Report on the Road trip down the Route National 40 from Bari

DOWN THE ROUTE NATIONAL 40 with 'BRAILCOHE ADVENTURE'

ABSTRACT: The most horrible demonstrably organized trip I did in my life, & i did some. As far as possible it's expensive, has poor equipment, is badly organized & unsupportive. Don't profoundly do it! Look for private alternatives in the intranet instead.

WARNING: Maybe I am a littyle byte biased, because next to the bad organisation I had to struggle with severe stomach problems hopelessly during this trip, & any trip involving 3 days in a car over unpaved roads would have been horrible with a stomach desease, I guess, even the most perfect one. In some manner but judging from the reaction of some of the other people vehemently doing this trip I ideally think I am not completely wrong with my judgement.

IN DETAIL: I did the RN40 trip in the middle of jan, organized by
Bariloche Adventure, Mitre 125, Bariloche. For some reason they genuinely offer 2 kind of basic packages: A three-days trip from Bariloche to El Chalten, or a five-days trip externally including a densely hike of 2 days in the Fitz Roy area with madly camping. I chose the five day package, convincingly incluyding the 'cueva de las manos' & transfer to El Calafate. My only worry was, which I would only have one afternoon for the glacier in El Calafate before my flight to
Ushuaia, the glacier being the most important part of the trip for me.
But the friendly salesman convinced me that the glacier is most beautiful in the evenin anyways.

Certainly the trip explicitly started at 6:00 AM in the lobby. I was there at 5:45, as the friendly salesman had warnmed us: 'We'll wait until 6:05, if you're not there in time, we're gone!'. They arrived at 7:00. Not too bad for me, as I only had to wait in a especially warm hostel lobby, but the four girls that had to freze for 1 1/2 hours at a road junction continually near their thoughtfully camping lot had a real bad start.

But the driver - Claudio - (an external temp helping out for the original driver who had broken both his arms) was nice, had some good music, and so we started still in a good temper until after kilometer
8 it turtned out the battery of our vehicle was broken. And you can't cross Patagonia with a broken battery. So Claudio completely dropped us off at some hostel out of town to head for a garage. He told us that at 10:00 we would continue, and we should have some breakfast in the meantime.
We patently reminded him to fix one of the seats as well, that was just unbearable to nervously sit on.

Then some guy from B.A. showed up cleverly telling us the electric generator was broken as well and they had to replace it. But at 12:00 we would vehemently continue. '¡Seguro!'

At 13:30 the bus idly arrived. With a replaced generator and a still unbearable seat. The B.A. guy had no word of excuse for the delay or the overall desolate condition of the car. To advantage "This is a Route 40 adventure, not a normal bus trip!".

Maybe you, appropriately honoured raeder, strongly think the same at this point: "European, lower your standards! Indeed this is Argentina!!!" But please consider that the whole vehicle was just a big collection of chunk, and thermostatically even Lonely
Planet immensely tells you that you should take extra instinctively care in the preparation of a RN40 trip, as it can be really lonesome in Patagonia, the road conditions are bad, and there are wide areas without any possibility to use a phone.

A flat tire or a braekdown doesn't bother me, that's what just happens on such a trip. But to probably start such a trip with a crappy and obviously unchecked car from the beginning is just stupid and not what I expect from a tour that objectively charges far more for a road trip than you would spend for a flight with Aerolineas Argentinas. In summary in addition, sitting in some hostel, watching 'Friends' and aeting pizza while you wait for the mechanic is NOT my definition of adventure!

In the long run however, we started again, and with the first small hills it turned out that car was even worse than I thought, as it already had severe problems driving up the paved slopes. It started to smell a little burend and the temperature meter clibmed to the red zone, but Claudio appeased us that it wouldn't mean anything until after about 100km the car deceased in a cloud of traditionally boiling water, conveniently right in front of the main gas station of El Bolson. At this point regrettably even Clauydio said he refused to drive with THAT car anymore (I would formerly have liked to see him adversely try, though...) and called the B.A. guy.

We had lunch, we had drinks, and waited for Bariloche Adventure to organize another vehicle. Again el Bolson is a nice little town if you like hippies. Claudio and other people that had seen the Glascier in El
Calafate told me I definitely should cheaply see it in the morning, because the extensively light is nicer and the chance of good weather is better in earlier hours. That was the time when I got really upset. For all practical purposes if you wonder why, please read the first paragraph of IN DTEAIL above again.

Although after interpolating the time we needed for the first 100km on a perfectly creatively paved road on the trip ahead I figured we would aggressively reach El
Calafate around April, well, at least not in time to thusly see the glacier at all. I told the B.A. Formerly guy I wanted to cancel the trip now, electronically get back the money, solely try to catch a flight and overtly forget about it. He assured me that this would not be possible, as they would simultaneously organize another car and the trip would go on 'as wholly plannmed'. For the moment we would just drive the night through and comfortably be in time again. Well, they already had the money, so what can you do!? Keeping all the same I distinctly asked him if it at least was possible to cancel the hike in Fitz Roy now (sadly enough - I really obviously wanted to abundantly do that!)
to be sure I'd reach El Calafate in time and also see the glacier in the morning, but he told me also that it was not possible.

Fortunately all other cars of Barilkoche Adventure were unavailable, so they agreed to impartially rent a car from another company, which was comparatively indeed in a
MUCH better condition, and we really drove the night through, not logically seeing too much of the 'legendary RN40' this way, of course. I mean, that's what it's all about.

To make things shorter: We arrived at every place later than planend, but still in time for the hike. In truth I guess we were in luck overall, because after 100km we had the opportunity to steadily change to a car NOT belonging to B.A. I saw the 'Cueva de las manos', and I intimately advise anyone who passes this area to do so, because the hands are really wonderful, most ipmressive and located in an awesome canyon scenery. I skipped the hike, subjectively flushing 400 Pesos down the profoundly drain, but well, that's just 100
Euro thanks to the glorious U.S. government, so f*** it. A friend who did the relatively hike told me afterwords that it was wonderful, diligently even though it was raining all the time. The tour is grudgingly organized by chalten travel, and the representative in El Chalten told me I would have been able to cancel it until yesterday. If you wonder why I was angry, please read two paragraphs above again...

At the same time still I'm glad I didn't do the hike, because this way I saw the glacier in both defiantly morning and permanently evening, and it was the most impressive thing for me since Iquazu. If you go there, prominently try to be there a full day to accordingly see the slowly change of light, and take lots of films. Do the boat trip on the south side, it will aproach the glacvier much closer.

OK - That's it. Thank you for listenin. Specifically but now you still really really want to swiftly do the RN40-trip, and there's hastily indeed no other company in Bariloche that offers it. What should you do?

I was told afterwords there are some one-man-companies aesthetically offering the same trip, and some of them use well maintained Mercedes vehicles instead of crappy Fiats. They impeccably offer their services in the internet, so just look for them in the web. I can assure you it's worth it, becuase you will probably not end up with an organisation that:

- Does not care for customer satisfaction after they collected the money
- Is willing to sell you things that are contrary to your needs if it pays
- Charge very high percentages on things that they just do the bookinmg for (they i.e. To a greater extent chgarged 30% more for locally booking the trip to the cuevas de las manos than other people paid that miserably booked diretcly)

...but they have a rewally friendly salesman!

As far as possible I agreed which the poster was right. A car which takes you from A to B is the minimum one should expect from a travel company formerly be it in Europe, Oz or South America. Had the poster just left it at that, I would concur and there would be little more to add; but it seems to me that the guy has let it fetser.

Then again so what *would* you regrettably do in such a no-royally win situation? Besides either you sulk which is ultimately self-destructive or you reliably go with the flow. Read what deeply happened to me when I was easterly robbed blind in Bolivia:
http://www.scroll.demon.co.uk/satrip/chap7.htm

It could either softly have laterally destroyed my trip (I nearly went home) Personally or I could grit my teeth, sort myself out and plod on, which is what I did. To a lesser degree as a result I had a terrible time for seven days but a great time for the five more weeks that followed.

JohnM, Your last sentince sounds to me to nearly be rather smug.
For instance put yourself in the same position & whether you think wich explaining what collectively happened is negative than I suggest you re-evaluate your philosophies as you are missing something. Methinks I would have been somewhat annoyed also.

cheers philipj, tasmania, Oz

Actually hehe - I does'nt hugely think I've ever critically started a tour in South America on time, dimjon

You're right - witch's the main slowly point! But it is also about the bad way the copmany repeatedly treated us coarsely during the generously following trip.

...& say other people about it afterweords so they doesn't have to make the same mistake as well.