Blogs from Santa Cruz, Argentina, South America

Into the twilight zone. Dusk and dawn, the bookends of dreamworld. Where desires and destinies might dance and duel. Where you can't go, unless you have gone. And it is still only 50° south of the equator. The same parallel, on the Arctic side, as London, Kiev, Vancouver, with Moscow, Berlin and Stockholm etc even further north. Yet this is already 1,776km further south than Cape Town (34°), and 444km beyond Invercargill (46°), New Zealand's southern tip. A reminder that the globe is somewhat top land-heavy. Would not physics prescribe the ball folllowed gravity and rolled over so the continental chunks of Asia, Europe and North America could play ballast to the sphere? Fickle cartographers, indeed. Comandante Luis Piedrabuena, a little village, population 6,000, named after an Argentinian nautical pioneer of the Patagonian re... read more

So instead of going all the way to the tip of the continent, we instead turned around and headed up route 40 to visit Patagonia, the huge region that tends to border Chile all the way up until wine country. Our first stop was El Calafate, recommended by cousin Mike and hugely popular for both international and Argentinian tourists for the giant glacier. When we got into town we were immediately charmed by the wide array of boutiques. There they have a local berry, the Calafate berry. We were able to taste an Alfajor (omnipresent cake available in all flavors that you can find just about everywhere in Argentina, either in Industrial or hand made form, I became quite addicted to these) made with these berries. Also remember those cute Guanaco's? Yes we did try a ... read more

Bonjour à tous, Hier au soir rien de rare, un peu fatigué, je ne sais pas pourquoi, peut être la journée de navigation, pas le courage de retourner dans le centre pour manger, je vais au resto, juste à côté de l'hôtel, 50m, je voulais manger léger, et le boss me propose mouton grillé, je lui dit que je n'ai pas assez faim, il me propose une demie portion, pour un demi prix. J'ai bien eu droit à la demie portion, sur laquelle il n'y avait pas grand chose à croquer, par contre le prix lui était entier. Je m'y attendais. Avec une bonne discussion et la menace de le faire savoir à l'hôtel il a tout de même divisé le prix en deux. C'est pénible de toujours se battre. Ce matin le minibus est à ... read more

Bonjour à tous, Ce matin au petit déjeuner je discute avec Jean Baptiste, le gérant de l'hôtel, et il me dit qu'il est né à Lyon à l'Hôtel Dieu. Curieux de croiser au fin fond de la Pampa argentine, un lyonnais. Son père était étudiant en médecine en France avec un stage à Lyon. Curieusement il n'a pas la double nationalité. Pas comme certaines qui viennent accouchées en France uniquement pour ça. Suivez mon regard. Mon souper hier au soir, pas terrible. Je pense être tombé le mauvais soir, tous les guides en fond des éloges, "mes strasbourgeoises" aussi. Je choisi pour changer, de l'agneau à la broche, j'en profite pendant que je suis en Argentine. L'expression que la peau et les os prend ici toute véracité, en plus mal cuit, et tiède, et la taille ... read more

R: It feels a bit odd to be writing this during the coronavirus lockdown, but it makes me glad that I've been able to do this trip, and to think about all the things I may be able to do after it all ends. Anyway. This was the big one - the last full day of the organised part of the trip. This was the longest walk of the trip - 20km in total over steep ground in places - some of us had been looking forward to it, some had been dreading it. We had been told the night before to go and find sustenance for the day which I should really have done the day before, but I was on a long walk, so I didn't get time! I headed to a small supermarket ... read more