Para Argentina y Bariloche – Ruta 63

The Border

My voyage to Argentina got started in Pucon around 10AM on Monday, August 26. I was a bit nervous as I’d heard quite a bit about issues getting vehicles across the border. When I picked up the car in Santiago I was assured I had all of the necessary paperwork and it wouldn’t be an issue… right?

Wrong. After climbing a gravel road for awhile into stunning mountain surroundings I came to a stop at the Chilean border facility. I gathered my file folder of documents and headed inside. The first step, immigration, was quick and painless. I showed my passport he looked at my stamps and the payment stub for the entry fee and filled out a form that I was to submit to Argentina border authorities.

Customs didn’t go so smoothly. I nervously handed over the car documents to the customs officer with a greeting in broken Spanish. He quickly rifled through them and started shaking his head. ‘No good, no good, this has no meaning’ and slid a paper back towards me. I tried to ask what was no good, he muttered a string of Spanish that I did not understand and looked a bit annoyed that was so horrible at Spanish. ‘Notary, you know notary? Are you notary?’ I made a motion for stamping and signature. ‘Si. No, I am not a notary’. ‘Then you can’t bring car in country. Documents no good!’ My heart sank, this is going to be a long day.

The customers officer walked off and left me with my documents. He was conferring with another officer inside. They came back and pointed at the documents, shaking their heads and talking in Spanish. I pointed at them, trying my best to communicate that the rental company had said this was all that was needed. ‘No, no,’ they said, ‘This is not you,’ pointing at a name on one of the documents. ‘And, these names different,’ pointing at names on two different forms that didn’t match. They printed off an english translation of a section of their import code stating that for rental vehicles via a third party, notarized proof of the ownership relationship between the registered car owner and me was required. At this point they motioned to me to sit tight for awhile while they looked into things. It seemed they understood my predicament and were going to try and help. That was reassuring at least.

By this point I’d realized there was wifi and I’d started to Facebook my predicament and communicate my current situation to my contact for the rental car. Some time passed and a new customers officer came by. He was bubbly and much better at English. He explained in a little more detail what I’d more or less determined by this point. Able to communicate a little better I passed the officer the contact information for the rental car. He invited me in to their lounge area and told me not to worry, things would get figured out I’d just have to wait. And wait I did. Numerous conversations between different people at the rental car company and the various customs officer were had. The officers seemed quite annoyed with the rental car company for not understanding what they were missing. Meanwhile I was watching Chilean soap operas and drinking some instant coffee while WhatsApping my contact to figure out what the status was.

Finally, over 3.5 hours later, I received a WhatsApp message ‘Documents sent’ at the same time the bubbly officer exclaimed ‘Ahah, here!’ Very quickly the two new pages of documentation were scanned, stamped, and I was on my way expressing gratitude for the help. Another few minutes down the road and I prepared myself for the Argentina border. Thankfully it went much quicker. They verified my payment for entering the country and checked the passport. I had my fingers crossed for customs but they guy barely glanced at the documents I had spent over three hours waiting for. He poked around in the back of my car for a few minutes, asked if everything I’d brought was for me, and then I was on my way. Phew! Past customs but behind schedule by 4 hours I realized that the drive would not be finished by daylight. Another night time adventure, woo! Little did I know it would be a bigger one than expected.

Ruta 63 to Bariloche

The GPS that came with the rental car was just not working in Argentina. It was either rebooting every time it calculated the route or telling me to take u-turns every few KM. The map of where I was was clearly missing roads. With no cell service I fell back on the google maps directions and my paper maps. It seemed easy enough, there weren’t too many places to go wrong. There were two apparent paths, take a longer route that looked like it was on bigger highways (the one google and my phone GPS had indicated when checking the previous day) or take a more direct appearing route that was presumably slower. My odometer was initially matching the google directions and then I hit a point where it said ‘continue straight on route…’ and there was only a left and a right, fuck! I stopped the car and stared at the map. Neither left or right appeared to be more ‘straight’ or more connected with the highway I’d been on. There were signs on both forks but they did not indicate the highway name/number (every sign seemed to be missing this) but only the nearest towns that you could reach on that fork. Looking at the map I saw a town that I knew was more north on the one sign and one that I knew was more in the direction I wanted on the other, so I took that path. The next direction seemed to match close enough and I saw a sign telling me the distance to Bariloche so I relaxed, all good.

And then I hit San Martin de Los Andes as the sun was setting. Crap! I knew I wasn’t supposed to hit this town, it was on the other route. Annoyed with myself, I made my way across the town (the highway seemed to end in city streets here) to the exit back onto the highway. A sign at the entrance confirmed Bariloche in the southern direction so I followed it. How much worse could this route be from the main highway? At least I knew I was going in the right direction and it looked like a nice scenic road in the twilight. I continued for a ways winding up through a highway neighbouring a large lake. It must be an amazing drive during the day. And then I hit a fork. I checked the map and knew which direction I had to go, but it was a dirt road. Oh joy. Thus began my night time adventure down route 63.

Things started off pretty well. The gravel road was wide and in good shape. I was moving along at a decent clip until I smacked into a series of potholes ‘bam, bam.’ Ah! Crap. I slowed down and started paying more attention. The road worsened, became narrower, the trees started to crowd in closer. There were no lights, no other cars, this was going to be fun. There was all sorts of terrain. Really narrow bumpy bits, squirrelly sandy or muddy bits, long winding climbs and descents with the edge visible by headlamp and nothing behind. The world that existed for me was the cone of my headlamps and then nothing but unfamiliar darkness behind. It was a bit unnerving. In order to humour myself during the drive I decided to take some video. I put some of the clips together.

You can also see what an amazing drive this would be during the day as a leisurely drive by looking for other youtube videos.

I was quite happy when I finally saw the sign indicating the end of route 63 and made the right turn onto paved road.

Still over 60KM away, I had another hour of driving to go. At this point it was past 10PM and I was supposed to meet the manager for the AirBnb place I’d booked by 9PM at the latest. I rolled in to a very windy Bariloche at a little past 11PM. I flipped back to my Fido SIM and made a call. I received the keys, moved my gear into the apartment, and took a moment to clear my head. Around 1AM I ventured out to see if I could find food. I found beer (good beer! IPA in fact) at a local pub called Manush. The bartender was very friendly and spoke some English. He informed me that the kitchen was closed but I stayed for two beers. On the way back to my new digs I picked up some cookies and chips at a gas station. My first dinner in Argentina and the end to a crazy day.