It is a two pronged flight — the first leg being from Buenos Aires to Bariloche (where we will return to after our time in El Calafate). From Bariloche, we then fly to Calafate without having to even swap planes! We even get breakfast AND lunch (which is more than we can say for Air Canada!).
We meet Mary-Ellen from Perth, Australia on the plane. She has been adventuring around Bolivia, Peru, Chile, and now Argentina. What surprises us the most though is that she barely speaks a lick of Spanish and yet has managed just fine the entire time. How is this so we wonder?!?! With a shrug of her shoulders, she matter of factly states that everyone seems to speak some English! Ummmm, what?!? Is it just Buenos Aires or is it us? Perhaps our lack of proper Spanish is masked by our very authentic accents?
The landscape flying to Patagonia is dramatically different than what we've experienced these past two weeks in BA. It starts as vast stretches of dry arid looking farm land. Then some green starts to creep in. Then the land begins to look carved and crater like with many lakes pockmarking the surface and mountains rising up in the distance. The mountains get closer, the lakes get larger and yes, snow begins to appear. We see very few cities/towns from the air, and even less roads. This is the Argentina we've been so excited to see. If the views from the plane are any indication of what's to come, our trip to the National Park/Glaciers tomorrow should prove to be very exciting!
We meet Howie and Nina from Toronto as we disembark from the plane and after a quick search through Keir's bag (by the customs officers of course!), the four of us share a cab to the hostel. It's a zippy ride through the desert like surroundings as the cabbie zigs and zags around every other vehicle on the road.
Thinking that we have a coupon for our ride, we are surprised when our taxi driver chases after us complaining that we have short changed him. We hold up our coupon and engage in a back and forth verbal dialogue only to realize that we've been duped (apparently, it is only good for a reduced rate ride BACK to the airport, however nowhere does it actually say this). We preserve and telephone the taxi service back at the airport, but that is a losing battle too. The kind woman at the hostel desk nods her head knowingly. "You never want to take a taxi from the airport," she says. Lesson learned.
It is also much colder here. The high today was a mere 3 degrees. This is the winter we missed! We spend some of our first hours wandering the main drag of Calafate looking to replace yet another pair of sunglasses that Jenn has lost (!) and quickly notice that this place is expensive. We cross our fingers that we'll have enough layers to stay warm here because having to buy anything else would be quite costly!
We quickly notice that it is a very different feel in town. There is money here. And a glowing casino. The main street is lined with outdoor stores, travel agencies (peddling their adventure trips around the area), chocolate shops and tacky souvenir places. Some roads are paved, many are not. It's like the wild west. There are buildings half constructed and a sense of unfinished business as if El Calafate is still in the middle of a growth spurt (or perhaps even at the beginning of?!). Still, a fairly low key vibe permeates. We have the feeling that the whole place is in a kind of exhale, now being at the end of its busiest time of year.
After the frenzy and smog of BA though, it is all such a pleasant change!
(The early morning view of the morning sky. This is after 8:00 a.m. Yes, we are indeed less than 1500 kms from Antarctica. The sun doesn't get up and rolling until almost 9:00 a.m. and never quite makes it overhead before dropping away by 6:00 p.m.)
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