February 6th 2015, Friday
It was around 9 pm when we got into town. Our hostel was pretty close to bus terminal, just a 4 block walk. We booked it through Rancho Grande, the place we stayed in El Chaltén, so the two hostels must have some sort of partnership. This one is called Calafate Hostel and it must have beds for over 100 people. It's huge! The bathrooms and shared kitchen can't keep up with the demand. Every time I got into the bathroom the toilet paper trash bins are overflowing and I refilling the toilet paper, regardless of which of the six stall I choose. We decided on the cheaper 6 bed dorm (150 pesos vs. 200 for a 4 bed dorm) and had to share with some very messy and not so friendly french girls. The room looked like they had just turned their bags over and dumped them out with a pile 6 feet across by 2 feet high between their beds. The beds themselves were comfortable, and I guess that's what really counts, but roommates sure are a big part of whether or not you enjoy your stay at hostel!
We had no desire to hang out in the room, so we searched happy cow and came up with a sushi restaurant a few blocks away that offered a veggie platter. We ended up loving the place! It is called Mt Fuji and is run by a very nice Japanese couple. We sat at the counter and each got a veggie plate, consisting of 12 pieces of veggie sushi, one of which had hearts of palm in it! Neat! We also shared a bottle of wine and got a red (adzuki) bean dessert with cucumber, and it was soooo good! At US$15 each we felt it was a good value and it got us out of our dorm room for awhile. (:
February 7th 2015, Saturday
We got up at 7 in hopes that would be early enough to make a plan of something to do for the day. We wanted to go see the Perito Moreno glacier in Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (South), but didn't have a plan of when or how. The glacier is 80 km away and shuttles are offered by the hostel leaving at 7:45 and 8:15. We weren't ready in time for the 7:45 one and the 8:15 one was full. It costs 300 pesos round trip to get out there, plus you have to pay 215 pesos to enter into the national park, at our current exchange rate that's about US$40 each, so it's not cheap! We had hoped we might find a cheaper way to do it, but it didn't look there were any other options. So when we found out there was a bus at 1 we decided to just go with that.
After we'd had breakfast we left the hostel and walked to a restaurant down the street called Pura Vida, that was supposed to be really good and showed up on Happy Cow as having vegetarian and vegan options. We wanted to see the menu and decide if there was anything we would want to eat. They had a basic menu posted on the door, and it looked pretty good so we decided we could go there for dinner. I spent the day with visions of corn empanadas, veggie stuffed pumpkins and eggplant pies dancing in my head, and couldn't wait for dinner time!
On the walk back to the hostel we saw a car rental place and decided to go in and see how much car rentals were. It turned out an economy car was 900 pesos a day, the same price as the bus tickets to the glacier for 3 people and with a car we could also go for a hike and stop for guanacos (they look like alpacas or llamas) if we saw any! We gleefully ran back to the hostel to see if we could cancel our bus ticket. Amazingly they let us! As we scurried back to the car rental place we spotted another closer car rental office, so we stopped in and were told there we no cars available anywhere in El Calafate for 2 weeks!! Doom and gloom set it in! Even though we were not hopeful, we still went back to the first rental office and we told they would have a car available at 7 pm the next day. That wouldn't really work out unless we pushed our flight to Ushuaia back another day, and we weren't sure we could do that without incurring a charge. So we went across the street to another rental office, Hertz, and they said they would have a car in 5 days. As a last ditch effort we went to the Aerolineas Argentinas office to see what the cost of changing our flight would be and it came out to about US$15, so we decided it wasn't worth it. Defeated we went to the bus station and repurchased our tickets and headed out to the glacier!
It would have been about a hour and a half ride, but it was extended by about 30 minutes, because of a couple who figured out they were on the wrong bus when we got to the national park entrance area! For all of the national parks, buses stop at the entrance and park officials get on and take payment and give tickets for park entry. So this Canadian couple was like: What the heck is going on? What is it we are paying for? they thought they were on the bus to El Chaltén! So everyone in the bus had to wait awhile while the Canadians, the bus driver and the park officials all went inside and decided what to do with them! The Canadians spoke no Spanish so when they got back they had no idea what was going on and I wound up having to talk to the bus driver for them and translate it back to them. They would have to spend the day at the glacier and return to town at the normal time and catch a later bus to El Chaltén. So they got a free bus ride to the glacier, which they had skipped because they didn't think they had enough time, and the park rangers felt bad for them and let them in free! How they got on the wrong bus and stayed on it for so long is beyond me, but their mistake worked in their favor this time! They seemed to be on the trip from hell, when they described to us some of the other bad things that have happened to them on their trip, such as getting pick pocketed in Buenos Aires. They didn't seem like the smartest individuals, but the driver was also a dummy and took their tickets (which clearly said El Chaltén) and luggage on a bus where no one takes luggage, so he was to blame as well. Jeff actually saw them with their bags before we got on and wondered what they were up to! He should have asked them!
Once all that drama was handled we got to drive the rest of the way into the park and to the glacier viewing platforms. By that time we had about 3 1/2 hours left there before the bus went back. There are around 4km of metal boardwalks built into the hillside overlooking the glacier, so we had time to leisurely walk them all and pause for periods of time to just stop and look and watch for calving and icebergs plunging into the water. It was more impressive than I remember from last time, this time was cloudy the last time wasn't, maybe it looks more massive when surrounded by clouds. The face of the glacier is in a horseshoe shape and is 5 km long, the rest of the width is 4 km and it goes 14 km straight back to the mountains then turns either direction and goes further into the mountains. The height of the face is around 50 meters, with another 180 meters below the water level, so it is truly massive, and it's not even the biggest one in the area! It can also advance as much a two meters a day! No matter where we stood on the viewing platforms, the view was awesome, and our 3 1/2 hours went by quick.
We got back to town just before 8 and in a starved frenzy we rushed over to the restaurant! On the more detailed menu that we were given once seated, I learned that most of the vegetarian options weren't vegan, including the corn empanadas that I wanted so badly!! Upon further investigation with the waiter it seemed that they couldn't make any of the meals vegan either so, it looked like we would have settle for plain old stir fry veggies and brown rice! That would have been ok, just nothing exciting, and nothing we couldn't make for ourselves. Seeing how disappointed I looked, the waiter came up with a suggestion! Turns out he is vegan too! So he suggested eggplant pie, which was like shepherds pie with mashed potatoes on top, but instead of the milky and buttery mashed potatoes, he suggested sweet potatoes, and that sounded better anyway! So it was once again a happy day! They refused to give us tap water, which seems to be a common occurrence in Argentina, only plastic bottled water, which I want nothing to do with. So we decided to try the locally made beer and that was very good. They also give homemade (small round) loaves of bread that we ate two of, they come warm from the oven! I have given up trying to eat gluten free, it requires more planning and deprivation to be gluten free AND vegan down here than I am willing to deal with, without really knowing for sure if wheat has any effect on me, so I've began eating bread when it's given to me for free! The eggplant pie ended up being delicious as well. The sweet potatoes were bright yellow and were some of the best I've ever had!
I wanted to photo the pie so I could post it on happy cow and leave a good review, and it was at this moment that I discovered my phone was missing! I must have somehow left it on the bus, still I do not know how. But I finished my food and left Jeff and Kirianne to handle the payment part and walked the 10 minutes back to the bus station and got my phone. I remained calm and it all worked out. Jeff gets very worked up, so I was glad it was me and not him!
With full happy bellies we reunited at the hostel and went to bed early. A good day was had by all.
February 8th 2015, Sunday
We awoke early yet again hoping to make a plan for the day. We wanted to go horseback riding, which was somewhat expensive (750 pesos) and we also wanted to go for a hike overlooking the glacier we saw yesterday. The hike is called Cerro Cristal and it is located in a small arm (called Lago Roca) of the large lake (Lago Argentino) that both El Calafate and the Perito Moreno glacier sit on and costs 300 pesos round trip per person to get to. This was why we wanted the rental car! (The lake is huge, the largest fresh water source on the continent!)
The weather turned out to be a little cloudy with some occasional rain clouds, so we ditched both of those ideas and decided to stay in town. Perhaps Jeff and I can do the hike if we come back through here in a few weeks. We found out about a possible hike in town (Cerro Calafate) from the guy staffing the front desk and I also wanted to go to a bird sanctuary in town called Laguna Nimez. So we were all satisfied with just staying in town and making cheap food in the hostel for the day.
We ended up spending 3 hours walking around the bird sanctuary trails and along the lake where it is possible to see flamingos in their native habitat! I bet most people have no idea flamingos are native to this area. For some reason they became associated with Florida and other tropical places. I wonder how that happened. We got rained on a little, but we got to pick and eat Calafate berries! They were very good, so sweet, but they have a lot of seeds and they badly stain your lips, teeth and tongue, so much so that there is no mistaking that you have eaten Calafate berries! We got to see a lot of neat birds, some hawk like birds called Chamangos, some black neck swans, bandurrias, geese AND flamingos! Plus the lagoon was very pretty with lots of nice flowers!
<The shore of Lago Argentino>
Once we were very hungry, we returned to the hostel. Jeff stayed in and Kirianne and I went grocery shopping. We got lots of produce for our lunch and dinner and for taking on the plane the next day. We also got some rose hip jam that we are very excited to try.
At the store we discovered that the soy milk comes in many different fruit flavors, such as Apple, pineapple, mixed fruit and orange. Orange was the only one without high fructose corn syrup, so we decided to try it. These flavored soy milks have been available in every store we have been in so far, we just didn't realize that they were soy milks, because the look like juice. The packaging says soy force and shows pictures of fruit. In Spanish soy means: I am. The word for soy is soja. So I thought that it was some marketing ploy to get people to think they would be strong if they drank the juice, "I am force," but it's a play on words that uses the word soy in both the English and Spanish meanings and it is also a marketing ploy, cause sugary soy juice will not make you strong! (:
We spent the rest of the day lounging in the common area and making food. The first meal was a garbanzo/chickpea scramble that I made using garbanzo bean flour. The flour can easily be found here because it's used to make a food called faina that is like a flat bread made out of the bean flour and water that is topped with caramelized onions. It would be a good vegan food and is easily found in pizza places. We haven't tried it yet, but mostly just because we haven't been in a pizza place. I made the chickpea scramble with flour and water, garlic, onions, red bell pepper and parsley. Then we topped that with a salad of tomato, onion, garlic, bell pepper and parsley marinated in lemon juice. And then we further topped it with avocado. It was nice.
Our later meal was lentils, polenta, onion, garlic, bell pepper, carrots, potatoes and butternut squash cooked stew style.
After dinner we took a walk back to the lagoon to see if we could get a closer look at some flamingos. On the way there a chocolate dog ran past us going the opposite direction. Jeff couldn't resist stopping it to pet it, as he was once the owner of a chocolate dog and has fond memories. It had a collar, and it was relatively clean, so it was someone's dog, so feeling it was a safe dog, Jeff started wrestling with it! Apparently the dog is deprived of attention because he got all riled up and started jumping around wildly and playfully biting Jeff's arm, which scares me! I have always been a little scared of dogs more when I was younger than I am now, but I am still scared of them, especially crazy dogs on the street! So Jeff tried to ignore the chocolate dog but he followed us on our walk for about an hour! Chocolate dog's energy levels remained high throughout the walk, even though no more attention was given. Jeff was fearful his expensive jacket might get ripped by teeth or dog toenails otherwise he would not have been able to resist continuing to wrestle! Chocolate dog began a series of elaborate antics in order to gain our affection, such as: making clouds of dust in the ground as he rolled around, running circles around us, flinging horse poo through the air as he tore through piles of it with his teeth, barreling into the water with a frenzy of splashing, harassing bird watchers and scaring away birds in the sanctuary! We could not shake the dog until we were almost back to the hostel, when chocolate dog was ran off by a pack of dogs from the neighborhood. About 6-8 dogs joined forces and chased him away, I guess they don't like him. The whole walk Kirianne was laughing so hard she was about to pee herself. It certainly made for an entertaining walk, but no close up bird viewing! Sadly I didn't get a photo of chocolate dog. My phone was at the hostel charging.
February 9th 2015, Monday
I made us all get up early today to go back for additional flamingo viewing, so we set our alarms for 6:30 AM. I just can't get over how neat it is to see flamingos, and I was hoping for a closer view!
For breakfast we ate the homemade bread that the hostel provides with our rose hip jam. It was very good, but tastes nothing like roses! I am sure Jeff was glad for that, but Kirianne and I both LOVE rose water. We also tried out the orange juice infused soy milk with corn flakes, also provided during hostel breakfast. It was pretty good, and we would probably drink it again, because it seems to be consistently available in stores. I wish the plain one could be found more often, and I also wish that the pineapple, apple and tropical fruit flavors didn't have high fructose corn syrup in them!
We walked for about an hour and a half to from and around the lagoon area. We again saw lots of flamingos and even a few in flight, but none very close. I almost got close, but they flew away at the last moment! I guess they enjoy their distance.
After our walk we packed up or stuff and took a taxi to the airport. We all were right at or just above the 15 kg limit for checked bags, but surprisingly the agent said nothing. We had to get rid of our canister of camping fuel, and that made me feel a sense of sadness and loss, but I hope it goes to a good home someday! Going through security I was denied access due to my camping fork and travel silverware set! Apparently I am not allowed to take a fork with me!! I found my folding camp fork at a thrift store years ago for 50¢ and it one of the favorite possessions, it comes with me everywhere and Jeff and I have ate many meals with it. And my travel silverware set was bought for me by May for Christmas a few years ago and my mom made a napkin and travel bag for it. It was given to me to replace a similar set that sadly got accidentally given to the thrift store at the end of the season in Alaska two years ago. So I wasn't about to just throw either of them out! I told them (in Spanish) that I have no problem on the airplanes in the US with my fork, but they weren't having it, so I had to go back to the check in counter and see if I could put get it put my checked bag. The check in agent was not helpful at all. I told him I couldn't get through security with my stuff and that I wasn't willing to throw it out and he said the checked bags had already gone away. So I asked if they could come back. And then he said that they went away in a truck. And then I said, well what am I supposed to do then! At this point an older British lady interjected and asked if I spoke English and when I said yes, she offered to let me put them in her bag, as she was next in line to check in. I told her that would make me very happy and was extremely relieved! So I made it though security at last and boarded the flight!
<My silverware that I got to keep thanks to a kind stranger!>
Good for you, for standing up to the airline people. How ridiculous. TSA tried to get me to throw away a small jar of jam. Instead, I walked back to the check-in counter in my stockinged feet (because my shoes had been sent through the x-ray) to make the airline put it in a small cardboard box (with padding) to check it as luggage.
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