El Calafate: It´s not the end of the world...

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  El Calafate, Patagonia, Argentina
Thursday, November 13, 2008

...but you can see it from here.

A 30-hour bus ride is something special that I really don't recommend. If only the route had been as straight forward as the map above implies. Route 40 is the tourists ideal route, down through the Andes. But as it isnīt quite warm enough yet that route isnīt open. The bus actually wound its way from Bariloche across to the east side, down to Rio Gallegos and then back up a bit to El Calafate. The selection of films continued the theme of South America's 'Service with a Snigger' as Brian says (see below), we were battered with many bad bad films such as Little Man, Norbit and Hitman, a film based on a computer game, you know itīs not going to be good. And somehow I managed to get a window seat without a window. No food was provided and the garage pit stops for snacks were erratic to say the least. To top it off, due to diversions, the bus arrived nearly 3 hours late. But every cloud... met a great couple of chaps, Brian, Irish teaching in Madrid, and Dave, from Sunderland via London. And of course the scenery was stunning, mountains, herds of llamas, cowboys, flamingos, ostriches even!

Suspecting the bus was going to be horrendous I booked a night in a hotel, Brian and Dave came with. They stayed on (them what have big budgets) whilst I moved on to America del Sur, a hostel recommended by Jane, a girl I met in Copacabana all those weeks ago. The hostel is wonderful, amazing views over El Calafate and Largo Argentino. The staff are a bit wacky, very enthusiastic to see you, definitely a warm welcome.

The weather has been really mixed. We thought it was going to be bright sun, like when we were on the bus, and bought sun glasses in preparation for the snow glare. But Tuesday turned out to be pretty bad rain and winds. Brian, Dave and I took a taxi out to Los Glaciares National Park to see the Perito Moreno glacier, a giant white lump of ice, 60 meters high, 5 kilometers across. The landscape around here really reminds me of Scotland (esp with the rain), rolling green hills, huge skies. But when we first saw the glacier it was breathtaking, even quite intimidating in a way. The glacier advances 1km a year (I think) but as it meets the landmass of the Park the pressure and undercurrent of water forces it to crack. As the afternoon went on we could hear the ice crack, masses of ice breaking off and crashing into the lake. There are some films on YouTube that give you an idea what it was like. This one shows the collapse of the ice in March 2004: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAUuVub3y9k It happened again in 2006 but at 10pm, there isnīt much footage of that one. There we met Christine from Switzerland, another one from the bus journey down.

Of course Wednesday, the day of no plans, had glorious weather! I wandered around El Calafate town. There wasn't an awful lot to do; I read my book, drank coffee, worked on my tan (ie got a bit burnt). In the afternoon I visited the Centro de Interpretacion Historia, a small museum that explores the history of Patagonia and the glacier. Living a super-healthy lifestyle, the original Patagonians were big, strong people; the word Patagonia means giant people, a term given to them by the European settlers I think. The indigenous people are all but gone, only 100 remain now. The museo said they embraced the Europeans but were soon an exploited workforce and suffered from the "culture of alcohol". Something to do with the opening of the Panama Canal meant the wages for working in the wool industry were very low, and in the 1920s there was a workers strike in Patagonia. How the strike was resolved is still pretty hazy, possibly through mass murder of the indigenous workforce, it hasn't been acknowledged or denied. It claims that 52% of Argentines have Indian blood but, to me, Argentina isn't as precious about its heritage as Peru and Bolivia, Ive heard that many Argentines are quite racists about the Indians (the Social Class Tree in the museum in Mendoza is shocking, that is now on Flickr.)

I thought I was more of a cold weather person than a hot weather person, but Ive had enough of these battering winds and cold, I'm back up the road to Puerto Madryn today. Another monster bus journey, 4 hours to Rio Gallegos, change buses for another 15 hour journey back up the east coast.

Not much joy with the photos, the Internet is not only slow here but expensive too. In 90 mins I managed to get 15 more posted www.flickr.com/photos/bongo76 but they are still behind this blog.

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