El Calafate

PRODUCTIVE FAFFING DAY

There is no real reason why this entire entry is underlined. By nature faffing days would never be underlined.  Also by nature, internet cafe keyboards suck so I am having a hard time fixing it. 

We started our day at 5:30am, trying to be ever so quiet sneaking out of our room without waking up the roommates we never met.  We were giddy about getting on a plane and to our location in 2 hours instead of more than twenty-four.  The only drawback was that I had to get rid of a bottle of wine I had been travelling around with for a week or so.  I didn't want to risk having my whole wardrobe of 3 outfits stained in vino tinto upon my arrival to El Calafate.  Never did get a chance to drink it as I had been on root canal antibiotics until today.

I left it as a parting gift for the nice Isrealis we had dinner with the night before. 

It seems that the whole country of France decided to take our flight to El Calafate.  It also seems that in France it is perfecty alright to cut in line without a concern.  We had waited in line to check in about 20 minutes at which point the couple 4 behind us in line decided to maneauver around the 6 of us in front of them to get to the next open window.  Everyone watched in astonishment, but did nothing about it.  They were all French too so this is why I think it might be no big deal to do this there.  I was having nothing of it though.  I tapped them on the shoulder and let them know how rude I thought it was.  They told me that it was no big deal because it wasn't as if they came from the very back of the line.   They had waited almost as long as us, so why am I upset about it.  Annoying as we were getting very close to the 45 minute cut off to check in.  Luckily for the whole country of France, I sat next to a very nice woman from there on the plane who gave me her extra chocolate.  In addition, she apologized on behalf of her compatriate in the seat behind me who decided to keep pushing my seat back up from the reclining position while I tried to sleep.  Dirty looks did not stop her from doing this.    I am condsidering going back to calling them Freedom Fries again.

We are very pleased with the hostel we are staying at down a little dirt road in El Calafate.  It it called America del Sur www.Americahostel.com.ar and besides having the softest toilet paper, it has the best staff ever.   Luckily we got in before the crowds as they were able to spend a good 2 hours with us booking our next several days here in Calafate, Chalten, Torres del Paine, Puerto Natales, and Puerto Montt.  You will read all about it soon enough, so I will not go into detail now.  But, we did have to spend the day shopping in this cute little town for ice treking gloves etc.  That is, after we taste tested their local beer Antares which was very good.

My boss (if he is reading this) will also be pleased to know that I made a decision today that has been eating at me for the last week.  I am enjoying this travel so much and there are so many places down in this area that I have not had time to see yet.  Peru, Bolivia, Easter Island, Gallapagos, Antartica, Columbia, Guatamala, Cuba, The Amazon, and more of Chile, Argentina and Brazil. It would be so easy for me to just continue on and see it all while I am here and enjoying it...except for that perfectly good job I have waiting for me back at home.  I think another 3 months would be perfect just in this part of the world.  So, this will be something I will look forward to in the future.  Lots of time to plan it out right and find some good travel partners to enjoy it with.

FAMILY REUNION

Each new city we visit is like a family reunion.  In Calafate we ran into the Spanish honeymooners I hung out with in Iguazu.  We also ran into our Spanyard roommates from the hostel in Bariloche.  And as we were sitting down to dinner, in walks Irish Paul from fondue night in Bariloche.

  The Dutch boys are somewhere in town also.  Everyone is pretty much doing the same circuit just sometimes in different succession or quanitity of days. 

Steph and I are getting ready to split up as she is interested in doing the 5 day W hike in Torres del Paine
while I have a reservation on the much easier way to see the Chilean part of Patagonia...via the 4 day Navimag cruise up the coast.  It really isn't the same thing.  She is going to see some amazing sites while hiking remote areas while I will be kicking back in my 16 bed dorm on a ship heading up the coast.  This hike is something she doesn't really want to do alone, but I am just not that athletically inspired so we are working hard on trying to talk some of our family members we are reuniting with to join her.

We added a new family member while having dinner at the hostel.  His name is Hector and is 76 years old.  We invited him to join us at our table when he walked into the dining room.  Hector didn't speak English which is always nice as we get to practice more Castellano Spanish.  Hector told us that he is from Mar de Plata (up the coast below Buenos Aires) and is in Parliament.  His wife of 50 years passed away last year and he is vacationing on his own.  We enjoyed our evening with him and Irish Paul. 

PERITO MORENO GLACIER

Our first big activity in El Calafate was a visit to Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park, the largest one in Patagonia.

  It is 15 stories high and moves 2 meters a day.  It was a pretty cool site.  We stopped at a viewing area pretty close to it for a few hours and got to hear and watch the ice cracking and falling off into the lake.  Very cool.  As it was very very cold, the 3 hours or so the tour bus allotted for this was a little much. We had plenty of time to walk, take photos, watch, eat lunch, and observe all the other tourists.

At this point we had paid 90 pesos for the 3 hour round trip bus ride and commentary plus 30 pesos park entrance fee.  For an additional 38 pesos we were able to get on a boat and ride up close to the glacier for about an hour.  We questioned if this would be worth it as we had already gotten pretty close from the viewing area and it looked pretty windy and cold out there.

  It was totally worth it!  You can get an even closer view of the little caves and blue ice while riding on top of the turquoise water.  If you can get a group to chip in on a rental car, I would do that rather than paying the 90 pesos for the bus.  Then you can come and go when you want.

Our luck, the French couple I had words with at the airport just happened to be on our tour bus.  No words were exchanged today; just glares.  We did meet some other very nice people on this tour.  Two English girls will be following a similiar route as me when Steph and I split up in a few days. This will give me a chance to practice my Proper English.  We did also become matchmakers on this tour.  When we got on the bus we took the best seat in the house.

..top level and front window.  We soon learned that this seat was for the tour guide.  The only seats left on the bus then were not together. We whined a little about that jokingly, but the tour guide asked a guy to move so that we could sit together.  He grudgingly complied.  By the first stop he and the hot chicky he had to sit next to were posing for photos together.  By lunch time, they were exchanging numbers.  He is from Brasil and she is from Argentina.  By the end of the day we were hoping he would get her to accept a ride on the back of the motorcycle he rode down here.

Our day will end with a bus ride to El Chalten for ice treking tomorrow morning.  If my hands haven't fallen off, I will update this tomorrow night.