Day 302: Tierra del Fuego – Day 2
We only had a short way to go to reach the end of the road today. First, we continued down the right hand of the fork toward the estancia Caleta Maria. The road followed a small river for about 10KM before it ran into the fiord just past the estancia. There was a decorated road block and a little table with a guestbook inside (a group of three had beat us here the day before), so we stopped for a little photo op and refueled the car with our spare gas before turning around.
Sunrise over Lake Cami
Exploring uncharted territory – literally! This section of the road has not been added to Google Maps yet
“End of the Road & the World” – the road ends on the beach of a fiord
Caleta Maria – a remote estancia at the end of the road in Tierra del Fuego
We’re down about half a tank as we return around to head back north, so we empty our spare gas canisters into the tank
The fiords of Tierra del Fuego
When we returned to the fork, we tried to drive down the left side of the fork, which was the new road that the Chilean Army was building to reach the Beagle Channel. Unfortunately for us, they are only 3 years into a 5-year project, so we reached another road block before too long on that route as well (although, this one had a warning sign about explosives, not a cute guestbook). We literally had nowhere else to go, so we turned around and started heading back to Punta Arenas. According to our directions, there was a possibility of catching a ferry directly from the town of Porvenir to Punta Arenas, but we couldn’t check the timetables until we had reception. Even if we missed the ferry, the route to Porvenir wasn’t that far out of the way, and we decided we’d like a change of scenery on the way back. Turns out, there is only 1 ferry per day, and we did miss it. Tomorrow’s ferry was too late in the day, so we just stopped for gas before moving on to look for our last flattybouch campsite of the trip.
The new road the Chilean Army is building – unfortunately, it doesn’t go very far yet, so we don’t reach the Beagle Channel
Lindsay takes a few walks on the side of the road to try and stretch out the pinched nerve in her leg
Beautiful trees in Tierra del Fuego
We join a herd of sheep heading down the road
Taking the scenic route back north, along Inútil Bay
As we were filling up on gas, a fellow driver starting pointing at our car. We looked around confused as to what he wanted…and we could not believe our eyes at what we discovered. Somehow – even though we were driving so carefully! – we got a *second* flat tire. Igor was relieved that at least this one was not his fault, as Lindsay was driving at the time. Igor switched out the flat for our emergency tire within a few minutes, while Lindsay asked the gas station manager for directions to the nearest gomería.
So, let me illustrate the completely different experience we had with a flat tire in Chile vs Argentina. At first, the gas station manager started to draw Lindsay a detailed map for how to reached the tire repair shop, but just as he was about to hand it over, one of the other attendants said not to bother: the tire guy was on his way to the gas station and would meet us here! Talk about service! When we arrived, he offered to take the tire, repair it, and then bring it back, but since we had already swapped on the spare (plus it was late in the evening – we didn’t want to inconvenience this guy even more) we offered to follow him back to his shop. Luckily for us, this flat was not due to a rip in the tire – it was just an unfortunate run-in with a small but sharp rock. The gomería had the tire patched and replaced within an hour, and we were on our way. The cost? USD$6.25 (that’s including a USD$1.50 surcharge for picking us up after hours) Seriously, could Chile *be* any easier?!
You’ve GOT to be kidding me – WE GOT A SECOND FLAT TIRE
The local tire repair shop meets us at the gas station and escorts us back to his gomería, where his wife repairs the tire
The culprit: a teeny, little rock
By the time the tire was patched, it was almost sunset. We had just enough time to stop in a corner bodega for some cheese for our avocado wraps for dinner, before leaving town to look for a camping spot along the road. We had pretty bad luck and drove around for about an hour before we found a narrow gravel road that led through a nature preserve. We could see plenty of farms on either side of the road, so we felt a little uneasy that we might have been parking on someone’s land. We kept driving, hoping to find a spot that at least was out of view of a farmhouse window, so no one would realize we were there until morning. We finally parked on the beach of a small pond. We could see faint tire tracks in the rocks, so someone had parked here before – hopefully this pond was public access. Whether it was or not, the locals didn’t seem to care that we were there: one farmer drove by while we were eating our dinner, and we were definitely visible to at least one house. Again – big different from the nasty looks we got in Argentina for doing the same thing!
Our flat tire cost us a good hour of driving time – the sun is quickly setting by the time we drive out of Porvenir
We finally find a decent parking spot on the beach of a small pond.