Hola All,
Some people told me they wanted to know what I was up to so here is the first instalment. I am presently marking time in Rio Gallegos which is in the far south of Argentina, on the coast. For those who have not heard the reasons why I am here, there are two of them. The first one gets me to Tierra Del Fuego, right at he bottom, and that relates to 1974 when I was trying to get there but was thwarted by a thieving bus company who wouldn’t let me continue a bus trip to Rio Gallegos despite my having a ticket. The bus company was Don Otto and they are still in operation but not for me. I was going to tell someone there that they were a useless lot but decided it wouldn’t be much help now.
When I was stopped I had got to Comodoro Riviadavia about 12 hours ride north. I jumped up and down and used my two Spanish swear words but they were immovable so I thought that Argentina could get stuffed, and I left and went to Paraguay. But it has always niggled me that I didn’t get to the bottom and now I am doing it all by myself. The second reason is that there are some pretty interesting things to see and drink on the way back to Buenos Aires and NZ from the south so I am doing those as well.
I had to get to Comodoro to kick off and did that from Auckland via BA on the dreaded Aerolineas Argentinas which is a good example of getting what you pay for. In return for a relatively cheap price you get less than good service, ever changing departure times, ordinary food, old planes and ok wine. The email to tell me the flight from Auckland was delayed by 5 hours reached me in BA after I arrived, and the one saying the next flight was leaving 2 hours early came about
midnight and the flight left at 7 the next morning. In-flight entertainment was nostalgic with the old TV from the ceiling that the person in front of you obscures. But they didn’t crash which is the
main thing.
In order to keep faith with 1974 I have to travel from Comodoro to Ushuaia in Tierro Del Fuego by bus and this along with a side trip I planned to do then is about 36 hours of travel. But there is an upside because Argentina does long distance buses as well as they play polo – which is better that most other places, and I reckon that after 37 years I don’t have to be uncomfortable, I just have to be on a bus. So the first 12 hour overnight trip was from Comodoro to Rio Gallegos and I booked Cama Class, which is even better than First Class at home in front of the TV where I sleep very well. The buses are big two storey jobs with 3 seats across and plenty of space.
It left 2 hours late at 9.30 and I flattened out the seat and leg rest and dozed off immediately. I had prepared by having an nice meal previously and bringing lots of water and biscuits. I had not noticed that my ticket had words that meant I got full service, so half an hour later a nice young man woke me up and served me a three course meal and plied me with more wine than I needed. Which sent me peacefully back to sleep again until 2 when it got a little chilly and I woke up to sort out my blanket, at which time the big window opposite from me went bang very loudly and shattered all over a mother and extremely little baby. By the time that was all sorted we had a new bus and were 2 further hours late. The last excitement of this ride was when I got half a tin of crushed pineapple spilled over me. Since then I have put in another 10 hours of buses without fuss and tomorrow is a biggy to Ushuaia and no one can say how long it will take because of the twin perils of crossing the Magellan Straights and dealing with Chilean border officials.
I have also spent six hours in a small Renault taxi with three other passengers. I decided to do a day trip to look at Pinguinos, which is easily translated to English, and thought the taxi was taking us to the tour agency to collect the flash van. But when we headed down a bumpy dirt road and didn’t stop I found I was mistaken. It was worth it because there were hundreds of Magellan penguins nesting and sauntering on the beach and there were only the four of us humans for
as far as you see and probably further.
I am just back from a couple of nights at El Calafate which is a small tourist town where one goes so one can visit the Perito Moreno glacier. And it is quite a sight. We had a lovely sunny cold day and those of you who think Fox or Franz Joseph are cool would be blown away by this which is 5 ks wide and ends in a lake full of iceburgettes. Not only can you go to viewing sights close by, you
also get even closer on a boat. The only thing wrong was I didn’t see a huge big bit drop off in to the water.
Patagonia is a lonely and very windy place. There are no trees. The towns feel like they are here on sufferance and there is very little man made stuff that is anything more than what is necessary. Fiddly architects wouldn’t have much work here. The estancias (farms) only run sheep, merinos and corriedales, at about one to 4 hectares, and I am told 5000 head is a minimum to make a living so they are very big. There is no real pasture and its a bit like up in the hills in the McKenzie basin but a hell of a lot more of it. You travel literally for hours between farms and there is no other sign of human occupation apart from a fence alongside the road, usually. On the trip to the glacier the tour bus stopped outside the entrance to an estancia and the guide pointed out the biggest building and told every one on the bus that is the house of the owners. However it had lots of small sheep yards outside and was very obviously the shearing shed. I was sitting by the guide and tried to explain, quietly, what it really was but I don’t think it got through.
There are some cool animals running around – ostriches which used to be farmed, huanacos which are very elegant relations to llamas, biggish hare-like things, very smart local geese, pink flamingos and yesterday I saw condors. Note the plural. This is my fourth time in South America and I have never seen any before and this time not only was one practising low level aerobatic manoeuvres right nearby, but about six of his relations were having breakfast down the hill. Of course all these things are not all over the show and are about as rare as people but not quite.
Food is ok and reasonably priced but this is a place where the flasher the restaurant the more you pay without an obvious increase in food quality. I have had one big steak and could not finish it even though it was good. Breakfast is always included with lodgings and is very boring – toast and tea basically but this may reflect the socio-economic level of places I am staying. Wine is fine is one
would expect. Last night I “celebrated” my birthday by splashing out and having two courses and a glass each of white and red, well two of the red. I have been staying in hostels (with my own room and bathroom) and 2 star hotels and so far all have been good. The last one was the nicest yet but I discovered after a night and day there that my door did not lock properly which gave me a thrill in
retrospect. The one I am in now is a bit tired and the door handle to my room came off when I went out. Is there a pattern developing ?
So I hope you are all enjoying working or whatever it is you are doing, and I will just keep wandering on, lonely and isolated, bravely facing all the problems, cold winds and worries of exotic Patagonia.
Dennis