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Published: August 6th 2007
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The Road to Nowhere
Waiting for our first view of the patagonian andes. The steppes east of them are a vast, arid and very flat patch of nothing at all. ....written by Andrew
We're finally heading for Patagonia! I'd been dreaming about this place since the start of our planning.
The word patagonia has always brought up thoughts of mountain landscapes in a far off place. I didn't actually know much of anything about it, as I had never thought that I would be able to come here myself. I always pictured it as an innacessible, vast and treacherous landscape that was the realm of serious mountaineers. I was partly right....it is vast, beautiful and mountainous, but it's also easy to get to, and quite accessible for us lowly hikers!
Our tendency to plan at the very last minute caught up to us for the first time in the small town of Rio Gallegos, on the southern Atlantic coast. Our flight from Buenos Aires landed at 1:30 am, and we didn't have a hotel room. This was complete stupidity on our part, as we had booked the flight more than a week previous. We were turned away from three hotels as we taxied around town, finally finding an overpriced room for the night. We didn't have much time to enjoy the place, as we were headed eastwards on
Campground Companion
The lawn mower at the campground in El Calafate in front of our trusty little tent. the first bus the next morning.
Although we had already spent much time in and around the Andes, we were particularly looking forward to seeing the mountains of Patagonia. The anticipation was high as we set out. We had great seats, right in the front of the bus, which afforded us a fantastic view of absolutely nothing at all. The arid steppes of southern Argentina is a semi-desert with only a few small bushes and some very random livestock to break up the view of dry earth. We weren't dissapointed by the views as we finally reached the mountains, with milky blue glacier lakes and jagged peaks.
We had reached our first stop, El Calafete. We were taken aback by the buildings along the main strip....it felt like we were in Tremblant! The touristy shops and cafes were all built with field stone and logs. We soon realised that this area was copying the chalet architecture of western europen just like we did back home.
The rest of the tourists were dressed just like us! Gore-tex and polyester was everywhere as we all lugged our giant packs down the main street. We felt like members of a
Wet, cold and worth it
On the tour boat as we approach the glacier for a closer look. tribe.
We noticed that there were some pretty upmarket cafes and stores in town...how did they survive on backpackers stopping along the way to the mountains? After a few hours in town, it was becoming very obvious that we weren't the only ones coming to the mountains. Much like our ski towns back home, there were high end hotels catering to wealthy clients looking to get away from it all. We found out that some of the nearby trout fishing lodges cost several thousand dollars a night!
No expensive fishing lodge for us though, as we were headed to the municipal camping ground for our first night of camping on the trip. After having carried all of our camping gear with us for weeks, we were very happy to start using it! We weren't exactly roughing it though, as we celebrated the successful first erection of the tent with coffees and beers in a nice bookshop/cafe in town before having more of the great Argentinian steak at one of the nicer restaurants. We reasoned that if you're going cheap on the accomodation, why not splurge on the food?
The highlight of the stay was our little trip
to the tourist trap that is the Perito Moreno glacier. The glacier is one of the many that descend from the massive Helio Sur icecap that covers much of southern Chile. It's also one of the most active glaciers around, and we were treated to a good show of large chunks breaking off the face of the glacier. The views of the glacier were very impressive, particularly as you couldn't see the start of it, it simply dissapears into the distance. The weather was pretty crap though, with rain and a very cold wind blowing off the face of the glacier. Given the high cost of the bus/boat tour (about $100 each), we were expecting the 'viewing area' to be well setup, with hot chocolate and food services. There was nothing at all though, so we spent the last of the three hours at the glacier sitting on the tour bus warming up!
After a great meal of italian pasta, we headed back into the tent. We had company that night, as the lawn mower was close to our tent, munching happily away and giving the occasional 'baa' to sing us to sleep.
The next day we were
Flowing Ice
We couldn't see the end of the glacier... off to Chile to start our trek in the mountains! I was grinning ear to ear with the thought....
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