Day 185: Feb. 16, 2008 Chaltén to Estancia Siberia
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2007
1
188
202
Trip End
Mar 01, 2008
Estancia Siberia,
Argentina
Saturday, February 16, 2008
The wind howled and rain pounded all night long. Neither of us slept well; I don't imagine that too many others in the town slept well either! When we got up at 8:30, it was still overcast and drizzling. We walked across the road to the hotel comedor and ate a breakfast of coffee and medialunas. At length, we spoke with a very well traveled couple from Cleveland and her sister from New Hampshire, all of whom are traveling on the continent before embarking on a trip to Antarctica.
We packed and checked out. Diesel fuel had just been delivered at the YPF station so we were told to wait 20 minutes for residue in the tank to settle out. To kill the time, I got on the internet to upload an entry while Liz went next door to the panadaería (bakery) to get food for lunch. She came back and told me that the woman who waited on her had a lot of neck pain so she was going to give the woman a neck and shoulder massage. While she did that, I filled up the tank and then returned to pick up the masseuse and headed eastward 88 km back to Ruta 40 where we headed north.
At Tres Lagos, we turned westward and drove nearly 80 km on a gravel road back to Lago San Martín, another of the Andean finger lakes. We passed a Tertiary volcanic plug along the way. As we passed Lago Tar, it took me awhile to realize that it was filled with muddy brown water and was not a dry sandy lake bed. We were disappointed to find that the clouds were moving in from the west when we got to Lago San Martín. We took a picture of the lake from Estancia Federica and turned around.
Back at Tres Lagos, we gassed up. Almost immediately after we left the station, we picked up two young women from California, Katie and Adrianna, who were hitchhiking around Patagonia. Both spoke excellent Spanish: Adrianna's father is Argentine and Katie has an Argentine boyfriend. We loaded them in the rear seat and chatted away for the next 90 km. Originally, we were headed for Gobernador Gregores but the guy at the gas station recommended staying at Estancia Siberia on Lago Cardiel. When I saw it I pulled in. Liz and I checked out the simple but adequate room and decided to stay. The two women, although claiming they had all the time in the world, decided to continue on. We took them back out to the road and left them.
Back at the room, we meditated before going to dinner at 8:30. The estancia is owned by a non-resident German and is run by two middle-aged women. It serves as a road stop for several buses and as a very rustic, rural lodging and restaurant. Our dinner consisted of huge veal cutlets, the best I have ever had, salad, and a superb cake. Two bull calves had free run of the ranch. I suspect there might have been a third earlier in the day.
We turned in early in a cool, unheated room. The stars were magnificent.
