Explore Patagonia
- Puerto Madryn
- Península Valdés
- Trelew and Gaiman: the Welsh heartland
- Punta Tombo and Cabo Dos Bahías
- The coast of Santa Cruz Province
- Río Gallegos
- El Calafate
- Glaciar Perito Moreno
- El Chaltén
- The Fitz Roy sector of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares
- Parque Nacional Perito Moreno
- Perito Moreno and around
- Sarmiento and the Bosque Petrificado
With its harsh climate and no-nonsense commercial feel, provincial capital RÍO GALLEGOS – 246km south of Piedra Buena – is not the kind of place where you want to stay for long, though there are a couple of little museums and a handful of attractive early twentieth-century buildings. The reason why a lot of people come to Gallegos is for its incredible fly-fishing: along with the Río Grande in Tierra del Fuego, the Río Gallegos (the town’s namesake river) is the haunt of some of the biggest brown trout anywhere in the world. Get a licence from the provincial tourist office, and take a guide and a camera, for the glory shot.
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Moving on from Río Gallegos: to Tierra del Fuego and El Calafate
Moving on from Río Gallegos: to Tierra del Fuego and El Calafate
It takes the best part of a day to travel overland from Río Gallegos to Río Grande, the first major town in Argentine Tierra del Fuego, a tedious journey that involves crossing two borders and the Magellan Straits; you might well consider flying. At the Monte Aymond border crossing (April–Oct 9am–11pm; Nov–March 24hr), 67km south of Gallegos, formalities are fairly straightforward, but don’t try to bring fresh vegetables, fruit or meat products into Chile, as they’ll be confiscated. On the Chilean side, the road improves and heads to Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales and, down a turning at Kimiri Aike, 48km from the border, Tierra del Fuego. This road, the RN-257, takes you to Punta Delgada and the Primera Angostura (First Narrows) of the Magellan Straits. The ferry that plies across them leaves from 7am to midnight, making the thirty-minute crossing roughly every 40min (wwww.tabsa.cl/Eng/Html/PrimeraAngostura; CH$1600 per person, CH$14,000 for a car). As early mariners found, the currents here can be ferocious, but they’re unlikely to be as disruptive to your plans as they were to sea-goers in the past – only in extreme weather does the ferry not leave. While crossing history’s most famous straits, look out for Commerson’s dolphins. Heading for Ushuaia, the road then traverses Chilean Tierra del Fuego to the border settlement of San Sebastián (April–Oct 9am–11pm; Nov–March 24hr), 80km from Río Grande. Check times carefully, as there may be a time difference between the Argentine and Chilean sides. Buses depart regularly from Río Gallegos for Punta Arenas (5hr), Río Grande (8hr) and Ushuaia (13hr); ferry crossings are included in the fare.
Much of the landscape between Gallegos and El Calafate is gale-blasted steppe, though there is the odd oasis, plus fabulous views of the austral Andes including the baroque peaks of Torres del Paine on the Chilean side in clear weather. There are two main routes: the more scenic but far longer the RN-40, which passes several crossing points into the far south of Chile as it curves round the southwesternmost reaches of Argentina; and the quicker, more direct the RP-5, the “busiest” of the roads that cross the deep south of Santa Cruz Province – in the early twentieth century this journey took up to six weeks by ox-cart, but you can now do it in less than four hours by bus and around three by car. About halfway along the RP-5 route is tiny La Esperanza, where you can refuel and eat, and, if it’s too late to push on, stay at the only hotel (t02902/499200; $51-100). Regular buses run from Río Gallegos to El Calafate along the RP-5 (4hr).
