Kat and Ben go gaucho

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We ditched Punta Arenas (being a little afraid of the more expensive prices) and legged it up to Puerto Natales. This town is nothing special, but it is an ideal base to either catch the Navimag ferry further up into Chile or to visit the Torres del Paine national park.

The navimag was broken or something, so we weren´t going to catch the ferry for another two weeks. The weather forecast was pants (snow to sea level etc) so we ditched on seeing the park too. Both me and Ben came down with colds so we jumped on a bus and headed for El Calafate.

El Calafate has quite a nice feel about it. It sits on a nice lake, and has an obligatory national park and glacier nearby. If you go for a walk around town, you end up with 5 or 6 dogs following you. (Well we did anyway - maybe we smell suspiciously like steak...)

We went on a horse ride with a couple of Gauchos (Argentinian cowboys) and 11 of their dogs. I don´t think I have ever laughed so much at once. My horse was brilliantly behaved, but it insisted on being at the front and wasnt afraid to gallop to get there. Ben´s horse was a nasty little beast that had a tendency to bite other people´s horses and kick out its legs. It pretty much ignored Ben and walked wherever it wanted.

Afterwards we sat in the Gaucho´s cabin, drinking mate (pronounced ´mar-tay´) and looking at their random collection of animal skins and strange torture devices. The gauchos reckon they use their traps more to catch women these days, there being a distinct shortage of them. It seems there are about 6 men to each woman in El Calafate. Lucky girls!

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Photos

Ben the dog whisperer
The dog that brought down the puma...

Perito Moreno Glacier
A whopper - we watched bits of ice carve off all day. Totally mesmerising

Comments

[Di]

horse women
Can't believe you would actually stay on if your horse galloped to the front Kat!good thing you had a bit of practice on Solomis!