After a fabulous 6 weeks of busing and flying around Brazil, we were now undertaking an entirely different type of travel – this time driving a motorhome around Patagonia, Argentina and Chile for about 10 weeks.
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| Picking up our motorhome from Motorhome Times, Buenos Aires |
Our flight from São Paulo (Brazil) to Buenos Aires (Argentina), arrived quite late so we stayed that night in a hotel near the airport.
The next morning, we were picked up by Max of Motorhome Times (Buenos Aires), and taken to meet our new holiday home on wheels that we were renting from them.
She is a Renault van, much smaller than our old Vanni (Europe 2011-2014), but much easier to get into tight places. She also sits higher on the road than Vanni, which is a bonus as we will be travelling on some very rough roads in Patagonia.
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| Inside our Renault van |
She has a fixed bed across the back, a separate bathroom with toilet and shower, a small kitchen, and a nice dining area.
After an orientation by Motorhome Times, we drove off to find a campsite for the night. The lake area of Chascomus, about 1 hour south-east of Buenos Aires city was recommended so we headed there.
But we arrived in Chascomus, to find most of the campsites still closed after winter.
Asking around, we were eventually directed to Camping 24th September.
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| Marg at the lake at Camping 24th September, Argentina |
Although the campsite bathroom facilities were in bad condition, the grounds were nice and well looked after, so we parked with a lovely view of a lake.
We wanted to give the van a name, and after some thinking, came up with the not-very-original name of Vanni 2 (Vanni 1 being our European motorhome).
Then, as we were in a Spanish speaking country, we decided that ‘V’ for Vanni, and ‘dos’, the Spanish word for 2 would work better, and we now call her Vdos.
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| Our Renault motorhome Vdos, from Motorhome Times, Argentina |
On our first night, we had a few little issues with Vdos, so we drove back to Motorhome Times who fixed everything quickly and without a fuss. Happy with the repairs we set off to Chascomus again for the night.
The next morning, we felt confident with Vdos and driving on the right-hand side of the road (at home in New Zealand we drive on the left). So, we drove south-east to the coast of Argentina.
Our first stop there was Pinamar, a seaside town by the Atlantic Ocean.
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| Freecamping in Vdos beside Pinamar beach, Argentina |
We found that the campsites were not open here either. After visiting the tourist office for advice on where to camp, we ended up on the beach-front with a fabulous view of the turbulent Atlantic.
After a walk around Pinamar, we took Vdos out for a drive to explore the Pinamar coast. Then we discovered Carilo, a wee village full of modern holiday homes and dinky shops, adjoining a lovely sandy beach and some impressive sand dunes.
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| Modern holiday house at Carilo beach, Argentina |
Back in Pinamar for our second night of free-camping on the beach, we awoke in the middle of the night to a horrific thunderstorm, with lightning and the works.
After a sleepless night, and hoping to get ahead of the rain, we left Pinamar and headed south, following the Atlantic coastline.
At lunch time, we stopped in Mar del Plata, a biggish city (around 600,000 people) with a nice beachfront. We decided against a walk around as the rainy weather had caught up to us.
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| Mar del Plata beach on a rainy day |
Onwards we went, to Necochea, another attractive city on the Atlantic coast. After a short stop there, we drove alongside the Quequén Grande River, to a camping ground in a village of the same name.
Yay – the campground was open and it was a beauty, right on the River. A real bonus was that it had a little restaurant where we had a fabulous local-style meal.
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| Beside the river at the Quequen campsite, Argentina |
After a night there, we drove south, following the line of the coast. Eventually we stopped in a small (around 6000 people) coastal fishing village called Monte Hermoso.
Again, there were no campsites open. But after asking the rubbish truck driver, a truckie and various others, and an extensive search along sandy roads, we found a little unoccupied fisherman's camp in which to free-park.
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| Monte Hermoso fishing boats |
We were on the beach front and it was great watching the daily catch come in as the fishing boats arrived.
But the wind…….it was so windy that we got a whole lot of laundry washed and dried in a few hours.
That night, Vdos rocked so violently in the wind that we got up at around 2 am and shifted to a more sheltered spot.
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| Washing day at Monte Hermoso, Argentina |
The next morning, we drove on to Ruta (Route) 3, which was to be our main route south.
We soon reached Bahia Blanca, and according to a sign, this put us officially into Patagonia.
Patagonia is the area at the southern end of South America. It has the Atlantic Ocean on its eastern side, the Pacific Ocean on its west, and several water channels to the south. It is a rugged area made up of the Andes Mountains, lakes, fiords, glaciers, deserts, steppes, and native wildlife. It is governed by both Argentina and Chile, and we were really looking forward to being there.
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| Driving into Patagonia, Argentina |
After having lunch in Bahia Blanca, we followed Ruta 3 to the pretty city of Viedma, aiming to stay there overnight. Viedma is in Argentina in the northern part of Patagonia.
Once again, we found that there were no campsites open. Driving around, we eventually found a nearby little fishing village called El Condor.
El Condor (population 500) was waiting for summer to arrive as there was nobody around!
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| The beach at El Condor, Patagonia |
However, they had a camp and it was open. While the camp looked a bit tired, it had clean showers and toilets…yay!
We stopped at the local general store on the way out of El Condor the next morning, and discovered that the owners were avid motorhome travellers like us.
They wanted to tell us all about their adventures in Europe – it was lovely. After viewing their travel photos and swapping travel stories (albeit with our limited Spanish and their limited English), we were back on the road following Ruta 3.
On this part of the trip, we battled atrocious winds and a blinding sandstorm across the pampas of Argentina.
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| Dust storm on Ruta 3, Patagonia |
We had been on the road for about a week and seen heaps, with the tiny fishing villages being the main highlights. However, Ruta 3 thus far had proved to be flat, tedious to drive, and incredibly windy.
Our next stop is Puerto Madryn, entry to the largest marine reserve in the world.
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