Day 20 – Saturday 27th October 2018
El Calafete
Distance travelled:-
By plane – 0
By public transport – 269 kms/167 miles
By foot – 11 kms/ 6.8 miles
Steps taken – 14,093
Up at 6am to catch the 7.30am bus from Puerto Natales back to El Calafete.
We had border control to look forward to again today…wonder what awaits us this time.
So after around approximately 1 hour we stopped outside the Chile Border Control. We sat on the bus for 50 minutes…why you ask…I honestly don’t know! Then we were asked to get of the bus with our passport and visa. This took a further 30 minutes.
Then we got back on the bus, entered no man’s land for 10 minutes then hit Argentina Border Control. Here we sat on the bus for 10 minutes, then we were asked to get off the bus with passports. This took a further 25 minutes!
This time though nothing was searched, our bags remained in the bus.
Yeah for border control…Brexit will have a lot to answer for!!!
The journey back took seven whole hours!
Guanacos, you see these in the fields everywhere, well almost, when you travel
We stayed at our usual hostel and we were once again greeted by the smiley happy Marcel as soon as he saw us coming. Marcel is actually South African, but has been travelling for 18 years, his last 3 years of travelling have been in South America and right now he’s working in this hostel making some cash so he can pack up once more and go….I love hearing people’s stories, it’s all part of the adventures.
Marcel is another hostel character, huge personality with big big stories to tell. He’s always up for a chat, mornings and evenings….great guy. So after a very long chat with Marcel we dumped our bags and headed straight down town.
We needed to pick up a few pressies here for back home as it was our last opportunity.
It was nice to be back in El Calafete but it was a short stay as tomorrow we leave from here again to head to the airport.
As mentioned previously buses are few and far between in this area and only certain buses from certain places take you to certain destinations so there can be lots of go betweens.
Look how wide the roads are
Another amazing sunset in this wonderful land….I must have taken over 50 photographs of this, look at the cloud formations
Up at 6am tomorrow to catch our 8.35 am flight……we are heading to ‘The End Of The World’…..Ushuaia here we come!
Mary's Outdoor Adventure's 
Good morning travellers. Hope you are well rested😄😄. First question….are Guanacos what we know as Llamas? They look very similar! Your sunrise/sunsets look absolutely fabulous. One good reason for getting out of bed early!!!!How many more customs posts are you likely to have to go through? I’m off to my art class today and have printed a few of your photos to show around. Look forward to your next blog. Love/God BlessAunty Alice xxx
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Good Morning, from the end of the world….and imagine messages sending through so easily!! Yes Guanacos are very similar to Llamas, if not the same. Beautiful sunrises and sunsets most days….I could post at least 60 every day! We are not crossing over any more borders, although we may try sneak in one somewhere else…but that’s another blog 😂🤣….and think it’s flights really from now as quicker and less hassle 🙈. Enjoy art class and by the way, if any of your work becomes famous as in any of the photos your painting from my photographs do I get some kind of commission?? 😉😂…enjoy class X p.s. I’m almost caught up with these!!!
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Must have felt like coming home getting back to el Calafate…and getting a great welcome back at the hostel. These places perform a great function for travellers……Going back more years than I care to remember, when Terry and I and friends were travelling on a budget, in Greece and the Greek Islands hostels were a lifeline for us. Particularly the one in Athens..we were always turning up there! Sometimes short of cash so we were allowed to stay if we did some work eg peel potatoes, scrub floors etc. (My goodness your getting us all reminiscing about our own days of travel).
Glad you survived that border crossing….wonder why they take so long to let you all get on your way? Hope there were loos around for people to use😂….talking about loos apparently if there is a mess up with Brexit…the government are arranging for 1000s of portaloos at the M20 to cater for all the lorries that will be piling up when coming from/going to France!!
Have a good flight to Ushuaia. Expect we’ll all be off on another trek at the End of the World. Ps I’m trying to keep up with all those steps you’re recording(in my dreams😴.)!! xx
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Aw the hostels have been amazing and the standard of some nowadays is unreal, I don’t think people realise how well equipped etc hostels can be….and prices are amazing especially when your travelling about so many places for short stays.
Your travels sounded so much fun and I can just imagine you guys!!! Bet you both have loads of stories to tell about them….just imagine if ‘blogs’ had been around then!
No more border controls like that to face I don’t think… woo hoo!! Everyone took the toilet break each time on the Chile side as the Argentinian toilets were yuk 😂🙈. Unbelievable about the portaloos etc at M20…if/when this all goes through there’s going to be so much more mess!!!!
Just a hint here….. Ushuaia is amazing! X
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Oh can’t wait to see the next blog & photos!!. In hindsight talking about hostels..some in Greece weren’t that great…the one in Santorini was so bad we slept on the beach!! Xx
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Hi,. So you made it to the end of the world, hope you are both smelling better now 😂🤣 they say the end of the world Narrow gauge steam train that takes you a ride through the Tierra Del Diego National Park is lovely, and the Cascara Dear La Macarena water fall is something to see. Some people walk some of the trails and canoed down the rivers and over the lagoon toLapataia Bay. How is the food? They say you get some lovely Argentina n wine there too 😁 speak to you soon, look forward to your next lot of pics xx
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Hello 🤚…yes we’re both nice and clean now and had a good scrub 😁😂…yes saw the train…the prisoners that were held here way back actually built the railway line. Tierra del Fuego National Park is beautiful! This is such a lovely place. The food and wine are both good, very nice actually. X
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