This computer is so slow

• Khorsman's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from El Calafate

Trip Start Nov 15, 2007 Previous
Entry Trip End Nov 26, 2007

  El Calafate, Argentina
Friday, November 23, 2007

So in case any North Americans out there feel dissatisfied with their internet service.....I am 90% sure that the internet in El Calafate is slower than dial up.  It appears the only way to connect is via Satellite.  It is highly frustrating.  I sometimes wait 1 or 2 minutes for 1 page to load.  On the progress bar it seems to progress about 1 section every 30 to 40 seconds.

It is actually pretty easy to blog though since it is mostly word processing. 

Yesterday we went on something called touristpalooza. We signed up for a boat excursion through the glaciers.  We imagined it something like our little boat in Ushuaia with Sebastien and 5 other people besides ourselves.  It ends up it was a humongous boat with about 500 super-annoying tourists. And anyone who says people from the US make obnoxious tourists have never met the European and South American tourists!  Europeans still seem to be the rudest.  Despite all the hubbub on the boat, it was a very nice way to see many glaciers.  I think we saw 8 or 9 different glaciers.  And their were also very large chunks of glaciers all throughout the water we were cruising.  One of the biggest ones we saw was the Upsala glacier.  It is 4 times as large as the city of Buenos Aires!  We had a one hour lunch break to sit in the rocks and enjoy a view of 4 glaciers all at one time.  It was a beautiful, clear day.  Quite lovely.  It was an all day thing.  We left at 730am and got back around 6.  Way too early to be getting up on vacation.  Everyone would be quite proud of me.  I am staying up late, and sleeping late, and it is wonderful!  Iīve decided Iīm something of a sleep camel on this vacation.  I canīt seem to get enough sleep.  I think Iīm making up for all of the stress and business and getting up early of the past semester.  I canīt wait until Christmas break when I can continue my de-stressing.

Last night we had the best and most expensive meal of the trip.  We justified it because it was our īthanksgivingī feast.  I thought I ordered a piece of lamb and a piece of veal. I continued to think thatīs what I got until I got the bill and figured out that it was beef.  But it was sooooo good.  We had lovely wine, salads, and deserts.  They have these things called Calafate berries here that are popular.  They are kind of like a mix maybe of raspberries and strawberries.  Delicioso!

Today we missed the boat (speaking figuratively...) on getting to go anywhere today.  We were excited to go mini'trekking on the perito mereno glacier, and we missed the deadline to book trips (which was at 9pm last night - we didnīt try until 930).  So we basically had nothing to do today.  We walked about 30 minutes to Lago Argentina where we could supposedly see flamingos, but when we got there, there were no flamingos.  The part of the lake we walked to was all dried up and a bit swampy.  It had 3 benches for visitors to sit on and watcfh the birds (there were other birds besides the much anticipated flamingos).  The benches swayed in the wind.  They were not very stable.  Then we walked back into the main part of town.  Oh, and I forgot to mention on the way to the lake, there was a miniature horse tied up on the sidewalk eating out of half of a plastic trashcan.  It was interesting.  Then we shopped a bit and had lunch, and then we took naps which brings us up to the current moment.

Some more observations on Argentina.....almost none of the bathroom doors lock.  Half the time the handle isnīt even securely fastened to the door.  And the hole where key hardware belongs is usually an open hole in the door.  Sometimes there is a latch type lock at the top, but it usually doesnīt work. On top of that, often times the door canīt even latched to be closed.  Another thing is that a good portion of the handles on the sink faucets are not securely attached, if attached at all.  They seem to do really shoddy work around here on the detail-type things.

Trent and I have only 2 nights left of our trip.  I am kind of ready to go home, but also kind of not ready.  Oh well!  It has been a good trip!

Print this entry Share El Calafate hotels

Previous Entry