on our way to the bus station in El Chalten, we met Agni, Ariel and Leila, who also took the "doomed bus" on the Ruta 40. The 5 of us decided to rent a car together and about 1h after our arrival in El Calafate, we had found a hostel and booked a car!
We went for a ride around El Calafate and took a few pictures of the turquoise blue lake Argentino near the town. It is a great feeling to know we can go where we want when we want and pay less than if we had taken the bus :)
On the 6th, we all woke up early to beat the crowd at Perito Moreno and enjoy the views alone without 2,000 tourists next to us. Perito Moreno is the main attraction near El Calafate: It is a huge glacier (30km in length) located about 80km west of the town. It is hard to describe the views and even the photo cannot do it justice.
Our plan came together as we saw many buses full of the oldest tourists we've seen in weeks making their way to the glacier as we left. Well done team!
Being as free as condors, we decided to head to Lago Roca, south of Perito Moreno to enjoy the Patagonian wind and wilderness. It took a while to get there and we kept thinking of "not flipping the car" as the first thing the car rental agent said to me was "Hola, if you flip the car, it's 10,000 pesos, if you damage anything else, it's 5,000 pesos." I had never ever thought about flipping a car before. Until this day.
El Calafate is a nice place but it is very touristy and there is not much to do, so we had booked our tickets back to Bariloche for the 7th. What we didn't know was that the bus company was ... MARGA! AAAAAaaagghhhh!
Glad to see you were able to catch up with Leila, Agnetha and Arielle. We must have just missed one another in Calafate. I stuck around for a couple of days - went back and did the 'Big Ice' trek on the glacier after spending an afternoon walking the boards.
ReplyDeleteBack in London now after a few days down in Ushuaia.
Have a great trip. I'll travel vicariously via your blog in the meantime. Fingers crossed that your future bus trips are less eventful - how was the second Magda/ Taqsa trip?
Nigel
It has a while since we heard about you guys. Photos are still awesome. As of today, you have crossed the Chilean border and moved across the Atacama desert. Looking forward to read your updated journal...Later.
ReplyDeleteDad
hey Nigel, it was great to meet you.
ReplyDeleteshame we missed each other in el calafate. good luck with your new job and let's catch up when we come back!