16/4 7am. Hop onto another bus, this time to El Calafate. It's a short trip by local standards, only 5 hours. I like moving about by bus, it's the ultimate form of procrastation... without any effort you are achieving something - getting from A to B. Overlooking that B soon becomes the new A of course.
Anyway, arrive at point B, check out car rental, and i'm just about set on taking a car for a week but the agent talks me out of it.. "there's not much to see around here and you only need a couple of days". This is in fact typically honest Argentinian sales procedure, that is if you are lucky enough to get any attention at all. It's no wonder their economy is slow. Most of the purchases i've made in Argentina i've had to bleed a stone before having someone agree a transaction. In this case i decide to move on. There'll be plenty of driving opportunities further north around Bariloche.
Continue by bus to point C (El Chalten), another favourite on the backpacker/ trekking circuit.
Anyway, arrive at point B, check out car rental, and i'm just about set on taking a car for a week but the agent talks me out of it.. "there's not much to see around here and you only need a couple of days". This is in fact typically honest Argentinian sales procedure, that is if you are lucky enough to get any attention at all. It's no wonder their economy is slow. Most of the purchases i've made in Argentina i've had to bleed a stone before having someone agree a transaction. In this case i decide to move on. There'll be plenty of driving opportunities further north around Bariloche.
Continue by bus to point C (El Chalten), another favourite on the backpacker/ trekking circuit.
El Chalten
17/4, 18/4 Snowed the first day, which was great because
i) most people stayed at their hostels leaving more mountain for us die-hard trekkers,
ii) the autumn scenery is even more pretty against the snow, and
iii) i finally got a chance to wear my Ali-G shades.
Even in the mountains WI-FI is now a more important feature of accomodation than having a bathroom. There really is no escape.
i) most people stayed at their hostels leaving more mountain for us die-hard trekkers,
ii) the autumn scenery is even more pretty against the snow, and
iii) i finally got a chance to wear my Ali-G shades.
Even in the mountains WI-FI is now a more important feature of accomodation than having a bathroom. There really is no escape.
Glacier Perito Moreno, El Calafate
19/4, 20/4 Probably the top tourist attraction in the south. But having travelled hours and hours to get here, you can easily miss the excitement, for example, by reaching for your camera. So after taking a few customary snaps the trick seems to be to settle down into a meditative state for, say, a couple of hours, and if you're lucky you'll be rewarded with a phenomenal show of nature.. a huge block of ice breaking off the glacier to an enormous explosive cracking sound and then seemingly collapsing in slow-motion into the water. Ice 300 years in the making, slowly shifting down the glacial valley and then.. plop into the lake down below. And not just the ice that moves, I actually shed a small tear when I saw one drop.
21/4 Decide my trip in the south is not complete without a hike on one of these ice monsters. It had been snowing though, so whilst the scenery was very pretty, the experience itself of walking on the glacier felt more like a stroll in wintery Wiltshire.
Finish off the day with some whisky on the rocks (no prizes for guessing where the ice came from).
Finish off the day with some whisky on the rocks (no prizes for guessing where the ice came from).
22/4 Have dreams of picking up a motorbike and heading north along the famous route 40. Decide that would be way too uncomfortable, and risky, so settle again for the comfy bus.
Miss bus because my clothes are stuck at the laundrette over lunchtime.
Miss bus because my clothes are stuck at the laundrette over lunchtime.
23/4 Try again. Overnight bus leaves at lunchtime heading north, but not before first going completely the wrong way for 5 hours in order to take the coastal route which is fully paved.
A petrified forest, Sarmiento
24/4 7am Get off at Sarmiento, a sleepy town in the middle of no-where. It's not an official stop on the bus service I took, so they drop me at the petrol station. The attendent makes good coffee and offers to rent me a car, but his car-friend is away. So I stroll into town and stop at a cozy local hotel, enjoying my first private room in weeks. But I didn't come 1000km to sleep, I came here to see some dead trees, well they were dead trees 65 million years ago, now they are surreal lumps of stone scattered about an empty landsape...
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