Argentina - Los Antiguos

09.03.2012 - 11.03.2012 19 °C

Decision time...heading north from deep south in Argentina we had a couple of options, proceed up Argentinia's Route 40 or the Chile's Carretera Austral.

The famous Route 40 is a huge journey on a mainly dirt straight road, with little wildlife or anything interesting along the way...the less travelled and less touristy Carretera Austral on the other hand, winds north along the mountains with rivers, waterfalls, lakes and small towns...Despite transport strikes and threats of more, we decided on the Carretera Austral.

To get there, we took a bus from El Chalten to Los Antiguos in Argentina, a small town with loads of fruit farms. In search of a fruit farm, we wandered up a long drive without sign posts hoping we found one, reached a house and was greeted by an older couple who took us around their farm and loaded us up with apples, pears, raspberries, peaches and more. Delicious and they refused to accept any payment.

Fresh fruit with cheese and crackers for dinner went down a treat...

Los Antiguos is an entry point into Chile, so we stayed here for 2 nights to link up with the ferry in Chile Chico and start the Carretera Austral.