El Calafate
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2007
1
67
106
Trip End
Jul 03, 2008
El Calafate,
Argentina
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
El Calafate is tourist town positioned near Perito Merino Glacier and some excellent hiking. Unfortunately we didnīt have time to fit these in as we were rocketing up north to catch a flight to Peru. Probably a good thing for the budget as it ainīt cheap here. While looking for a hostel we bumped into Adam, a traveler from the UK, and Richard, a qualified electrician from Austria (apparently being qualified is something to be proud of in Austria instead of the norm in the UK). They told us about the hostel where dorm rooms cost about 27 pesos. We duelly followed as everywhere seemed to be quite full. This hostel was too and we ended up having to get a 127peso twin room instead.
The next day we went to sort out our next bus journey to the coast. We decided to go for the 3am journey as it meant we wouldnīt have to pay for accommodation. With a few hours to kill we went for a walk to the local bird sanctuary. Not sure these places are run on the same guidelines as others in the world. We paid the 2 pesos to get in and were immediately confronted with what looked and smelt like a sewage pipe. Interesting addition to a nature site. A little further on we gained some friends in the form of 3 very stray, very manky dogs whose sole purpose was to chase the bird away.
After the park we visited a small museum that was surprisingly full of information on the local people and effects of colonialism. It was pricey at 17 pesos but def worth it if you have the time. We then met up with Adam and a couple of his friends. Sam and Patrick from The Navimag joined us and we hit the local buffet for a good filling before our bus journey. To fill in the remaining time we drank in Casablanca bar and Gourmet Coffee.
At 2.45am arrived at the bus terminal to find that our very kind bus ticket booking person had in fact booked us onto the wrong bus. Our had left at 3pm the day before! This has to be put down to our crap Spanish and the fact he was on a chat-room the whole time he was booking our ticket. Lesson learnt check your ticket when you by it......
Comments
El Calafate
Pitty you didn't make it to the glacier, really one of the most spectacular places we'been to. The town of El Calafate is a bit of a rip off. I agree absolutely about the nothing worth seeing between Puerto Natales and El Calafate.