Day 100 : Journey to El Calafate

The bus trip from Ushuaia to El Calafate was rather interesting, though long, as we had to go in and out of Argentina and Chile borders, cross the Magellan straits (which belonged to Chile), and then transit at Rio Gallegos for 4 hours before catching the next bus to El Calafate.

The streets were certainly very quiet as I walked towards the bus station where the bus to Rio Gallegos departs at 5am in the morning.  All seats on this route were only semi-cama but as the bus was not crowded,, I got to have 2 seats to myself. 

We were given a form with 3 carbon copies on the back to fill for clearing the 2 Argentinian and 2 Chilean border crossing which we will be doing shortly.  Good!  Less paper work!

4.5hrs into the journey (and 303km later), we arrived at the Argentinian border of San Sebastian to get our passports stamped. 

I think the police do random checking of luggage because we had not taken our luggage out with us when we got our passports stamped.  However moments after we got back onto the bus, the bus driver came back and said that we need to bring all our luggage with us for checking. 

The Chilean border was about 20 minutes away from the Argentinian border!  No fruits are allowed at this checkpoint so I was lucky I had finished up my banana before reaching there!  As usual we had to take our luggage out for checking.  I get to have a Chilean stamp in my passport much earlier than scheduled!

At 1.30pm, we arrived at the Magellan crossing, where our bus drove up onto a vehicle carrier to cross the straits.  This was probably the highlight of the trip, as we were allowed to roam the ferry and go out on deck for the next 30 minutes of the journey.

We continued our way where we were served lunch (rather pathetic!), before reaching our next immigration checkpoint at 3pm. 

This checkpoint was rather interesting as the immigration procedures for both Argentina and Chile was done under one roof!  All we had to do was queue in the line of the Chilean immigration, and once we are done, we move to the counter next to us to do our Argentinian clearance! 

How I wish all immigration check points were like that!  That would save us a lot of hassle!

We continued our way before finally reaching the Bus Terminal at Rio Gallegos. 

The route from Rio Gallegos – El Calafate was not as interesting.  It was also already dark by the time we boarded the bus and I was already getting tired since I had left this morning at 5am.  The only thing which stood out from the journey was that at the El Calafate town gantry (each town has one), a police came on board and checked every individual person’s passport / document and marked it against the bus passenger list.

By the time we actually got to the bus terminal at El Calafate, it was already 1am and it was raining.  It is a good thing that the hostel I had booked has pick up service from the bus terminal. 

So within a short time, we got to the hostel and I was checked into a room with 4 bunk beds all to myself!