| Jan 22, 2006 - El Calafate, Argentina
| El Calafate is a beautiful small town in the heart of the Argentine Patagonia. Due to its proximity to a lot of the major attractions of this region, and the fact that not much else exists in the way of towns down here, it is a major and common stop for all travellers.
We got into the bus terminal at 1am, and walked to the hostel which I had called to make reservations. Once again it was a hostel that had camping in the backyard for a lesser price, and though I was told on the phone there was no need for reservations, when we showed up the place was full and so at 1:30am we started on our search for another place to stay. We walked to another campsite we had been told about it and began inquiring about the prices there. However, right next door was the fire station with a huge comfortable-looking backyard as well. Inspired by the prospect of a free night, and Tanner and Brian`s story of having spent a free night in a jail cell in Ecuador (long story), I went with Carmin over to the fire house to see what we could pull off. In the end, after a bit of an interesting conversation with some fireman who happened to be awake and outside right as we walked up, we settled into a small grassy area next to a little soccer field behind the firehouse and on the banks of a stream, slightly after 2am.
We got an early start the next day, partly because I had promised the fireman we`d be out of there quickly, but also because we had a lot of work to get done in a short time. And it was the most efficient we have ever been. In the next week or so we had 3 major events to take care of, which all involved some planning and ticket-purchasing and so forth. We also had to decide in which order 2 of these would take place, whether we visited the mammoth Moreno Glacier outside of El Calafate before or after we did our hike in Fitz Roy. So we all set out in the morning with different tasks to accomplish and information to obtain. By 1pm we were on a bus to El Chalten (home of Fitz Roy), with all the food we would need for our 3-day hike, a return ticket to El Calafate, a tour booked for the Moreno Galcier, tickets onward to Chile for the next stop on our tour, and even another great lunch of massive salami sandwiches for the bus ride. We also managed to have about an hour for each of us to go check emails or get any personal things done that needed doing.
Damn we`re getting good at this! |
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