High risk car rental in Argentina

We were down in Puerto Madryn last week, and we hired a car for a couple of days to explore the Valdes Peninsula, as the tours looked very expensive and we rather fancied having the independence and freedom to stop and start as we wish and turn the music up if we like.

After hunting around the rental car companies, there seemed to be something of a cartel there, it was very hard to get a car for much under about £70 a day once you add in petrol, which is fairly important.  So you’ve worked out the numbers and decided you want the rental experience, you then have to test the strength of your decision against the onslaught of disclaimers and waiving of responsibility that the completion of paperwork involves.  (Sorry Matt, I am sure it´s much easier with Enterprise!)  (select "Read more" below to continue)
Given the 300 km of gravel roads you´ll be driving on, do you realize that if you roll the car you must pay us US$4,000? Guanacos can come out of nowhere at lightning speed and the slightest braking if you are not in a straight line will roll the car.  Don´t go over 50kph otherwise the car will instantly overturn.  Did we mention that will be US$4,000? If you so much as brush against an advancing guanaco, US$4,000. Don´t use windscreen wipers on sharp corners, these cars can flip very easily. Don't open the doors too quickly, the wind can catch them and they will instantly fall off. The US$4,000 is uninsurable by the way because the roads are so treacherous, you´re almost certain to overturn. And whatever happens, its totally, utterly and completely your fault, even if some lunatic drives into you.  If the unthinkable happens and there is actually a car coming the other way, stop, put the handbrake on, hold your hands to the windscreen, close your eyes and take cover as best you can, the shower of gravel can be lethal, as well as almost certainly shatter the windscreen.  Which isn´t covered, so the slightest nick in the windscreen, you must buy us a new one. Unless you overturn as well and then thankfully the cost of the windscreen is generously included in the US$4000.

I came away wondering what I was letting us in for and decided that maybe we should just stay in first gear, just in case.  We´d have to get up very early though to manage the 800km we were planning over the ensuing 2 days.

We headed down to Rawson, to see the Commerson Dolphins. Louis is writing more about these, suffice to say these beautiful chaps look like mini orcas and trying to photograph them was like trying to swat a mosquito with a very very small newspaper - whenever you get close, its gone.  I have many photos of lovely clear water without dolphins.

In the afternoon we continued further down the coast to Punta Tomba, getting our first taste of the dreaded gravel roads. They weren´t so bad, and nice and wide so you get a chance to the see the animals crossing.  The landscape was something we'd get used to over the long bus journey the following day heading further south across the Patagonian Steppe, low, dry scrubby plants that looked pretty hardy, and probably don´t see a great deal of rain.

We saw some guanacos occasionally, a little like llamas, with a striking brown coloured fur. And its true, they can shoot across the road in front of you very quickly. But naturally we don't have any photos of these as they were too quick, so here are some more leisurely guanacos. 

Some easy to avoid guanacos on the road

We did see one streetwise guanaco who was bounding along at pace, looking like he was going to cross immediately in front of us.  As I slowed in anticipation, he stopped, looked at us, and then ran behind us.  We were impressed, because there are so few cars here, you don't imagine they get much practice.  The same can't be said for the poor dead armadillo we saw, squashed by a car.  Given the infrequency of cars at this time of year - we saw about 4 all morning - he must have been either incredibly unlucky, or else it was suicide. 

The penguins in the nature reserve at Punta Tomba took us by surprise - for some reason we’d expected to see all these penguins congregating on the beach, so as we began the walk we wondered what all these holes were - we soon realised that the penguins actually dig and live in these holes in the ground, and sure enough, you could see pairs of eyes peeping out of the holes, some of them only feet away from the pathway.  The penguins are completely unphased by people walking along the paths, one particularly curious penguin coming up and having a nibble on Louis’ shoe. Frankie will be sharing an entry on the Magellan Penguin shortly. 

Magellan penguins, possibly with whiplash injuries

It was fun riding back, we were able to listen to some of our favourite tunes and play some games.  We played 20 questions, and the boys' lateral thinking proved to be a big advantage, stunting the adults progress with unusual ones like “pooh” and “a dead armadillo” - we were diverted on solving the latter by the fact that it wasn’t living. 

The second day of having the car was really sunny, but because it had rained heavily overnight on the Valdes peninsula, the roads were treacherous and really muddy.  You had to very carefully avoid getting into skids when there were puddles. The car became filthy, with huge chunks of congealed mud sticking to the underside of the car behind the wheels, rather like when you've driven through thick snow. 

A very grubby rental car

Our little car - which the boys christened "Bertie" - served us well to see reach Punta Norte to see the Orcas in the morning, and then back across the Peninsula to puerto Piramide for a boat to see the Southern Right Whales and Bottle-nosed Dolphins later in the afternoon, all of which the boys are writing about.

It had been high-risk car rental, but to the company's credit, they didn't bat an eyelid at the dirty car, and we enjoyed the experience so much we hired another one in El Calafate to drive 80km each way to visit see the Perito Moreno Glacier.  Unlike the car in Puerto Madryn, which had only 2000 km on the clock, this one was far more battered and much higher mileage, with chips all over the windscreen.  Curiously, if we'd rolled it, we would have been in for US$8000, double the previous one, and probably more than the car was worth!