Day 159: January 21, 2008 Comodoro Rivadavia

  Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina
Monday, January 21, 2008

Day 159: January 21, 2008 Comodoro Rivadavia

After eating breakfast, I called the Dubrovnik Rent-a-Car people and told them I was ready to return the car. Luis came up to the hotel about an hour later. I paid him and handed over the keys. He gave me a ride down to El Centro and dropped me off at the bus terminal.

I checked my email at a nearby internet locutorio and then walked around the city center until I found a shoe store, where I bought a new pair of sneakers, having abandoned my old ones in the Galápagos, 10 days ago. I bought the cheapest pair I could find, a pair--Converse All-Stars. I haven't had a pair of these since high school days. They feel the same as my high school pair. I tried several Banelco ATM's before I found one that would work with my card and took out money to pay for my hotel room. Then, I found a kiosk that sold the Patagonia road map and bought one.

Neighborhood View

It was an unusually warm day in Comodoro, in the high 20's or low 30's (80's). All of the locals were remarking about it. I decided to break in my new shoes by walking across the city back to my hotel; it was only a couple of kilometers away. I walked part way up the low slope at the base of Cerro Chenque, on which most of the city is situated, before heading west.

View from the Velez Sarsfield Mirador

The city makes up for its total lack of architectural style by its remarkable cleanliness for an Argentine city. There is very little trash in the streets and garbage pick-up appears to be a daily event. I suspect that a lot of this has to do with the strong presence of several international oil companies in the city. The San Jorge Basin is a major exploration/production area. For all of the bad press that the majors get, I have to admit that the cleanest areas tend to be places where they are players. I first noticed this more than 10 years ago when the littering habits of the YPF crews made a drastic turnaround, from pigpen to spotless, after YPF undertook a joint venture with a consortium of international companies and had to comply with their rules.

From almost any house on the hillside there is a view of the Golfo de San Jorge. I came to an overlook on Velez Sarsfield from which I could see the cliffs of Rada Tilly, to the south, and the area I had visited yesterday to the west of Rada Tilly. I walked the final few blocks to the hotel, dripping with persperation, so I bought some Gatorade at the hotel gymnasium and then took a shower and a siesta.

I watched some TV and then went over to the locutorio to spend some time on the internet. I was getting hungry around 9:00 so I got some empanadas and a couple of Heinekens at the pizza place around the corner to bring back to the hotel for dinner. I watched a few shows on the National Geographic and AXN channels before turning in.