BACK ON THE ROAD AGAIN

WEATHER: Hot and 28C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Still having all gadgets charged

BUMMER OF THE DAY: The ‘bumpiness’ for ¾ of the trip today

WORD OF THE DAY:  Desvio – Detour in Spanish

DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 608KM

Welcome back to the truck.  The alarm went off at 5.45am and after one snooze hit to get an extra 10 minutes, we were up and raring to go and all on the truck at 7am. It was like we were never there! 

It didn’t get too cold last night which was a little surprising as there was a bit of a wind blowing off the lake, but Kate the Kamper said we should face the door away from the lake based on that, so maybe that kept our tent a few degrees warmer.  I’m expecting it to get colder the further South we move, but nearing the bottom of South America to El Calfate tonight for 2 nights and then into Ushuaia in a weeks’ time, with the title of the Worlds’ most southern city, it will be interesting to see just how much cooler it will be at the end of the month.  I was in Ushuaia just over 8 weeks ago (seems a life time) for my Antarctic cruise departure and even though it was cold then, it wasn’t unbearable, so I am expecting good weather in Ushuaia.  

The scenery has picked right back up where we left yesterday.  No towns, no people and not a lot of traffic.  We stopped at the only town that we would be seeing in 800KM today at 10am for a toilet stop and the last chance to buy snacks for the whole day.  We would be skirting a small town in the afternoon otherwise it is just us and the road today.  Just after pulling out of Bajocaraco, we stopped as some tire had come off one of the front wheels, so to be on the safe side; Gray decided to do a tire change.  He even changed into ‘work’ overalls.  You know it’s serious when that happens.  So after only 45 minutes, we were back on the road with a new tire on which was just as well as the roads are worse today than they were yesterday.  They are in the process of making a new one or upgrading the old one, I’m not sure, but we literally are running parallel to the ‘new ‘road on a bumpy and bouncy backup road.  There aren’t a lot of roadwork signs, there are the desvio (detour) signs, but you know when to deviate off the road when it is blocked by a mound of dirt and maybe a prohibit sign, but some of them are quite hard to work out of you are allowed on them or to keep using the backup road.  More than ¾ of the days travel today was on the bumpy and bouncy road making it too difficult to type on the laptop or write and at some points it was too bouncy to sleep.  I kid you not there were some serious bumps as we drove along.  Once we hot bitumen again there is a sigh of relief just have some smoothness for a while before it all happens again.  The last 160KM was all on paved roads-thank goodness.  Mark told us to not complain, people pay money to get thrown around like that.

There was a little bit of commotion just before lunch.  Some-one stole my Doritos.  You know when you know you have a snack there and you start to think about it, you really work yourself up to it really wanting it, well I got to that point and went to reach for them above and they were GONE!!!  What, some-one stole my Doritos!?  I was about to launch a full investigation when we pulled up for lunch at a beautiful vantage point, so with my Dorito search out on hold till after lunch when we got back on board the truck, there was a packet above Kirrilly that magically re-appeared….  Hmmmmmm interesting.  But after having lunch I didn’t feel like them anymore but a few hours later I devoured them anyway.  So the missing Dorito Mystery was solved. 

We have been driving through the Patagonia region for the last week.  Patagonia is a region located at the southern end of South America, territory shared by Argentina and Chile, which comprises the southern section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean. To the west, it includes the territory of Valdivia through Tierra del Fuego archipelago.  The name Patagonia comes from the word patagón used by Magellan in 1520 to describe the native people that his expedition thought to be giants. It is now believed the Patagons were actually Tehuelches with an average height of 180 cm compared to the 155 cm average for Spaniards of the time.

I have noticed that there aren’t a lot of ‘cairns’ along the roadside in Chile and Argentina like we saw in Ecuador and Bolivia.  They are called Pachamama’s here.  It is an offering to the God of Nature, Pachcamama and they use cairns (rock piles) as religious shrines.  The tourist has now jumped on board and for us it means good luck to travelers.  So not one to mess with travel gods and after leaving one high in the Andes it was only right to leave one in the South in Patagonia, so with the help with Susanne we made a 6 rock high ‘cairns’ to Pachcamama for luck for the rest of the trip.  I asked Mark why there aren’t a lot around to which his reply was ‘not a lot of people stop here’.  Makes sense……

Late in the afternoon we were crossing a lot of rivers which was quite scenic to get us into El Calafate just after 5pm.  Pretty good timing considering we also had the 45 minute tire change this morning as well.  It was a tough day travelling on more dodgy road than paved road, but we have made it and in one piece!  We are lucky to have Gray, that is for sure.

El Calafate is a small town in Patagonia, Argentina. It is situated in the southern border of Lake Argentino.  Its name is derived from a little bush with yellow flowers and dark blue berries that is very common in Patagonia: the calafate (Berberis buxifolia); the word comes from the word "calafate", which is Spanish for "caulk".  The town is an important tourist destination as the hub to visit different parts of the Los Glaciares National Park, including the Perito Moreno Glacier (one of the most visited in the world) and the Cerro Chaltén and Cerro Torre.  The history of El Calafate began in the first decades of the twentieth century. Originally, it was simply a sheltering place for wool traders. The town was officially founded in 1927 by the government of Argentina to promote settlement, but it was the creation of nearby Perito Moreno National Park in 1937 that sparked growth and the building of better road access and population. 

No tents tonight, we are in a pretty funky hostel about a 10 minute walk from ‘downtown’.  They have their own restaurant, offer laundry services, have a large common room, kitchen facilities if you wanted to cook yourself, FREE WI-FI, hot showers and flushing toilets, computers and they also book all the day tours of the area.  We were all looking forward to getting into a bed and sleeping on a mattress and a pillow tonight.  We have been split into groups of 4 and have dorm style rooms.  The only downfall was there were no power points in any of the rooms and there we only a few scatted around the common rooms and corridors of the hostel.  So in the afternoon they were all taken with people charging mostly camera batteries, and they were just left hanging from the points, I guess everyone runs on an honest system around here.  I will need to charge my IPod, laptop and camera in the coming days, but I don’t think it will be an issue.

With a 20 minute turn around, email and Facebook checking, we all walked into town as a group and got the one street orientation tour before being left to our own devices.  It is a cute little town and once again is based on a ski town with the little wooden buildings and ‘ski village’ feel.  Kate and I had a walk around town for an hour or so before heading back to the hostel where we ate at their restaurant and got the special of the day, which was a massive piece of meat, a chorizo and salad for 58 pesos (13 AUD) and it was worth every penny.  We ate outside with our laptops as we worked away and I was able to load the last week of photos and the last 3 days’ worth of blogs, so it was a productive evening till it got too cold to sit outside, but it was way past our bed time anyway, and we went to the room to retire.   We decided to put in some washing, as this was the last chance to wash till Ushuaia, but we will just wait till our 10 nights in BA.  It was a flat rate of 45 pesos for a bag, so Kate threw in some things as well.  It was expensive (still only 10AUD) for the bag, but Kate only paid 5AUD in Bariloche.  Oh well, gotta add in the hostels commission, nothing is for free these days, well except for the Wi-Fi that is!!!

Speaking of Wi-Fi, we also had reception in our rooms.  This is bad, bad, bad as we all nerd up in bed on our portable devices from tablets to IPhones  to IPods instead of getting some reading done, but it is one of those make the most of it while we have it situations.  Especially after here we are in a National Park for 4 nights and apparently we won’t even have phone reception there.  No technology reception at all will probably do us all good for 5 days. 

I’m on the top bunk in the hostel, by choice.  Kate gave me plenty of opportunities to give me the lower bunk.  I didn’t mind either way, as long as the bunk structure was sturdy enough to hold my weight.  I had a bad experience with a bunk bed on my Scandinavian Contiki tour back in 2007.  Just ask Aimes, Shauna and Ann.  The beds weren’t that sturdy in the hostel we stayed in Trondheim, so I guess I was asking for trouble hoisting myself onto the top bunk, but after a few drinks and a night in town, I climb up and after about 30 minutes we heard the first crack of one of the slates giving way and with a yell from me shouting ‘I’m coming through’ I fell through the remaining slats right onto Anne who was sleeping below me.  It was the funniest thing, especially after a few drinks, we talked about it for the rest of the trip and is still an ongoing joke even today with the girls and Aimes snapped a photo just after it happened for all of prosperity.  I should dig out that photo…..  So with this incident still fresh in my mind, I took the high road and the risk and took the top bunk.  These bunks felt and looked a lot stronger.  I am a lot older now so getting up the miniscule ladder they provide was a challenge, and I certainly wouldn’t win any lady like competitions for mounting my bed, but I got up and I think it is going to hold.  After telling Kate the story, she was a little nervous sleeping under me, with a few squeaks of the boards each time I moved, we got comfortable and settled in for the night.  I haven’t stayed in a hostel for quite a long time, but the room had pull curtains for each bed, which I thought was a good thing and we all, had individual lights for each bunk as well.  Being a hostel, there was a lot of noise coming from the common room till the wee hours, and people walking and talking up and down the corridor and people on Skype talking to their families, but all that taken into account, the bed and pillow was more than enough compensation.

We have a day tour booked tomorrow to the Perito Mereno Glacier tomorrow, so it will be nice to get out and about and see what all the fuss is about with the glacier.  Goodnight from a comfy bed, with a pillow and proper roof over our heads.  Ahhhhhhhhh luxury…………