Argentina - Driving from Cueva de las Manos to El Calafate

There are three things I really want to see in Patagonia (have worked extensively in BA already): cueva de las manos, el calafate, and tierra del fuego. I have one week from a work assignment ending in BA to when I need to be in the US and want to know if this is at all reasonable:

Fly to Comodoro Rivadvia from BA, rent a car to drive to the cueva de las manos. Spend the night there and then spend a day driving to el calafate (google says it would be 11 hours, so I'm assuming the roads are bad and probably unpaved).

Then flying from el calafate to ushuaia.

Is that driving section to el calafate safe and feasible?

There are three things I really want to see in Patagonia (have worked extensively in BA already): cueva de las manos, el calafate, and tierra del fuego. I have one week from a work assignment ending in BA to when I need to be in the US and want to know if this is at all reasonable:

Fly to Comodoro Rivadvia from BA, rent a car to drive to the cueva de las manos. Spend the night there and then spend a day driving to el calafate (google says it would be 11 hours, so I'm assuming the roads are bad and probably unpaved).

Then flying from el calafate to ushuaia.

Is that driving section to el calafate safe and feasible?

Despite the wealth of info on these boards... I doubt you will find someone that has actual driving experience of the required distances to give you proper advice. I suggest you post this on Trip Advisor... and also do some extensive Google searches.

I will try to dig up some more info... but I cant promise anything.

Fly to Comodoro Rivadvia from BA, rent a car to drive to the cueva de las manos. Spend the night there and then spend a day driving to el calafate (google says it would be 11 hours, so I'm assuming the roads are bad and probably unpaved).

Is that driving section to el calafate safe and feasible?

A note of caution...many of the roads in the region are "de ripio" (loose gravel) which can be very dangerous if you don't know how to handle a vehicle on such surfaces. There have been many accidents and over-turned cars where novice drivers have driven too fast on these roads.

Have you checked car rental rates yet? Different part of the country but I haven't found any "cheap" OW rates. Might be best to fly into and out of FTE and rent/return there.

If renting at FTE, have the car agencies number handy. At least 8 years ago, most of the car rental agencies didn't have an office at the (then-new) airport terminal and only came out to greet arriving renters.

FWIW, there is supposed to be a small hand-print cave between FTE and El Calafate.

Make sure you have a reservation during peak season. When I rented in REL a few years ago, some Europeans had no reservations and all cars were sold out. Not much fun being stuck anywhere remote.

Before your drive out to Cueva de las Manos, make sure there is a place to stay out there if you are planning on staying overnight. It can be surprisingly remote (or actually, unsurprisingly) with absolutely no services of any sort (dots on the map are not indicative of anything).

If you decide to drive from CRD, get the provincial maps well in advance. May be hard to find once you get there.

Rental cars are not cheap in Argentina... they are even more expensive in places like Patagonia. Also, I strongly suggest you have a GPS with updated map software for this drive. Also, be sure to have cash on hand for gasoline as many remotely located gas stations will not take plastic and insist on cash for settlement.

Rental cars are not cheap in Argentina... they are even more expensive in places like Patagonia.

Rates are not too bad given they don't do fleet sales and buybacks like they used to do in N. America (presumably all rental cars in Argentina are "risk). No worse than Europe and often cheaper.


Also, I strongly suggest you have a GPS with updated map software for this drive.

Commercial GPS maps were not readily available from what I heard. You have to look around for maps enthusiasts make available (I got such a map 4 years ago but decided to go with printed map in the end).


Also, be sure to have cash on hand for gasoline as many remotely located gas stations will not take plastic and insist on cash for settlement.

Could well be true where they don't have data lines for credit card usage but that wasn't a problem outside even medium-sized towns up in the north (only refuelled in bigger towns in the south last trip). I think we only had to pay cash in one village, Camarones (incredibly small village with hardly ever one visiting - best known as the village nearest the boyhood home of Juan Peron).

Other point to remember some of these places -- often located hundreds of Km from the next fuelling station -- don't have fuel available all the time. One such down in that part of Argentina was a ranch that sold part of its fuel and often would run out of excess to sell inbetween deliveries.

OP would do well to rent a car that's good on fuel and has a lot of range. As I mentioned in my trip report from 2008, a VW Gol is a great car for that purpose.

MapeAR has maps available.... its the best possible coverage for Patagonia, or so I was told. I just updated my GPS for my recent trip to the North of Argentina and was told that the deep Patagonia software thats available today is not bad. Again, this is heresay as Ive not been able to independently confirm this.

OP would do well to rent a car that's good on fuel and has a lot of range. As I mentioned in my trip report from 2008, a VW Gol is a great car for that purpose.

Yes... a VW Gol may be good for gas mileage, but its a horrible car for non urban roads, forget the fact thats its a very small sub-compact and is equipped in a very very Spartan configuration.

Yes... a VW Gol may be good for gas mileage, but its a horrible car for non urban roads, forget the fact thats its a very small sub-compact and is equipped in a very very Spartan configuration.

I wouldn't call it a subcompact or economy. Compact. It does have high ground clearance (for any standard car) though and didn't have the trouble with deep/soft gravel roads that the Renaults gave me years earlier. Got me through deep mud puddles and deep soft sand in the altiplano. Rented 3 in Argentina the last trip and they worked well (drove on over 500-600 Km of dirt road). Had a/c which is sufficient for me.

Yes... a VW Gol may be good for gas mileage, but its a horrible car for non urban roads, forget the fact thats its a very small sub-compact and is equipped in a very very Spartan configuration.

We have done a trip on one of those cars. With 2 persons it is ok if you don't expect any luxury :=). Driving in a national park on a wet track was on the edge though - here a 4WD would have been definately appropiate.

For car rentals in Argentina I can second the high price of one-way rentals. That is indeed a big difference to Germany where one way is almost the same price. In Argentina they wanted a few hundred € on top so we just made roundtrips and flew the rest.

I wouldn't call it a subcompact or economy. Compact. It does have high ground clearance (for any standard car) though and didn't have the trouble with deep/soft gravel roads that the Renaults gave me years earlier. Got me through deep mud puddles and deep soft sand in the altiplano. Rented 3 in Argentina the last trip and they worked well (drove on over 500-600 Km of dirt road). Had a/c which is sufficient for me.

A Gol is not a subcompact as per North American car size ratios....? My mistake then... I stand corrected.

I wouldn't call it a subcompact or economy. Compact. It does have high ground clearance (for any standard car) though and didn't have the trouble with deep/soft gravel roads that the Renaults gave me years earlier. Got me through deep mud puddles and deep soft sand in the altiplano. Rented 3 in Argentina the last trip and they worked well (drove on over 500-600 Km of dirt road). Had a/c which is sufficient for me.

Probably more down to your driving skills than the ability of the Gol I would say. :D

I haven't been in the deep south of Patagonia but in northern Patagonia most of the side roads seemed to be of gravel which is ten times easier to drive on than dirt roads which just turn into gooey mud after heavy rain. The dirt roads here for instance are pretty much impassable after heavy rain unless you have a 4x4. A Gol wouldn't get you far.

Probably more down to your driving skills than the ability of the Gol I would say. :D


The dirt roads (highways!) up in the altiplano are either deep sand or fairly long and deep puddles after a rain. We went with the mantra "momentum is your friend". Could find it fairly easy to be stuck if one was tepid about crossing. A 4WD truck would be nice but also 3x the price and limited mileage.

I recall Patagonia around El Calafate and El Chalten is more gravel road, deep gravel at that and sometimes not compacted so your car sinks into it (and often vibration from the roughness is so bad it knocks the gear shift into neutral). That said, I hear Ruta 40 is now paved but what about the other roads the OP would take.

Yes, the Gol won't make it in all bad conditions but it did find for the challenges thrown at us. At least with the high ground clearance, you'll have a better chance of not getting stuck with the body grounding on whatever much you're crossing. I'd choose it over any other sedan.

A Gol is not a subcompact as per North American car size ratios....?

That rating is subjective these days. It's about the same size as most compact cars in N. America. May be classified as a standard by some rental companies. :D

Thanks for the replies. This is all helpful. I'll also post this at tripadvisor.

If you can read Spanish

www.ruta0.com

You will find a lot of information

GPS Maps (free)

MapeAR (www.proyectomapear.com.ar), only works (AFAIK) with Garmin devices

or if you have an iPhone 3G/GS/4 or a TomTom device, you can get TomTom Argentina ($)

Thanks for the replies. This is all helpful. I'll also post this at tripadvisor.

Yes... you should get useful information over on TA also...