The Argentinian Coastal Ruta 3 Suprises

After leaving Tierra del Fuego we were faced with a big decision, which road do we take??? When we started our journey, we went south from Buenos Aires and there was one general path, but now heading north, we suddenly had many. We could either choose small roads that cut through the center of Argentina towards the Andes or choose the large Ruta 3 Highway.

We heard many recommendations about the possibility of seeing whales, penguins, and dramatic coastline geography along Ruta 3, so we opted for the big road.

We began by getting some much needed exposure to the Atlantic Ocean. We drove among many oil extraction fields to get to a beautiful and barren-seeming area.  Then we drove 100km on a dirt road (the dirt road daily driving maximum) to beautiful Cabo Virgines.

At this time we were also trying to diagnose our sensor problem. We spent an entire day at a Mercedes Benz dealership with a electrical systems technician, but still no luck. At this point we realized we really needed to get our hands on a brand new sensor, but in Argentina this $200 sensor would cost us $600! Luckily enough we managed to get Todd’s parents to bring us the parts when they visited in April.

After regressing to our childhood ways and exploring tide pools, we had an awesome opportunity to meet up with our AWESOME and favorite Paleontologist couple, Regan and Rick.

You can read about our time together in the Argentinian pampa in a previous blog post. Regan and Rick definitely opened up our eyes to the geology and history of this area.

We were in the neighborhood of the very remote Bosque Petrificado national Monument and couldn’t pass up this opportunity.

It is important to state that we generally drove along Ruta 3, but explored many bumpy ripio (gravel) roads to get us to the Pinguinera in Cabo Virgines, Regan and Rick in La Flecha, and then Bosque Petrificado. All worthwhile destinations come at a price of a ripio road, you just hope its a well maintained one.

A little afternoon cooking fun.

Traveling along the busy Ruta 3 brought many unforseen landscapes and nature pockets. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see whales (“You can’t see everything”) because we were outside of the window for when they visit this area. However, hearing the crashing waves and admiring their incredible erosion art was a worthwhile exhibit in itself.

Next we decided to return back to Futaleufu, saying goodbye to Argentina and making our grand entrance to see Central and Northern Chile.

We traveled north from Tierra del Fuego along Ruta 3 to visit Cabo Virgines, Comodoro Rivaderia, Parque Leon, Puerto Julian, La Flecha, Bosque Petrificado in February 9th to February 22nd 2017.