Day 306
Wednesday 2nd January 2008
El Calafate, Patagonia, Argentina
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Freezing cold..but not like it is in Chicago! Brrr...it sounds cold there Kate...???Well below zero..! Hard to believe we were there when it was a heatwave and a guy died in the chicago marathon from the heat!
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Breakfast ended up being as miserable as our German, now American, friend told us! Three tiny 5cm squared bits of toast cooked one side in a triangle on a wire toaster! With a black cup of tea! And...after we ate it, we found out it cost us 10 pesos each!
Our first venture in El Calafate - to go to the supermarket and stock up with breakfast bits so we can make our own! The hostel has a tiny kitchen that we´re allowed to use so we´ll make the most of the one bowl, 2 forks and 1 knife we found in the cupboard. We decided we´d make our own lunch and eat out for dinner. After receiving our dinner bill last night at La Lechuga and battling to find a table and eperiencing the inflated prices of a now popular tourist destination buying one meal is enough!
The bathroom at our hostel is downstairs and doesnt have a shower curtin, so we have a flood in there each time we shower..and the floors creak and are paper thin so we can hear all the sounds created throughout the whole hostel!
We finally resolved the inner conflict about our accomodation by looking for some more today! However......the whole town is booked out! So..we shouldn´t really be complaining..we feel lucky to even be here. We got the last two seats on the plane..and were lucky to get accomodation at the hostel as they have a sign out the front saying ´completo´! We´re not grumbling now tho..we feel glad we´re here!
It´s so weird..this town is an unknown place it seems. At least prior to 2002 it was. IT seems this place was only reserved for the likes of Bush and Stallone prior to then. With the devaluation of the pesos travelers and tourists have now discovere they too, can come here!
The place undercaters tho. There are definitely not enough restaurants, phone booths, banco´s or hotels and hostels to cater for the inundation of tourists!
And what they do have..is open ALL THE TIME it seems! Last night we left to go to bed after midnight and the shops and restaurants were still open. Same today...the night just never came. Midnight comes..and it´s still light. It´s very unnerving!
The town here is very quaint. A bit like Norway really..has lots of ski shops and chocolate shops and tourist type shops and restaurants that have fireplaces. One peculiar thing you see in restaurant fronts is beef carcasses on a rotisserie being cooked by a fire below. It almost looks barbaric. I couldn´t eat from that! The steak (bife de lomo) here are so succulent and beautiful though..as it seems to be all throughout Argentina!
And this town is full of dogs! And they roam freely..and they are very well fed..and very friendly. YOu can tell the place has wealth when the town has healthy stray dogs! We have the banco dog who seems to sleep there at night to keep warm..and particular dogs that wait outside their own territorial restaurant! So funny...I will post some pics of these lovable dogs...we´ve become friends with our hostel dogs!
Another way we´ve decided we can tell the state of the wealth in the town is whether there are beggars or not! And this is the first place that the beggars are predominantly canine! There are no people begging here!!!!
We booked a tour for tomorrow. Here in El Calafate tours have to be booked the day before only. You can´t book ahead. It´s due to the changing weather..as it´s so unpredictible. It´s difficult to even look at a weather forcast and believe it to be true. It could be raining, snowing, sunny or any of these conditions all in one day.
Our tour is to go on a land and ice trek to Perito Moreno..Gerg is REALLY looking forward to it. I´m not. I am shaking in my boots and feel a sense of trepidation about the ice trek. I know we have to hike on ice..and having never done it..i´m worried i won´t be able to do it!
But i will try..
And who knows, i might surprise myself. Tomorrow will tell.
NB Still can´t get used to the sun going down so late!!!!
