Day 41 - 15 Jan.2012 - El Calafate

Before leaving Punta Arenas, we had a look at its waterside where the ferry to Provenier and ships to the southern Chilean island leave.
It turned out that the water front looks in fact quite modern with a nice cycle path along it – nothing like the dull impression our guide was making.
After filling up the tank with diesel, we set off direction Puerto Natales, the entrance hub to the National Park Torres del Paine, a hiker’s paradise. The first thing we did when we arrived was the obligatory stop at the local Tourist Information to get some useful tips. It turned out that the entrance to the park is 15,000 Chilean Pesos (about £20) per person and another $ 15.000 for camping. The price might be justified if you spend a week trekking in the park but as we were planning to stay there for one night only, we tough it a bit on the salty end. We drove the Route 9 further north to see if we have more luck to find a campsite outside the park.
We did not believe our eyes of the prices we found there. Everything was about 4 times as expensive than normal. For example, a bar of chocolate we bought for $ 1.200 in Puerto Natales was a staggering $ 5,000 there. And on top of it, it seems that no camping was possible outside the park as all campsites were within its boundaries. It was already after 7 in the evening and we were toying with the idea to give the whole Torres del Paine Experience a miss and cross the border into Argentina to continue up to El Calafate. The order crossing looked pretty deserted but it turned out it was open. We spoke to the border officials if it was possible to cross and within 5 minutes we were back in Argentina. We drove up to El Calafate and stayed at the very busy and really overcrowded campsite El Ovejeiro near the entrance into town. As it was already late we did not have much choice anyway and stayed for the night. We made dinner from our shopping we previously bought in Chile (and were allowed to carry over into Argentina) and called it a day.