Day 26: October 27

We made a stop near the abandoned ranch “Estancia San Gregorio”.

The ranch was founded by the Spaniard José Menéndez in 1876 and became one of the largest producers of sheep wool.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Patagonia experienced a “boom” in sheep farms. So Menéndez’s farm prospered. There was money here, good conditions for workers, a school, a library, and a theater. It also had its own railway and pier.

However, by the middle of the 20th century, wool had lost its importance and its price had dropped sharply.

The farm became unprofitable and closed. And now it has fallen completely into disrepair.

Here, near the ranch, on the shore of Magellan Bay, are the remains of two ships.

The ships also belonged to José Menéndez; they were used to transport wool.

Only their “skeletons” remain, so much like giant human ribs…

We keep moving. A stone from a truck hit our windshield and chipped the edge of the glass.

Serzhyk is angry. Most likely, we’ll have to pay for a new windshield…

Life is very interesting.

We drove so many kilometers on a gravel road, and yet we “caught” a stone on a road with a good surface.

We need to finally accept the fact that no matter how hard you try, everything happens the way it happens.

There is so little we can control in this world.

Suddenly Serzhyk brakes hard, jumps out of the car, and runs somewhere. I notice where.

By some miracle, at speed, he spotted an armadillo — the very one we dreamed of seeing here!

Today we planned to cross the border and return to Argentina.

In Argentina, gasoline is very cheap (10 UAH/liter), while in Chile it is expensive (55 UAH/liter).

But we had to refuel in Chile.

We calculated how much gas we needed to get to the nearest gas station in Argentina.

We calculated it based on the average fuel consumption.

But we didn’t take the wind into account... Because of the strong wind, we were using almost twice as much fuel!

It barely lasted us (there are very, very, very few gas stations in this region).

Because of that, we didn’t stop on the way at Pali Aike National Park, since it would have added about 50 extra kilometers.
Then we definitely wouldn’t have had enough fuel.

We arrived at the border. There was a kilometer-long line here “in the open air.”

Strong wind with hail. I hid under a canopy, Serzhyk got completely soaked.

How long do we have to stand here? I heard someone say in Spanish something about five hours...

I panicked — we need to go to another crossing (which would ruin all our plans and is very far away).

For Serzhyk, it’s simple — we’ll wait in line.

After an hour, it cleared up a little. The rain stopped.

I calmed down. Standing here without rain is just a pleasure.

You start to appreciate the simplest things.

Serzhyk went to warm up in the car and drink tea (how nice it is to have a thermos!). He was completely frozen.

A couple of hours later, we finally entered the border service building.

Another hour — we stood in two lines and finally moved on.

On the Argentine side of the border, everything was faster; we also stood in two lines, but managed in about an hour.

Overall, crossing the border took about five hours.

I was struck by the positive attitude of the people in line.

No one cut in front of anyone, everyone stood calmly and waited. As if that’s how it should be.

We arrived in Rio Gallegos in the evening. We’re staying in a hotel here.