The first thing I noticed in Ushuaia was the high prices, driven by inflation of 141% in November.

As a result, cash withdrawals were limited. While I managed reasonably well in Ushuaia, the situation became almost impossible in El Calafate.
I had to try five banks and almost ten ATMs before I succeeded. In El Chaltén, it was completely impossible, and I had to wait until I got to Cochrane in Chile to access cash.

The prices are higher than anticipated, Fruit, on the other hand, is pretty cheap!

– 1 liter of milk is approximately 11 SEK
– 1 kg of cheese 98-100 SEK
– Bread, white, is 25 SEK/kg
– Eggs are approximately 28-30 SEK/kg
– Beer is 14-15 SEK/50 cl, imported is approximately 20-22 SEK
– Beef, standard, is approximately 110 SEK/kg
– Sausages, available in many different varieties, are between 175-200 SEK/kg
– Tobacco is similar to prices in Sweden and Alcohol has lower prices
– Local bus trips are approximately 10 SEK, with Chileans being quite loud

I learned from the guide in Puerto Natales that the average net salary in Chile is about €920 or just over 10,000 SEK, and for a waiter, it’s barely half of this, around €510 or 5550 SEK.

The roads outside the main highways, especially the Carretera Austral, are bad, very bad, and mostly gravel roads. I find the traffic to be fairly courteous. Most of the time, I am given the right of way when crossing a road.

Language, on the other hand, is a problem. If you don’t speak Spanish, which applies to me, you have to rely on the translation program on your phone… if you have internet connection, which is not always possible.
The standard is much lower than what we are used to. However, with the help of this and gestures, it works quite well.

Waste sorting is a phenomenon they have barely heard of; here, everything is thrown into the same bin. Almost no sorting, as far as I have noticed.
That’s why you see cans and PET bottles lying everywhere along streets and roads. In shops and larger stores, you see uniformed guards; there are quite a few of them. There may be five or six or more in a supermarket.

The weather is like a typical Swedish summer, warm days and really cold nights. The grass is wet every morning.

The nature is incredibly beautiful, with a lot of water, streams, and rivers, and amazingly beautiful snow-covered mountains. The lupines are growing like crazy down here, hardly an invasive species.
In the south, from Ushuaia upp to El Chalten it’s very flat, lots of head and crosswinds and the settlements are few

Dogs are everywhere, never seen so many. They don’t look starved, but they seem to be homeless in a strange way. They run loose on the streets and chase cars but seem to have some sort of control. Similarly, the drivers also seem to be aware of this.

Many dogs can be found lying outside shops, either napping or waiting to beetted and fed. From what I’ve seen, they rarely go inside the stores. Still, there are plenty of shops selling dog and food, so they must be looked after in some way. Even so, I can’t help but feel sorry for them.

Many places along Carretera Austral rely heavily on tourism for income. No matter how small the community, you’ll find campgrounds with and without cabins plenty of hostels, and a few hotels—probably ten hostels for every hotel.

Most villages have three or four mini-markets and they sell just about everything, though it’s interesting to wonder about the expiration dates on some of the goods.

Talk to you later
P-G
//The Global Cyclist 1726