of a departure from usual!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Heidi McKellarFebruary 5, 2024 at 5:03 PM

    We were just so in awe of the yummy food that we kept forgetting! Mum did eventually get a photo. Was funny as the next meal we noticed others taking photos of the spread 😀

    ReplyDelete

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