Day 181: Feb. 12, 2008 Prto Natales to El Calafate
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2007
1
184
202
Trip End
Mar 01, 2008
El Calafate,
Argentina
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
We checked out of the hospedaje soon after getting up. Since we knew we could get coffee in Cerro Castillo, we decided to drive up there to cross the border, at Cancha Carrera. We went to the other, larger restaurant and found that it is a real place with breakfast pastries and a wide variety of goods that would be of interest to tourists. The owner seemed like a sharp businessman and was doing a brisk business since almost all of the tour buses stop at his place rather than the other.
We ran into the English couple that I had met in Perito Moreno a couple of weeks earlier and exchanged travel advisories. They warned me to bring lots of cash to El Chaltén since there are no ATM's in the town! They also said that all of the ATM's in El Calafate were out of cash by Sunday, probably bringing the tourist industry to its knees
Chilean Sheep
. It's just too comical to believe it's for real. Even more amusing is the look on Argentine faces. They act as though these things had never been an issue before.The border crossing went smoothly on the Chilean side. The Argentine aduana strutted a little, demanding the official card from the vehicle. I explained that he was holding all of the papers I had in his hand, including the card, and that they had been sufficient for two crossings already. The shocked expression on his face made it look as though he had never seen papers from a Chilean rental car before but after glancing at them briefly, he started the stamping papers with a flair.
Heading eastward for a few kilometers over the wide open Patagonian pampas, we soon reached Ruta 40 where we headed north. I had forgotten that this portion was now paved even though I'd been over it a little over a week earlier. I must have been sleeping.
The pavement ended at Tapi Aike. Liz was at the wheel and decided she would try her hand at gravel road driving. She did great and was a veteran after about 30 km. I took over just before the pavement began and within an hour we were in El Calafate
Shepherding Sheep
. It was about 2:30. We went to TurismoSur to buy tickets for tomorrow's boat excursion. The guy said to come back in an hour to pick them up. I explained we were in a bit of a rush since we still needed to find a hotel and go out to the Perito Moreno glacier. He shortened the waiting time to half an hour so we walked down to La Esquina for a few slices of pizza before returning to get the tickets.As we headed out of town toward the glacier, we stopped at the Hotel Solares del Sur, where I stayed with my family, to see if they had a room. Sergio, the owner, recognized me but said that they were full. I asked him to recommend a hotel of similar quality. He said his friend owned the Hotel Kon Aiken, half a kilometer down the road. They charged 378 pesos/night but if I got the room through Sergio, I could get it for 280 pesos/night. We went at looked at the room, which was elegant, and then went back to Sergio's hotel and paid him so we could get the cheaper rate. He gave us a voucher, which we turned in at the Kon Aiken when we checked in. None of this made much sense to me but it worked. I reminded Sergio that I had stayed there the night of his birthday party. Liz mentioned that tomorrow was my birthday so he invited us to eat at their restaurant to celebrate. We made a reservation to do so.
Once all of that was taken care of, we hopped in the car and drove the 90 km out to the glacier
Rheas
. It was impressive, as always. The sky above it was mostly overcast but patches of blue allowed the light to play on the ice. We spent nearly two hours watching and waiting and were rewarded with two moderately large iceberg calvings. A tall, leaning tower just wouldn't make the final plunge for us. We heard a loud roar as we were heading for the restrooms at the cafeteria. I suspect that it was the tower falling.We left the glacier and drove back to El Calafate. Because of our late lunch, we stopped in at a rotisería and bought bread, cheese, salami, and wine for dinner. We had a picnic on our bed at the hotel while watching the Potomac primaries election results on CNN en Español. Once again the midnight hour snuck up on us so we decided to turn in since we had to get up early to catch our boat.
