Wednesday (Miercoles) 20th January, 2010
Day 313


Estacion Telken, Argentina
Estacion Telken, Argentina
Miles: 34,229
S 46.81383°
W 71.72531°



We busied ourselves in Chile Chico until late morning with washing and internet and then continued east for a few kms on good road to the Chilean border station. No dramas on exit - the same three steps as all other Chilean crossings. A little further down the road is a nice new Chilean border station building nearing completion with a sign proudly proclaiming that it will be complete in 2009 - huh??

The Argentine station is also new, finished in 2009 but is much more modest in size. The Argentine crossing was also no drama, they did not have any forms to complete and did not look at the vehicle.


Into the town of Los Antiguos, the name comes from the Tehuelche (local indians) name meaning 'place of the elders', for some groceries. This little town was surprisingly up market, a nice restaurant, and gift/souvenir stores; but not much in the way of interesting groceries.

We happened to bump into our friends Sam and Bernie so spent a few hours in the restaurant chatting and then continued east to Perito Moreno still looking for groceries.

Moreno was decidedly not up market, a dusty little town that provided something less than the bare necessities in the grocery department - I think the town only had 12 cans of beer between two stores.

From Moreno we headed south along a good black top road to Estacion Telken which, according to the guide book, was owned by an Argentine and New Zealand couple. We did not meet and Kiwi's (New Zealanders) but had an enjoyable stay.

Camping

About 30 kms down Ruta 40 from Perito Moreno we found a farm or sheep station called Telken that offered cabanas and camping. It was a nice place, hot showers, cooking building, electricity 20:00 - midnight and most of all trees that sheltered us from the wind.