The expression in the title of the blog post means "a person who has unexpectedly attained an aspirational goal and is now unsure what to do with it." What an apt way to describe the situation we found ourselves in within the days outlined in this blog post.
In this blog post, we changed our goal, no longer was it to go south, instead it was to head north. However, were unsure how fast or slow to go and when to end our trip. We were lost and didn't know what we should do. Thankfully we met a couple from Quebec at the side of the road that helped us re-establish our purpose. In the meantime, we still kept ourselves busy with tours to King Penguin colonies, alternative "end of the roads" and general tasks.
Today marks the day that is a big change for us. We can no
longer drive south; our goal has now changed to North.
We left our camp spot and started to drive north. For the
rest of our trip we will be travelling north.
We are excited to explore Patagonia, Chile’s Caraterra Austral and
Argentina’s Ruta 40, and we will travel north until it is time to ship our van
back to Canada.
Our destination today was a shipwreck. The Desdemona was a cargo ship that
originated in Germany but was used to transport goods in Tierra Del Fuego
between more northern cities and Ushuaia. It became shipwrecked just north of Ushuaia
and now stand upright on the beach. Rumour has it that it was carrying dry
concrete when it ran aground and the concrete mixed with sea water and turned
into cement, which is why the ship is still upright. You can fact check that
for yourself; its just what we have heard. After exploring the shipwreck, we
stopped at the only place in town that serves food. We had some salmon empanadas which people
rave about online. While we enjoy a good empanada, we will most likely be
sticking to the meat and cheese empanadas. The salmon was delicious, we just
weren’t a fan of it wrapped in dough.
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| Salmon Empanadas... they were okay |
We camped for the night beside an abandoned hotel. Unfortunately, some people have broken all the glass windows and removed all the fixtures from the rooms. The toilets were removed from the bathrooms in each room, but that hasn’t stopped people from continuing to use the bathroom for it’s intended purpose (we still prefer to use our trowel to dig a hole).
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| Quite a view from our campsite |
January 29- Continuing our Rebellious Ways
This morning it was actually somewhat warm outside so we
were able to sit outside and enjoy our vegetable-forward omelet. Today we will
cross back into Chile so we need to consume all of our meat, dairy, fresh
vegetables, and eggs. Since we were successful with our smuggling of jalapenos
and a green pepper last time we decided to try it again. Today we will attempt to smuggle 6 potatoes,
½ a stick of butter, and a whole head of
garlic and some other goods we thought might get taken by border officials. Kendra
loaded the contraband into the area where we store our board games and then it
was time to hit the road.
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| Are we on the Prairies?! |
We decided to get to the border later in the day, which is odd for us since we are usually trying to be at the border first thing in the morning. We had some errands to run like stocking up on cheap non-perishable items in Argentina of things that we would be allowed to take into Chile. Unfortunately, Argentina did not have any coffee at the grocery store. We could buy instant coffee and Mate but no coffee grounds. Next we filled up our water jug at a gas station (it is still amazing to us that we travelled for almost a whole year without drinking tap water and getting water for free from a tap is still a bit surprising). Finally, it was time to cross the border.
We were stamped out of Argentina with no questions asked and
drove the 10 or 20 kms through no man’s land to enter Chile. This marks Pauls 6th official
entry/exit stamp into Chile, while Kendra only has 4, which is a sore point for
her. We got to the border got ourselves in, got the vehicle in and presented
Rupert’s paperwork to get him in too. Next we had our vehicle inspected, they
looked at Rupert and commented how cute he is and then looked in our kitchen
area, opened the fridge and looked in our pantry box; and then we were welcomed
into Chile. We had done it again without getting caught!
Next we drove 100kms to a campsite that has been described
as “the worst campsite in all of Patagonia”. Lucky for us, the wind wasn’t too
bad and the refugio we parked beside was empty when we arrived so we ate our
dinner of potatoes and pasta inside an actual building. As we finished dinner a
couple from Colombian on bicycles arrived so we let them have complete access
to the refugio as we retreated to our van to watch Yellowstone.
January 30- The King of the Penguins
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| The single males of the colony hanging out together |
Finally it was time to leave our camp spot and go see some
more penguins. It was definitely colder and rainier than we would have liked
but that so meant that the penguins would be closer for us to see. The penguins weren’t always here, they just
randomly showed up in 2008 and never left.
Our guide thought there are still some eggs being incubated here but we
weren’t able to see any eggs we did; however, get to see juveniles losing their
downy coats for their more waterproof feathers.
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| Post Penguin Tea |
The penguins also organize themselves into different groups. There was a group of penguins with the babies and juveniles and then a smaller group of what is believed to be the older penguins, and then there were four to the side which our guide said are the single penguins looking for a mate, but they will all huddle together at night for protection.
After seeing the penguins Paul bought a new mug (with
penguins on it) and Kendra bought some pins to turn into Christmas ornaments.
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| Stromatolite |
Next we had some soup for lunch and found our camp spot for
the night at the local lighthouse, just up the road from the ferry terminal.
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| A Tierra del Fuego traffic jam |
January 31- The end of the road...take 3!
We woke up to an alarm since we had to be at the ferry
terminal for 6:30 am. Luckily we were a
5 minute drive away so we woke up at 6:20 and got the van into driving mode. We
had read that other overlanders had been “reclassified” at the ferry terminal
as motorhomes which required them to pay almost three times as much for the
ferry. Luckily we are a mini van which everyone thinks is a normal vehicle.
After loading onto the ferry and sailing across the Magallen Strait for 2 hours we arrived in Punta Arenas. We had a few errands we needed to do. The first was to figure out Kendra’s SIM card for her phone. It has not been used in over a month and is not connecting to any networks. We first went to the phone company store who said we need to recharge the phone credit at the pharmacy. We did that but still no success with connecting to the network. We learned that since her phone has not been registered with the Chilean government they have blocked her phone from accessing any network. So we went to the government office who told us to go online to register it. Unfortunately, we do not have any internet because the phone cannot connect to a network so we were on the hunt for free wifi. Luckily there was a coworking space where we could connect to the internet and register her phone so it can hopefully work again soon.
We also had to pick up some groceries (namely eggs, veggies
and meat) and one more bottle of sparkling wine. After filling up gas, buying
coffee grounds from the roaster it was time to venture down the road to “the
end of the road”.
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| Fin del Camino! |
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| Leaving our mark |
This time the end of the road has a sign saying “fin de la
camino” which marked the end of continental south America. So we pulled the van
up to the sign (which is unfortunately covered in stickers and difficult to
read) and did what we do best. We set up the tripod, got Rupert out of the van,
and popped a bottle of sparkling wine.
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| Dinner at the end of the world |
We found a beautiful camp spot for the night protected from the wind by trees looking out over the strait. Believe it or not, the leaves on the trees are starting to change colour and fall. We sat looking out over the water from our secret forest camp spot as a rainbow appeared in the sky. it was a great end to the day.
February 1st – Camping at the end of the world
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| A bit too long of a hike for Rupert |
Although it was a little cold during the day, the view from
our end of the world campground was perfect so we decided to stay another day
to celebrate reaching all the possible end of the roads in South America. Due to the cold we didn’t just want to sit
around the van all day so we decided to do a 10 kilometre hike to a lighthouse
on the edge of the Magellan Channel.
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| Dinner cooked over charcoal; delicious!! |
This should have been an easy hike along the coast line but it was anything but easy. Majority of the walk was in loose sand which was nice for the first kilometer but started to get tiring after that. Thankfully the views were worth it!
We did get to the viewpoint where we relaxed for an hour
watch boats and animals around the area before making it back to the van. We had this hope to relax outside looking at
the ocean but the temperature was a bit too cold for that and Paul was a bit
too antsy so he decided to do BBQ for dinner with our remaining charcoal. As a bit of an aside our charcoal is horrible
quality and we have struggled to lite it in the past, even seeing moisture boil
out of the charcoal last time we tried to us it. Thanks to the use of our propane stove as a
way to start our fire we were finally able to use the rest of the charcoal and
eat some pretty delicious BBQ chicken as well as keeping ourselves busy in the
cool temperature.
February 2nd – Work and Taxes
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| Rupert enjoying his rainy days |
As some may know Paul has his own business and had to do
some work with a steady internet connection, it was also that time of the year
to send all the GST he had collected to the government. Needless to say it was a pretty uneventful
few hours with one major exception; Kendra’s phone started to work
randomly!! We were so excited that all
the work and government forms we had filled out a couple days ago got her phone
back on the Chilean network. Odd that it
took so long when we were told it would take no more that a few hours.
As it was still pouring rain we decided it was time to leave
the area and head further north, but not before picking up some groceries. We almost made it all the way to Puerto
Natales, but stopped just 10 kilometers from the community as we wanted to save
a bit of money and camp in the wilderness.
Our camping spot was functional but not great; however it did allow us
the perfect spot to have a few drinks and some good conversations.
February 3rd – Losing our story
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| A picture of our last "must do" while going south; Going for a swim in Antarctic water |
We also feel this way.
We do not know our plans or what we wanted to do, we have
some many potential options each with their own positive and negatives but
everything is theoretical. Thus far our
only real plan is to get to Buenos Aires through the mountain area of Patagonia
but without a timeline or purpose we are not to sure what the next few days,
weeks or many months look like.
February 4th – Gin
We did eventually make it to Puerto Natales and after a bit
of searching we even found a campground that had showers and wifi. We did have some concerns about finding a
campground as the first one we went to was already completely booked up by 10am
on a Sunday with a couple other campers also trying to get into the
campground. Thankfully all of us in line
did eventually find a spot either outside of the community or at the same
campground we were able to get into meaning we spent the morning and early after
noon being social and swapping stories with fellow travelers.
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| SALUD!!! |
We did explore Puerto Natales which reminded us of a small
seaside tourist town you would see in Canada or the USA. There was nice walk way along the ocean and a
cute downtown however the main draw for the community was the nearby national
park, Torres del Paine.
This was one of Paul’s must do places to visit with one hike
in particular as being important to complete for him. The issue is the hike is 20 kilometers long
and the community is 150 kilometers from the national park, a park where dogs
are not welcome. We needed to find a dog
sitter.
Thankfully there were a couple dog sitters in town and after
some back and forth we found someone who would be able to look after Rupert
from Friday to Sunday, so we had lots of time to explore the area (since today
was Sunday).
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| Absolutely amazing tour!! |
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| Rupert hanging out with the town mascot; a Mylodon |
February 5th – Killing time
Today reinforced our concerns about the next chapter of our
trip. We had no where to be and no drive
to go anywhere. We didn’t feel like
spending money on gas or exploring the area that was not welcoming for
Rupert.
We spend the morning hanging around the campground cleaning
different areas of the van and giving all our pots and pans a thorough
washing. We then did another wander
around town taking pictures of the “main sites” within the town itself. Everything was pretty anticlimactic and had
us questioning our plans for the short and medium terms.
February 6th – Finding direction, making our plan
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| A view from inside the Mylodon cave |
After yesterdays crisis of faith for the continuation of the
trip we decided we had to do something… anything. There was a national monument nearby so
decided to check it out. It was called
the Cave of the Mylodon, a giant sloth that lived in the prehistoric
times. The monument was overpriced in
our opinion but provided us something to do and a bit of a hike. There were two main things to see in the area
the first was the cave itself which was just a cave with a walkway in it. It did provide a nice view of some mountains
in the distance but that was about it.
The second was a rock formation known as the devils chair where, if you
looked hard enough you could find the devils face. After a little bit of searching we think we
found it!
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| Can you see the devils face? |
We left the area $20 CAD poorer and feeling a bit let down,
so we thought to continue to the outskirts of Torres Del Paine to see some of
the free viewpoints hoping that this would spark some excitement for when we
eventually would enter the park. It was
at the second viewpoint something magical happened.
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| What a view! |
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| Our first view of Torres del Paine |
We could feel the excitement, drive and our story return to
us. We had a little under 2 months to
drive to Buenos Aires and would get to extend our trip a little bit back in
North America which we apply for jobs.
As if the universe knew we needed an equally amazing camping
spot to celebrate our new plan we found one of the most amazing spots we had
had in months, a riverside camping spot looking out to Torres del Paine. As we sat looking at the landscape we felt
all was right in the world.
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| Definitely one of the best camping spots ever! |
February 7th – Errands
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| The drive back was pretty enjoyable with views like this |
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| Starting to really like purchasing fresh bread |
We were surprised that the campground we had previously wanted to stay at in Puerto Natales was available so late in the day so we booked in for a couple nights. Very quickly we were surprised by another thing, that it was busy at all. We were shocked that the campground was nothing more than an open field within no wild protection. We did later learn that this campground caters more to tents and bicycle riders who are cycling different areas of Patagonia meaning this campground is more of a get together spot for those ambitious enough to cycle around for months at a time.
February 8th – Problems found, stressed over, and
solutions made
Our plan for the day was to sit down and plan out our next
few weeks so we could maximize our time throughout southern Patagonia. We still had two and a half weeks to account
for between now and when we would do our glacier hike. Our original plan was to drive 1000
kilometers north and slowly drive back to the location of our hike. It would mean we would drive an extra 2000
kilometers on our trip, but we wouldn’t be missing out on anything. About 25% through the planning process Kendra
suddenly exclaimed, “there is a cancelation!”.
We couldn’t believe it there were two spots available to do the glacier hike February 13th. This would work perfect for us and stop us from wasting time, energy and gas. Everything just fell into place, tomorrow (Friday), we would go to Torres del Paine, we would camp there, do our 20 kilometer hike, return to Puerto Natales to pick up the dog, drive to El Calafate, explore the town then go to the glacier. It was perfect.
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| Finding solutions to our problems!! |
We then decided to spend time trying to plan our way home,
we started looking at the USA’s pet importation policy and airlines polices
only to realize that it would be incredibly difficult to get Rupert into the
USA. First, US airlines do not allow
dogs to travel as cargo and only very small dogs are allowed in the cabin. Exceptions to these rules are for services
animals, something that Rupert is not.
Our second problem has to do with the US’s CDC rules for dog
importation. They have banned all dogs
travelling from or dogs who have traveled to a high risk rabies country for 6
months. Since Bolivia is considered high
risk he wouldn’t be able to enter through an airport. We stressed about how to get Rupert into the
country as well as reached out to many other pet owners to see how they
overcame the issue and in general they took a “don’t ask, don’t tell” mentality
and hoped for the best. Our concern is
that if this didn’t work Rupert would be stuck in Quarantine until 6 months
from leaving the high risk rabies country elapses, which could be almost a
month.
It was at this time we found a loop hole, if Rupert entered
from a land boarder there is not capabilities to declare that he had been to a
high risk country, so after lots of searching stressing and reading we had a
plan. We would fly to Cancun for a week
or so, give Rupert a rest from flying then Paul would fly to Houston to pick up
the van and Kendra would take a domestic flight to Reynosa, a border town
between Mexico and the US. Paul would
drive down to the US side of the border, park the van, take a taxi to the
airport then we would all cross back into the USA.
You would think we would have gone out to celebrate the fact
we had made so many decisions but we had a new crisis to correct. Our dog sitter for Rupert had ghosted
us. After messaging, calling and doing
anything we thought we could do to re-establish contact with him we came to
worrying conclusion; we didn’t know if we would be able to go to Torres Del
Paine National Park.
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