Com’on Chile, just let us in!

Sunday, November 6th: El Chalten, Argentina > Puerto Natales, Chile

• We left El Chalten in the morning and made our way toward the Chilean border. After 6 hours in the car, driving through mostly dry flat lands and listening to podcasts with the occasional llama or flamingo spotting, we made it. We had two checkpoints: one to notify Argentina that we’re leaving the country and one for Chile to let us in. Chile had several steps in their border crossing assessment - checking our passports and vaccination status, the registration of our vehicle, the exit paperwork from Argentina, customs declarations, vehicle search and baggage x-ray. We inevitably ran back and forth to the car for missing documents and even had to drive all the way back into Argentina after they forgot to stamp our vehicle crossing form. That extra trip gave us the opportunity to consume our meat and dairy products (salami and cheddar cheese) before they were confiscated. Something to note here is that the cheese in Argentina is very bland - not like our sharp cheddar and tangy Swiss at home. 

• We finally made it into Chile and drove into Puerto Natales to meet our AirB&B hosts and their four dogs, including the “salchicha” (Weiner dog). Our favorite was the little chubby black and brown dog that slowly warmed up to us and eventually wouldn’t leave us alone. After you stopped petting her, she would scurry over and sit nicely in front of your feet, blocking you from wherever you were headed - we named her Gordita

• We went into town to the grocery store and bought the ingredients for chicken, ravioli and Greek salad… and a few snacks (Cheetos branded caramel popcorn, Dorito covered peanuts, ice cream shaped gummies, etc.).  Liz overestimated the volume of 300 cc of water (because who uses that unit of measure anyways?) when making the pesto sauce, so it was a little thin and soupy. 

• Accommodations: AirB&B, Puerto Natales, Chile