Argentina

Argentina will be the last Sth American country for us for 2017. We entered for the first time up in the north of the country from near San Pedro de Atacama in Chile after leaving the Bolivian Altiplano.
Where we chose to cross from Chile to Argentina you have to be 'signed out' of Chile by the police at the actual border. You then drive some distance into Argentina where the paperwork is done.
Pulling up to the border I made the mistake of parking where I was visible (although with only one building it would have been impossible to hide) as the driver of a RHD vehicle.
The police officer noticing our RHD called me over for a chat, or lecture, as it turned out to be. Under his interpretation of the Chilean law, we were allowed to Temporarily Import the truck into Chile, we were not actually allowed to drive it.
I informed him that to the best of my knowledge on the subject he was wrong. This he did not want to hear!
He called in a mate who had some English language (as opposed to our complete lack of expertise in the Spanish language skills area) skills to back him up.
I can only assume that they were after some money to expedite our departure. This I was determined was not about to happen no matter how long we had to sit there. They eventually got the hint and let us go on our way. We crossed the Chile/Argentina border on many future occasions and the issue of RHD was never raised again.

 Driving over the border from northern Chile. Bleak but starkly beautiful.

                                      

Huge landscapes where you rarely see another vehicle.

 We thought that we were done with high narrow roads like in the Peruvian mountains, but this section raised our heart rate for a moment.

Now for the long windy road down Ruta 40 which will take us all the way down the Argentine side of the Andes to Patagonia.

Found this very old little bridge near the Chilean/Argentina border where we camped. Very cold, windy, and desolate but stunningly dramatic high altitude scenery.

Old railway town high in the Argentinean Andes. Remote windy and cold.

 The country on this side of the Andes is very dry. Chile side gets most of the rain.

 We drove up a dry water course and camped with this fabulous scenery all around us.

 Our morning walk up the dry creek was like stepping into a Western movie set.

 Shrines are part of the roadside landscape all through South America.

Rob keeping his fitness up with elastic exercise straps. He tries to drag the truck for at least 200 meters every night. (heh heh)

This camp was up another dry water course hidden from view of the road. Wild donkeys wandered past all night.

 We travelled for miles down this vast valley with crops along the river.

We had to drive along a long stony track past one of the most southerly Inca ruins to find this quiet and private camp site.

Oh no! A passing truck kicked up a stone and shattered our side window. It held together for a few days thanks to the special film applied by a Ballarat crowd in 2010 before we started shipping the truck overseas. Fortunately we found a replacement in Mendoza. How good was that.

Back over the mountains. One pass over the Andes was 4895 meters.

Most country close to the Andes in Argentina is dry with very few trees but with amazingly beautiful landscapes.

These roadside shrines with piles of large plastic water bottles had us stumped until we finally found the answer on google. Apparently a woman named Difunta Correa died of thirst with her baby at her breast (which survived) in the desert while searching for her husband. She is now an unofficial patron saint and the bottles of water are to quench her eternal thirst.

Wow! This was a great camp site.

The Argentinean lakes district went for hundreds of kilometers.

There's a Beech forest up ahead where we found a secluded spot for the night.

The wild geese in Patagonia were so beautiful.

Black necked white swans. We have only seen them in southern South America.

Taking a moment to soak up that fabulous view.

One of our favorite wild camps in a secluded wooded valley surrounded by snow capped mountains near Lago Lolog.

Another type of wild geese, beautiful rich color.

Lovely picturesque farming area outside Villa La Angostura.

This servo had a fantastic view in the lakes district.

The Patagonian Pampas.

Met this friendly gaucho checking his fences. Using sign language we established from him that he was OK with us camping on his boundary fence. 

Entering Argentina at the border near Fataleufu, Chile we had another run in with the law. Hearing Gael trying to explain to the man with the passport stamp that we had limited Spanish skills one of Argentina's finest spun around and started yelling that we should be able to speak fluent Spanish. 

He was obviously well traveled and knew more about crossing borders than we do, because he  informed us that he would be expected to speak fluent English if he wanted to visit USA, England, Australia, etc. What is it with uniforms and creeps! Everybody else was quite pleasant. 

Beautiful scenery driving Ruta 12 & 25 which takes us across the pampas from Chile to the east coast of Argentina. Wide valleys with poplar trees around estancias and rivers.

We thought these red flagged memorials were just for very popular road accident victims. However we discovered they were in memory of Gaucho Gill, a Robin Hood type character who wore a red scarf, hence the red flags. He robbed the rich and gave to the poor while being hunted by the law over 100 years ago. These shrines are all over Argentina and they even have festivals in his name.

If you look closely you can see the Gaucho Gill statue with cans of beer offerings and more.

Wild camping at Peninsula Valdes on the Atlantic coast. From this camp on the cliffs we got a great view of Southern Right Whale mothers frolicked with their calves only 100 meters from us. They were so close that we could hear them blowing as dozens passed every day. Just fabulous!

This is a young calf sliding over it's mothers back.

Boat loads of tourist from the nearby town of Punta Piramides would cruise between our camp on the shore and the whales. They put on a great show.

Argentine Oyster Catcher appeared browner than ours.

Many varieties of Cormorants.

There were a few rookeries of Magallonic Penguins on the peninsula.

This was the place where the film of orcas launching themselves at the shore to grab a seal was filmed. Unfortunately it was the wrong time of the day and tides for this to happen for us. You are required to drive with your headlights on, on rural Argentinean roads.

Gael still patiently searched the beach for something being eaten, but to no avail.

The Southern Sea Elephants and Sea Lions were all taking a siesta. I wish I could sleep as well!

This little guy was a Larger Hair Armadillo, he was scampering around the car park looking for scraps. We usually saw them tearing across the road at break neck speed.

This is a guanaco the wild cousin of the domestic llama. It was great to see small herds of them all through Patagonia.

We nick named these bird "chooks". They looked very comical waddling along the road in small groups then tearing off into the scrub when they saw us bearing down on them.

These huge cliffs near El Condor were peppered with holes scratched out by the only cliff dwelling Burrowing Parrots in the world.

There's one!!! There are about 35,000 of them living along a 12km stretch of this coast. The sky, fences, shrubs and power lines are full of them.

They perch on the power line then dive like fighter planes over the cliff to their burrows. Spectacular sight quite mesmerzsing.

Nice fish head for lunch.

Rheas, smaller than our emu.

What a pretty duck. Haven't a clue what type it is.

This little guy looks like it could be a robin. Perhaps!!!

Walked the streets of Buenos Aires. Pretty busy compared to where we have traveled over the past 7 months. 

This is where South Americans put their rubbish for collection. Off the ground on the nature strip so stay dogs don't spread it all over the neighborhood.

Our campsite at Andean Roads Camper Rentals just outside of Buenos Aires. We have left the truck in storage here for three months (Dec thru to March) while we return home to Tasmania to cut the grass. March 2018 will see us return to spend another month touring Uruguay and Southern Brazil. In  early April we (and the truck) go for a cruise on a cargo ship to visit Europe (again). There we hope to visit a lot more of eastern Europe and go as far north as Finland. Promises to be a BIG year!!!