Blogs from Argentina, South America - page 1066

Salimos temprano de Puerto Natales para volver rapidamente a Gral. Roca, calculamos tres dias de viaje, no se si sera larga la Patagonia, por suerte todo asfalto, salimos para Puerto San Julian, el viaje fue largo y a mi se me ocurrio comer unos sandwichitos al mediodia, por lo que la llegada a Pto. San Julian fue desastrosa, en un momento me encontre desgraciandome en la avenida de entrada a la ciudad!!!Vergonzozo!!!!Solo personalmente puedo contar lo que fue ese dia de viaje, nos hospedamos en unaa hosteria en la avenida del mar al lado del hotel municipal que nos queria cobrar el doble por la mitad de servicio, que diferencia con Chile como se nota el cambio de cultura, aca teniamos televisor, banio privado, desayuno completo, construccion hermosa y todo a 2/3 de lo mas barato ... read more

When we last spoke I was eluding border officials in Brazil. After a brief stint in a Brazillian prison... I made my way back into Argentina. (Last Friday I was in Brazil twice.) I got into Puerto Iguazu too late to catch the bus to Buenos Aires that day, so I spent the night there, again. I was able to cut out around 2 on an eighteen hour journey to Retiro bus station in Buenos Aires. Our bus was stopped by national police five hours into the journey. Apparently someone had sent a kilo of marijuana in the cargo hold of the bus. It took an hour, but they finally let our bus continue on. I got to BA on Sunday morning. I went to different hostels, but none had rooms. I met a Danish girl, ... read more

After a 5 hour bus ride, a short hop when taken in context of other bus journeys, we arrived into El Calafate, the newest town in Argentina. It's a frontier town at the foot of some spectacular mountains. Not that we could see any of them. Low clouds were blanketing out all but the closest hills and even they were partially obscured. The weather is peculiar in Patagonia. Different areas have their own microclimate so it’s impossible to predict what the weather will be like in any one place. I’d heard from other travelers that the weather had been atrocious here. They’d hiked for days in endless rain, buffeting winds and freezing cold. And after enduring all this they didn’t even see the mountains that brought them there in the first place. On hearing those stories ... read more

Sorry for taking so long to write. I hope this works. Because of the internet is expensive so I am doing the cut and paste thing. At any rate I am in Barlouge now. ( Bar). More on that later but First BA. Sharon got in on the 10th. I arrived on the 9th very early in the morning, I had almost missed my bus. Because instead of saying BA it said Retiro. The name of the bus station and it was not in the proper gate. But as with most things you sort of have to try to figure things out. Even thought I did pay for a the full cama. It was still only a semi cama not total full. At any after a nice evening of the horror movies and not truly getting ... read more

As I stared out the window there appeared an aqua-marine lake in the barren, hostile looking plains. This signified our approach to El Calafate airport. The drop in temperature was significant. No more walking around in a t-shirt and shorts, we were now in Patagonia. The landscape looked as wild and amazing as in the numerous photos I´d seen. I was so excited to be here. The pilot mentioned something about how we had arrived at a very special time which had something to do with the Perito Moreno Glacier. We just thought it was the usual tourist speil but found out later that the ice bridge connecting Perito Moreno Galcier to the penninsula was about to collapse. Apparently it is a major event that happens only infrequently. To understand how major an event this is ... read more