Amy and Chris backpack South America: Kicked out of Argentina

El Calafate

Departing the bus terminal in Puerto Natales, Chile, at 0800 we were on our way to El Calafate, Argentina, and we had no idea what craziness would ensue. Driving 25km out of town to the border we checked out of Chile "stamp stamp" no problem. Back on the bus we drove 3 km through "no mans land" to the Argentina border to enter.

Passports in hand we reached the front of the line and were called up next. Having "criss-crossed" the Chile-Argentina border four times now it was all pretty routine. Looking at our passports the customs agent then asked for our "reciprocity documents." Amy and I looked at one another then explained that we don't have any other documents, "no tenemos mas documentos." This "reciprocity tax" they call it, was more like an airport tax when you fly to the capital of Argentina (Buenos Aires). The tax could only be pre paid by credit card on the internet and without it you couldn't board your plane bound for BA. Having taken the bus into the country we had avoided paying this extra $75 the whole time. Today was a normal Patagonian Friday and the Argentinians decided to enact the reciprocity tax on ALL ports of entry on Thursday. The border agent pushed us aside denying us entry into the country!! Our bus driver then pulled our backpacks off the bus and drove off leaving us on the curb. So there we were, in "no mans land" formulating a plan. We walked the 3 km back to Chile where they stamped our passport one more time. With a smile we once again stood at the border with our thumbs out and waited. It wasn't long before a nice Chilean picked us up and drove us the 25 km back to town where we found internet, paid the $75 each, printed our documents and jumped on the next bus again to Calafate.

The main attraction in El Calafate was the "Perito Moreno" glacier. Teaming up with our friends, Sjors and Ellen from the Netherlands we jumped on the bus heading out of town. All four of us had been to Antarctica, so what did this glacier have to offer that all the glaciers in Antarctica couldn't? When the driver told us he would pick us up in six hours we were all wondering what we would do for six hours looking at a glacier. Working our way down the boardwalk for a front seat of this impressively large glacier, our Antarctic snobbery wore away quickly. Thunderous cracks and moans producing tremors in the water and before you knew it the glacier shed a house sized piece of ice into the water. The tremendous crash sent a tidal wave 2m high crashing onshore!! The splash was taller than the 50m glacier. "Maybe we could spend six hours here watching a glacier".

Over the course of the day we watched blue and white ice of varying sizes from city buses to apartment buildings crash in to the lake.