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Published: January 12th 2008
After a month in El Bolson we finally hit the road again. The first stop was Esquel, about two hours south. Esquel is a fairly small town with many rivers and mountain surrounding it. Much like El Bolson without waffle day. The first night we stayed at a pub-hotel similar to McMenamins in Portland without the local beer (they only had Budwiser and Heiniken) or food. But they did have pool tables and very cool atmosphere. The next couple nights we camped in the backyard of a hostel that was very nice and shaded with trees. There´s not much to do in Esquel but it was nice to have a change of scenery. Matt went fishing a couple days and I was able to run some errands before we left. Oh. . . and we bought plane tickets! No not home. . . . we are flying from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires on the 2nd of February. We figured it would be much better to take a 5 hour flight instead of spending about 4 days on a bus. Especially becuase there wasn´t much difference in the cost!
After Esquel we hopped on a bus to Comodoro, which is a
mining town on the Atlantic coast. If you have a choice don´t go here! Definately not a tourist destination. We arrived to Comodoro at around 6:00am on Sunday. Because Argentinians don´t go home from the bars until after 8:00am there were a lot of people on the street still drinking. Not exactly what we wanted to have while we were carrying your big backpacks that announce we are touristw. It also wasn´t very encouraging when we walked up to the hotel where we were going to stay and saw two teenage boys smash the window and run down the street. This pretty much sums up the town. Smashed windows, spray paint on everything, and NOTHING to do! Luckily we only had to stay in the town one night.
We came to the city to find a decent camera, which we did. We were actually able to find one very similar to the first one that disapeared and it was reasonalbly priced. After that we found a small, 4 lane bowling alley where we were able to kill a few hour before dinner. It was a very primative bowling alley, no electronic scoring and there was a guy at the
Yeah! We have a car!
Atlantic on the left, a whole lot of nothing to the right!end who set up the pins after every turn. It is amazing how many things we take for granted in the US. After that we went to a great all you can eat restaurant. For $8 a piece we had all you can eat BBQ, pickled cow tounge (really good!), 3 kinds of calimari, stomach, other traditional Agentina sides. There was also your basic chicken and potato dishes, but that´s just not as fun.
The next morning we went out in search of a rental car. Luckily we were able to find one in under an hour and we left the dirty city behind. This is the first time we have been in our own car since Flordia! It was sooooooo nice to choose where we wanted to go, when we wanted to stop, and how long we wanted to spend somewhere. We drove south along the coast to the Petrified Forest. We only got lost a couple times. . . . I guess that is expected when you can´t find your map! We just got to see more Patagonia this way!
The Petrified forest was really cool and out in the middle of no where! There were
Rheas running away!
Matt liked to honk at them so they would run into the fences. . . . they all got away, don´t worry! many times when you could look out on the horizon and see nothing!. It was very strange transition since we have been in the mountians our whole time in South America. It is also super windy! At the top of a hill in the petrified forest the wind was blowing about 50-60 mph with 70-90 mph gusts! Needless to say we didn´t stay at the top very long. After the forest we drove a little further south to San Julian which is on the coast. On the way we stopped at the one gas station on the hightway to find they were out of gas and our car was on empty. They said a truck would be there in 1 hour, which ended up being 4 hours, but at least it came. Luckily we carry cards with us everywhere or it would have been a really long 4 hours. We had breakfast in town then next morning then hit the road to see more of Patagonia.
The ride the next day was 240km to dirt road. On the entire road we did not see another car. . . . it was really strange! However, we did see a ton
of wildlife. There were a ton Guanacos (related to the llama) and Rheas (look the ostrichs). We also saw a ton of sheep because they whole area was divided into private ranches. It was great to be able to stop and take pictures of the wildlife, something you can´t do from the bus. Matt kept trying to sneek up on the animals, but when you are driving on a gravel road and as graceful as Matt, that doesn´t work very well 😊
We got to the next town, Puerto Decando. It was another beach town with some amazing cliffs and a huge ship yard. Matt went and threw rocks in the water while I took some pictures before finding our campsite for the night. There were three Agentinians that were at the campsite to cook dinner and listen to American music. It was the first time we have heard good music in months, very refreshing. Matt went to compliment them on the music and they gave him a plate of their asado. . . yes, we got more lamb, beef and chicken slow cooked! Amazing! We traded them from some of our kabobs and then they gave Matt one
of their cds. We spent the most of the night talking with them, mostly in Spanish, before they invited us to a pool hall. Matt and I were finally able to put together a decent game of pool and the company was great! Definatly a great way to spend our last night with a car.
The next morning we headed back towards Comodoro we could turn in the car and catch a bus south to El Calefate. After a 15 hour bus ride we arrived to El Calefate the following afternoon. El Calafate has one of the only advancing glaciers in the world about 80 km from town. The town itself is completely run by tourism, which definitely has its benefits. We are camping at great hostel just outside of town. Actually it is pretty much in the town. We met another guy from Hood River here. Matt and I figure that of all the people we have met from the US in South America, at least 75% of them have been from Oregon. We are a little surprised there are people still living in the area. It makes sense though, this place is the ultimate playground for anyone
who is interested in outdoor and adventure activities.
The first night we got to town we went to an all you can eat Parilla. Yes, another all you can eat restaurant. But really, you can´t been all you can eat lamb, chicken, and local sausages for under $10 a person! Yesterday we went to the bird reserve on the lagoon next to the big lake. It was a nice walk by the water and we got to see a ton of the local birds, including flamingos! After that mat when to try his luck at fishing in the lake, which proved to be unsuccessful. Instead we cooked pasta for dinner and talked about home with Jonathan from Oregon. Today Matt is out trying his luck at hitchhiking to Rio Gallegos which is about 70km away. Hopefully he can get there and bring home fish for dinner.
We are looking to book a trip to trek on the glacier in the next few days. . . .we haven´t really gotten around to planning anything yet. After that we will probably hang around here for a few days before heading to Punto Areanas to see the penguins and Puerto Natales
to see the big ship yards. Then it´s off to Tierra del Fuego for fishing at the end of the world. It should be a packed few weeks before we head to Buenos Aires.
Here are a couple side notes about Argentina. We have been here for over a month now and there are a few things that are very different from the states.
1. Siesta- Every day all the stores close from 1:00 to 4:00 or 5:00 in the evening. This is great for the store owners, but it is not good if you a tourist. A lot of days this leaves you with NOTHING to do for a few hours. It is definitely not an easy custom to get used to. However, on the plus side, a lot of the stores stay open until 10:00 or 11:00 at night.
2. Apparently Argentinians did not get the message that fanny packs and mullets are not cool. . . . They are EVERYWHERE down here. I don´t get it.
3. When you order a sandwich it automatically comes without a crust. We don´t know what they do with all the crusts but we can only assume
they have the same fate as the muffin stumps on Seinfeld.
4. Food that is expensive in the states is really cheap here! Steaks- big steaks- are about $2 in the grocery store. 1 liter of red wine $.60-$1. Fresh bread from the bakery, about $1 a loaf. However, they don´t eat any fish except trout, their coffee usually has a ton of sugar already added, they will fry just about anything. Oh, and they don’t believe in spicy food, at all! I ordered pasta in Esquel that had a “picante” sauce. The waitress warned be about 3 times that the sauce was really spicy. . . . I could have added black pepper and made it spicier than it was. It is also impossible to find any hot sauce or pepper at the store, but they really like their salt and sugar on EVERYTHING!
Well, I´m off to enjoy the nice weather. We aren´t in the hot summer any more, but it´s sunny. . . probably more than can be said about Portland today. Matt is currently working on a blog about fishing, aliens, gnomes, and such. . . but there is a new river to fish
so it may be a while before he gets it finished, you know how he is!
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Aaron
non-member comment
Tree huggin'
now i've seen it all. oh. nice beard. hug a guannaco for me. sounds insane. keep it up.