January 15 and we drive all day on thye Carretera Austral.  Seems Chile promotes this route for North South tourist traffic in competition with Argentina's Route 40.  Up one down the other seems like a good idea to me.  Except in Chile the Carretera Astral ends at Puerto Montt which is the north end of our upcoming ferry ride.  Here is a map of Route 40.  Notice Chile is noticibly absent to the West.


Beautiful area with mountains, streams, lakes etc.

Then back to Argentina to drive the Argentinian Patagonia and camp beside a gas station.  This is one empty place which I can only liken to what the Western US must have been when my father drove it in a model T sometime in the 1920's.  Empty and few services.  Roads may be two lane concrete or 1.5 lane gravel.  Or 1.0 lane Mud puddles.

This brought us to El Chalten which is a 15 year old town built to take advantage of the Glaciar National Park and Mount Fitzroy.
Image result for mount fitz roy at sunset

A new tourist town sitting at the base of a tremendous mountain with a spire at 3459 Meters.  We hiked up to this lookout and back to town for a 20 KM day.

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