The way back from Puerto Natales led us this time through the border crossing Paso Laurita Casas Viejas, because the road was better that way and in Argentina there was also a gas station and a possibility to go shopping – funnily enough in 28 de Noviembre, a little place named after my dads birthday. Up to this point everything went smoothly, even the Chilean border officials came to the bus for passport control because the children were asleep. This was not possible when we entered Chile for the first time, so we had to wake up Jonathan and Luisa and take them to the immigration counter. In Argentina, of course, that's not a problem - they're relaxed 😉
We headed back into the night to get some distance through the pampas, passing El Calafate and El Chaltén in total darkness and stopping not far from Gobernador Gregore's. The next day, we went into town, filled up one “last time”, shopped and had a shower. In addition, two balancing weights from the new tires had already fallen off by this point, because the specialists from recasur in Punta Arenas installed weights for aluminum rims for us - no wonder they don't hold up. We also exchanged all other weights so that we don't lose any more. Now it could go to the Perito Moreno National Park. Contrary to expectations, this has nothing to do with the Perito Moreno Glacier near El Calafate or with the town of Perito Moreno east of Los Antiguos. These three locations are several hundred kilometers apart.
The way there, first went about 125 km along the Ruta 40 with a headwind of almost 100 km/h and then about 80 km on a slope of rather poor quality with a similarly strong wind. After about 15 km on the track we stayed again at an abandoned estancia. It was quite chilly that night, but in the morning we were greeted by condors right next to the estancia - what majestic animals. We quickly made our way to the national park. We had already received the tip to drive here from several people. We reached the entrance of the park in the early afternoon, registered with the incredibly nice park rangers for two nights in the park and checked the weather again. We should be very lucky again - on the following two days there was sun and almost no wind - that doesn't happen too often here.
Since there was also internet here, a video was recorded with a birthday greeting for Juliane's mom, who had her day of honor the next day - of course we sang in Spanish, together with all the park rangers 😊 Then we moved on to the parking lot at Lago Belgrano. This lake left us speechless. We have never seen such a blue and clear lake in our lifetime. We packed the most necessary things in our backpacks and hiked about 2.5 km in biting wind and light snowfall to a cabaña (a small hut) on the Belgrano peninsula. There are huts like this everywhere in the national park, very clean, tidy, with table, loungers, wood stove, dry toilet a few meters away and water from the lake. Despite the sparse equipment, they (at least ours) are very comfortable and an excellent change from our Zacharias.
The next morning we hiked back to the parking lot this time without wind and in bright sunshine. While Juliane was eating something on the bus with the children, I ran the small circular route across the island. There is a small (approx. 10 km) and a large circular route (approx. 18 km) with a total of 4 cabañas. It was a complete pleasure. After the run we had the leftovers from dinner for lunch and we drove to Lago Burmeister for another night. Here, we also slept in the bus in an incredibly beautiful environment. Lago Burmeister is a west-east oriented long lake with steep cliffs on the north side and not so steep scree slopes on the south side. In many places in the cliffs you can see the breeding grounds of the condors, which stand out from the reddish rock due to distinctive bird dropping markings. However, we only saw one Condor from afar, circling near the wall.
After that night it was time to say goodbye to NP Perito Moreno, which overwhelmed us so much, because the next adventure was waiting - an approximately 70 km long off-road route from the national park north to Lago Posadas, only recommended for four-wheel drive vehicles and in good weather.
We can recommend the park to anyone looking for peace and nature. A very good infrastructure, beautiful and with a lot of effort created hiking trails and huts. Everything is very clean and tidy and if possible you should plan more time. The rangers are incredibly nice and very motivated to preserve this place, because it was financed by an American nature lover (unfortunately I forgot his name). And last but not least, everything is free - you just have to register with the rangers and sign up for the overnight stays as well as the hikes you want to do (mainly for safety reasons). Due to the remoteness and the bad road here, the number of visitors is manageable and everything is very quiet. Presumably, therefore, an operation in this way is possible.
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