Day 305
El Calafate, PATAGONIA, ARGENTINA South America
This morning we packed up our stuff and headed for the south pole!!!!! Greg´s ¨dream place to go¨ and a place to go if you can´t ACTUALLY go to the South Pole! And a place where he says the earth is being shaped by active glaciers. (He´s hoping to get inside a glacier....god help us!)
Well, close enough anyway!
El Calafate is far down the south of South America.
It was a bit hard actually getting to the airport tho..because on New Years Day not a soul wants to work! (not that i can blame them!) so the taxi service was light on. There was a taxi driver in the reception of the hotel who was waiting for his wife who worked at the hotel and he said..¨No working today!¨ He did try to help us by ringing his company but no one was interested there either.
Finally we headed out to the main street and found a willing driver. We got the airport thinking we had four hours to wait (Check out was 10.30 so we headed straight out after that!) We arrived at 11.30am..only to find it was really 12.30pm! Argentines somehow changed their clocks on the 30th December and we weren´t aware of it! We were glad we were there earlier..and glad we only had 3 hours to wait! It was a lot cooler in the airport anyway!
At 4.30 pm, half an hour behind schedule, we took off. El Calafate is about 3 hours 15 minutes flying from BA and about 3000km south of BA. We had our coats packed ready for the cold...but when you are in extreme and muggy heat that BA was...it´s hard to believe we were going to be cool for a change!
As we were landing at about 7.30pm we could see the Patagonian desert. Everything looked completely barren. The closer to the ground we got..the more we could see lagoons and glaciers. The lagoons and rivers were a beautiful aqua colour....so blue and green with white snowy bits peeking out...Very icy looking.
El Calafate airport is small. The planes are small that land as well, holding about 100 passengers on board.
It cost a standard 50 pesos for a taxi into the main centre. And it´s about 30km´s from the airport. We passed some pretty remote hostels and thought...gawd we hope we´re in the centre of town and not stuck out on the outskirts..we were not planning to hire a car or anything!
Our hostel is pretty central. BY the time we checked in it was about 8.30pm and still light! We asked when the sun goes down..and the lady at the reception said it went down at midnight and came up again at 4am!!!! No rest for the wicked here!
We were so hungry as we hadn´t had a proper meal all day (the plane only had a sandwich) so the first thing we did was head for Avenida del Libertador, the main street in El Calafate! The street where everything happens!
On our walk to Avenida del Liberador we saw everyone donned with their fleecy coats, hats, scarves and gloves. We were underdressed..still in Buenos Aires weather.
We soon realised we should be heavier dressed..and will be in future!
The columbia ski and ornament shops were still open and the restaurants were open..but FULL!
New Years Day is their busiest tourist day.
We thought uh, oh, it´s going to be horrible. And busy.
After trying to get money out...we fouund they were empty! (NY DAY!)
We tried to use our mobile to message home, only to find there is no telstra reception here...we thought..well, we have to find a restaurant that takes credit..or we´re ruined!
One thing we noticed as we were doing all this was...There was a dog in the Banco..shivering in the corner just staring at us..we thought how cold it must be for all the dogs out and about...but i guess it´was warmer than he would be if he was outside! After that, we noticed there are lots of dogs in el calafate!
We were lucky because we went to the first restaurant and she told us to wait for 20 minutes...but we thought we´d try a few others..and ended up coming back to the first restaurant and by then..20 minutes later..there was a table for two available!
Dinner, as usual in Argentina, was just a gastronomical delight! We had a chicken and mushroom dish and a picada (plate to share) and shared the both..with a bottle of cab sav which was yummy too...and finished it off with a whiskey icecream with nuts..each! Talk about forgetting our resolutions to eat only salads!!!!! Who can do that when it´s freezing!!! We were able to pay it in cash as it was less than what we thought....hope the cash machine works tomorrow! We still have to pay the hotel..and as usual, they, like everyone else, likes cash only!
At 11pm we walked back to our hotel..it was STILL light as day. So weird. It prevented us from feeling tired so when we got back to the hotel and the tv was showing CNN in English, we joined the german guy there watching it and chatted with him for an hour or so...
He filled us in on the pitfalls of Calafate..he´d been here a week and was leaving the next day.
Breakfast was apparently pitiful....the hotel staff are not trusting as they lock up the cutlery and crokery (not a good sign for a hostel!), the ladies in our room apprently got flea bites or bed bugs or something but our room had been cleaned up before we came (!)
But, he said, the tours are good....
And that´s what we came for!
To see the Los Glaciares National Park and especially the Perito Moreno Glacier (one of the most visited in the world) and the Cerro Chaltén and Cerro Torre...
Tomorrow we investigate the tour situation! You know..the tour that Greg wants to go on...the one where you actually WALK ON THE GLACIER!!!
Will let you know how that goes.....!
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
NEW YEAR IN BA!
Day 304
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WIll post pics here but forgot the camera so will add them later!
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Last night was our last night in Buenos Aires. It was also New Years Eve!
New Years Eve is different in BA. The streets are really quiet. IT´s like everyone is preparing for a big night..and they were! Bars were back up on the buildings in San Telmo..and people were quietening down.
We tried to find an open post office to send some of our travel paraphanalia back home so our packs were a little lighter but nothing was open. All public buildings and a lot of restaurants were closed for the afternoon.
We had planned to go to the famed BA cemetery where Argentine notables including Eva Peron (Juan Peron is at a different cemetery?) but it was SO hot we decided to leave that excursion until we came back in a couple of weeks.
We ate dinner at a restaurant in Avenue Florida and then staggered back to our hotel room perspiring from the incredible stifling heat! If was 37 and humid.
At 11pm we heard all the fire crackers start going off in the street so we quickly packed our books away and headed straight out to the San Telmo streets, on our way to the market square.
People were letting firecrackers off in the streets..gathered in small groups on the outside of their homes. They were getting louder and more prolific. There was an hour to go...but it was heating up. It was mainly kids letting the firecrackers go, in tins and other homemade crackers with the parents watching. Some were huge. There were some professional looking ones going off as well.
They don´t have a huge fireworks display like we have! It´s all homemade and every house has a small group of people letting them off. I guess we have the big show because home firecrackers are illegal!
When we reached the Square there was a lot of music...a couple of flutists and drum players and people singing..and lots of people drinking but no one was unruly. IT was an organised chaos really! BUt exciting...
We joined in the dancing...and had such a great time soaking up the atmosphere. At about 10 to midnight there was a bit more fervour to the drum playing but that was it...nothing more. People just kept dancing and celebrating and a few of us kissed at midnight! A girl saw us taking our own picture and took a great pic of us...the first (of many! ha!) for 2008!
ANd that was New YEar....a great Buenos Aires party in the Square!
At about 1pm we decided to head to a pub to find a agua (water) and the only thing available was beer...so....with our resolutions out the window, we sat in the pub and drank beer. We headed home about 1.30pm and collapsed into bed..it was still about 30C and hot!
We knew we were heading to the cold the next day..so were we worried!???
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WIll post pics here but forgot the camera so will add them later!
**************
Last night was our last night in Buenos Aires. It was also New Years Eve!
New Years Eve is different in BA. The streets are really quiet. IT´s like everyone is preparing for a big night..and they were! Bars were back up on the buildings in San Telmo..and people were quietening down.
We tried to find an open post office to send some of our travel paraphanalia back home so our packs were a little lighter but nothing was open. All public buildings and a lot of restaurants were closed for the afternoon.
We had planned to go to the famed BA cemetery where Argentine notables including Eva Peron (Juan Peron is at a different cemetery?) but it was SO hot we decided to leave that excursion until we came back in a couple of weeks.
We ate dinner at a restaurant in Avenue Florida and then staggered back to our hotel room perspiring from the incredible stifling heat! If was 37 and humid.
At 11pm we heard all the fire crackers start going off in the street so we quickly packed our books away and headed straight out to the San Telmo streets, on our way to the market square.
People were letting firecrackers off in the streets..gathered in small groups on the outside of their homes. They were getting louder and more prolific. There was an hour to go...but it was heating up. It was mainly kids letting the firecrackers go, in tins and other homemade crackers with the parents watching. Some were huge. There were some professional looking ones going off as well.
They don´t have a huge fireworks display like we have! It´s all homemade and every house has a small group of people letting them off. I guess we have the big show because home firecrackers are illegal!
When we reached the Square there was a lot of music...a couple of flutists and drum players and people singing..and lots of people drinking but no one was unruly. IT was an organised chaos really! BUt exciting...
We joined in the dancing...and had such a great time soaking up the atmosphere. At about 10 to midnight there was a bit more fervour to the drum playing but that was it...nothing more. People just kept dancing and celebrating and a few of us kissed at midnight! A girl saw us taking our own picture and took a great pic of us...the first (of many! ha!) for 2008!
ANd that was New YEar....a great Buenos Aires party in the Square!
At about 1pm we decided to head to a pub to find a agua (water) and the only thing available was beer...so....with our resolutions out the window, we sat in the pub and drank beer. We headed home about 1.30pm and collapsed into bed..it was still about 30C and hot!
We knew we were heading to the cold the next day..so were we worried!???
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