Saturday, February 28th 2015
This morning we got up early, ate some overnight oats (with inferior made in China canned peaches) and walked the 30 minutes to the bus station and took the 7:30 bus to El Calafate. At this border crossing, we were amazed at how more orderly and quick it was! To exit from Chile we had two other buses in front of us, so our bus attendant guy told us all to go take a rest at the nearby store. The border is in a small town called Cerro Castillo, so there are a number of snack stands conveniently located. This is also the place where we took a long rest break on the ride back to town from Torres del Paine. When our turn came we all lined up inside and for our stamps, then re-boarded the bus and drove down the road to Argentine customs. We got there just as the other buses were leaving, so we all went in and got entry stamps. No baggage x-Ray like on the trip from Ushuaia. Quickly we were on our way again. It was a nice day out and from a long distance we had a clear view of the Torres del Paine.
The ride ended up being 1 1/2 hours longer than we were told it would be, so we arrived to town very hungry. We headed straight for the sushi place that we ate at last time. We had miso soup, veggie sushi platters, hand rolls (with hearts of palm, cucumber and avocado) and red bean dessert.
We decided we would go camping tonight to conserve money. The first place we tried was 100 ($8) pesos per person to camp in the yard of this huge hotel. It seemed kind of expensive, since the hostels are only 150 ($12) pesos here, but we went as far as starting to set up the tent, then changed our minds when we smelled dog poo and also noticed we were right next to the bbq area. It is Saturday night on the last weekend of summer vacation for locals, so we though a campsite next to the bbq might be noisy. So we packed up and left for Hospedaje Jorgito, a small house that rents out rooms. We were able to camp in the yard there for 75 pesos ($8) each under neat cherry and plum trees. We also had access to bathrooms, showers and an outdoor kitchen.
After our tent was set up, we went back out for bus tickets to El Chaltén and to the grocery store to stock up for our upcoming trek into Chile and to buy food for dinner. We had our most expensive grocery trip yet, at about $35! It was about 5 days worth of food and way more than we were able to purchase in Chile, and it made us wish we were staying in Argentina a little longer.
We spent our evening lounging in the yard, which we had to ourselves. We got ourselves a liter of the 89¢ wine to share and prepared a nice meal in the outdoor kitchen. Pumpkin cubes, corn and beets were boiled in water, then mixed with a vinegar softened salad of cabbage, avocado, bell pepper, garlic and onion. We've really been enjoying these simple meals. Taking whatever we can get from the store ad making it into something good, healthy and cheap!
Sunday, March 1st 2015
It rained a little overnight, so we had to pack up a wet tent, which is never a whole lot of fun. Then we had about a 15 minute walk to the bus station, with Jeff stuck carrying our giant box of food. We boarded the bus and departed town at 8.
We slept a lot of the way. And upon arrival to town about 2 1/2 hours later, everyone on the bus was forced off at the ranger station and made to go inside for an informational talk about hiking in the park. We had read in our guide book that they did this with incoming buses, but had never actually experienced it, silly it should happen on our 3rd visit to town.
By 11 or so we had arrived to the terminal and were off walking to the nearest hostel we could find, Condor de Los Andes. This is a very popular hostel and is usually booked up, but with high season (January & February) being over, we were able to walk in and get a bed without a reservation! We got stuck with a more expensive room at 230 pesos ($18) each for a 4 bed dorm with private bathroom. It was windy and rainy out and we didn't desire to walk any further with the big food box. They told us if we wanted to move to a cheaper room tomorrow we could, it was 30 pesos less for a 6 bed dorm and shared bathroom. In addition to moving all of our stuff, we'd also have to remove our sheets from the current bed and neatly tuck the cover blanket back in and then make a new bed, so we decided it wasn't worth it. This is how it works at most hostels, you are issued sheets at check in and you give them back at check out, the blankets are probably never washed. Our private bathroom is a joke! The toilet sits at an angle in one corner crammed in next to the shower and you must sit with the sink in you lap and the shower leaks all over the floor. The shower at least has a curtain and floor partition. Plenty of showers down here are nothing more than just a faucet coming out of the wall, the whole bathroom becomes the shower stall and everything gets soaked, including the toilet and trash can full of poo paper! Sometimes there is a squeegee for mopping up such messes but other times there is not.
After we were all settled we walked down the street to a tour operator called Zona Austral that specializes in the border crossing across Lago del Desierto. They provide the transportation to the lake and were able to give us more detailed information about it, and show us maps of the route, as we still didn't quite understand how it works. We now know you take a mini bus for 260 pesos ($20) 1 1/2 hours to the lake. From there you can take a boat across the lake for 420 pesos or you can walk for 5 hours the 15km length of the lake. At that point you get your exit stamp from Argentina. You can camp there and then the next day you walk 22km through forest to the next lake, Lago O'Higgens and the small settlement of Candelario Mansilla where about 10 people live and you can get your entrance stamp from Chile. From there you wait for a ferry that comes twice a week, Wednesday and Saturday, delivering supplies to the various settlements around the lake. The ferry costs about $80USD. So it would be an expensive trip and it was also forecast to be so windy that the ferry might not be able to operate. We decided to re think our plans, as it would we unfortunate to walk almost 40 km and pay $20 for the bus ride out there only to be stuck for days in the wind in rain or have to come back to Chaltén.
While at the travel agency we noticed that they change dollars to pesos at a rate of 12.5 to one, which is better than anywhere else in town. We last changed money in Ushuaia at a casino at a 13 to 1 rate and didn't change anymore before leaving there since the plan had been to go into Chile. So it's nice to know we can change money without getting ripped off too bad.
Back at the hostel I found many nice things in the free food bin in the kitchen. I made us a strange sounding stew of brown rice, lentils, onion, carrot, tomato, apple, garlic, pickles and pasta sauce. It was surprisingly good and the only items we actually purchased were the onion and carrot, so it was a cheap meal.
We spent the afternoon going over plans and ultimately decided we should just stay in Argentina like we had always planned, since it's so much cheaper for us than Chile is. The only bad part is that we have about $300 worth of Chilean pesos and we would take a huge loss trying to change them to Argentina pesos, so we may just save them for a future trip.
After lunch we went back to the bus terminal to buy bus tickets to go back to Bariloche, a 20 hour ride. But it was siesta time! We had to come back at 5.
We got back to the terminal just minutes after 5 to find ourselves stuck in a huge line, consisting of 2 sets of couples, plus a rowdy group of 14 Israelis in front of us! With only one ticket seller we waited in line for an hour. When it was our turn, we were informed there was only 1 seat left on the next bus (tomorrow night) to Bariloche! The bus leaves at 11 pm and arrives the next evening to Bariloche. If we wanted to first go back South to Calafate we could get on a bus to Bariloche from there, but that would include a 2 1/2 hour $20 bus ride in addition to a longer 23 hour ride on a less direct route to Bariloche. Very frustrated, we stepped out of line, and fell into a pit of despair. It was time to rethink everything again!
<More on Israeli travelers: they travel in large group and are usually very loud and rowdy, have no sense of personal space or what is socially acceptable/rude behavior, they leave messes at hostels, they are generally very young, having been recently released from the obligatory army service, they are budget travelers. These are broad generalizations, and not all of them are awful, but they are not a joy to be around, and most non-Israeli travelers don't enjoy being stuck in a bus, campground or hostel full of them. When they talk, which is generally always loudly, to us it sounds like phlegm being cleared from the throat.>
After lots of planning and reading and headache we decided we would go with another bus company (Chaltén Travel) on the first bus out to Perito Moreno. This is a small town about half way between Chaltén and Bariloche and it has a single attraction, some ancient cave paintings, Cuevas de Las Manos. We could leave on Tuesday and ride overnight to Perito Moreno, arrive in the morning and go on the cave tour that day and take the bus the rest of the way to Bariloche the following day, Wednesday. This sounded much better than staying in Chaltén any longer with the cloudy mountains and wind and rain that was forecasted.
Because it is Sunday, we couldn't book the cave tour through the travel agency, because the tour operator in Perito Moreno was closed. So we bought the bus ticket only, to ensure we would actually be able to get out of town! We will have to go back tomorrow and book the tour and onward bus ticket from Perito Moreno.
For dinner we ate left over lunch stew with canned peas added and a side of bread and jam from the free bin. We did not go back out and we are going to bed early.
Monday, March 2nd 2015
This morning we went back to the travel agency and scheduled the cave tour and the bus ticket the rest of the way to Bariloche. The bus drops off and picks up at a hotel in Perito Moreno and we were able to book dorm beds in the hotel from the travel agency too, so that was nice. It is a good feeling to have everything taken care of!
With our plans finally solidified we wanted to make reservations for a hostel in Bariloche. The satellite wifi here in town isn't barely works. I am able to receive iMessages from May and Shannon and sometimes can download new emails, but not send them, and no web pages can be opened. (hence the delay in posting any new blogs). We knew that Rancho Grande Hostel, the place we stayed last time has two hard wired computers that sort of work, so we headed over there to give it a try. We walked in like we owned the place and no one seemed to notice us. It is a large hostel with many beds, and the people at the desk would have no way of knowing who is actually staying there and who is not. We went directly upstairs to the computers and were successful at booking a nice hostel for Bariloche. In our way out we checked the free food bins in both kitchens and found a head of garlic. On the walk back to the hostel we stopped at the grocery store and got a tomato as the first broccoli of our trip!!
Most of the rest of the day was spent in the hostel feeling depressed. We had the rest of today and tomorrow to sit around. For lunch we ate stir fried potatoes, carrots, garlic, onion, tomato, broccoli, and broccoli.
After hours sitting around I did a few of the workout apps I had downloaded before coming on the trip. They work without Internet, which came in handy. And Jeff went for a walk around town and the river in the windy uninviting outdoors. On his walk he found a nice beer store, so we went and purchased some when we got back.
For dinner we shared 2 liter bottles of locally made beers and ate peanut butter, banana, avocado and hot sauce sandwiches.
Today we had to check out of our hostel by 10 AM, so we woke up early and had breakfast. Normally I look forward to free breakfast, but the one at this hostel is more crappy than usual. Most hostels in town don't include breakfast, so I guess it's better than nothing, but maybe not! Breakfast includes: tang, coffee, tea, hot milk, sugar and plates of french bread with individual (wasteful!) butter and (high fructose corn syrup) jam containers.
After we were all packed up, we placed our bags in the common area. We decided we couldn't take another day sitting around the hostel, even though it was still pretty crappy looking out. So I made us some peanut butter, banana, avocado and hot sauce sandwiches (sounds awful but it's one of our favorite sandwiches!!) to go and we set out on a walk up the road to a water fall. It only took an hour of walking, first through town, then on the road leading West out of town to get to the waterfall, Salto del Chorillo. It was a nice roaring waterfall, bigger than we expected. It seemed to be running very full, as did the nearby rivers. It wasn't raining much, only sprinkling and the wind wasn't too bad, although there were some pretty good gusts on the way!
On the walk back we stopped at Rancho Grande the hostel we stayed at last time we were in town and checked the free food bin and found some crackers. After that we decided to go back to La Cervecería. This is a micro brewery in town that is very popular and well liked. We came here with Kirianne and had a waitress with a bad attitude, and as a result, we didn't enjoy it much. We thought we'd give it a second chance and we are glad we did. We had a wonderful waitress this time and really enjoyed our food. We both got a plate of oven fries with homemade ketchup and zesty mayo dip and two darks beers each plus some free popcorn and really good veggie soup in a tiny cup that was also free and we hadn't expected to get!
We left the restaurant around 2:30 ish with a nice buzz and wanted to go to the grocery store, but it turned out to be siesta time, when a lot of stuff closes up for an afternoon break. Siesta time drives us nuts, because we always forget it exists until we get somewhere and find it to be closed. So we went to La Chocolataría, an artisanal chocolate shop and café and shared a few pieces of homemade chocolate. We very much enjoyed the chocolates and felt like fancy tourists out for an afternoon on the town!
After chocolates, we went for a walk up a hill that Jeff discovered on his walk yesterday. We ended up on a hill on the north side of town. It was still fairly windy and occasionally a few drops of rain fell, and the mountains were still cloudy, but we had a nice time, and we were the only ones up there!
By the time we were done with our hike (2 hours later) siesta time was over and the store was open again. I got two bananas for our breakfast or possibly lunch tomorrow and Jeff got a Chaltén sticker for his water bottle. We had successfully used up the day without spending any time sitting around the hostel, and we had fun too!
We had just enough time to cook dinner at the hostel and, walk the 5 mins to the bus station and board our 8 pm bus. Dinner was brown rice, carrots, onion, garlic, red bell pepper, tomato, canned peas, apple and avocado with chimmichurri sauce. Everything but the carrot, onion and avocado came from the free bin! So our meal probably cost us about $1.25 and was quite delicious and satisfying!
Now we are on an overnight bus to the town of Perito Moreno. For the 3 days we were stuck in Chaltén, the wind howled, it rained and the mountains never came out. Makes us feel all the more grateful for the glorious weather we had on our last two visits to town! The town is quite a gloomy place in crummy weather. It was kind of neat to see the way the town is transformed with the weather, although it wouldn't have been neat if we were among the rest of the travelers that have never had the pleasure of seeing the mountains!
Wednesday, March 4th 2015
The bus arrived to the Hotel Belgrano in Perito Moreno at 6:20, over an hour earlier than the expected time of 7:30. So getting our shoes back on and all of our stuff was a bit rushed. It was still darkish out, but the hotel was open and we had a reservation. We expected to just sit in the lobby for awhile, but after only a few minutes sitting, we were approached by the owner, who informed us that there was space for us to go to our room! We were very pleased, as neither of us ever sleep well on the semi-cama (half bed/lounge chair seat) bus. We are staying in a dorm room, but it's not like the typical dorm, since this is really a hotel. There are 2 sets of bunk beds, but so far we have no roommates. The room also has a private bathroom, which is something you would normally pay extra for at a hostel. And at 150 pesos ($12) per person it's the cheapest place we have stayed yet! High season is officially over (as of March 1st), so hopefully the prices of dorms will be going down.
Our tour to Cueva de Las Manos (Cave of the Hands) was not scheduled to start for a few more hours (9:30), so we tried to get some sleep, but were mostly unsuccessful. After awhile we got up and had leftover french bread (from the free bin at the last hostel) with chocolate peanut butter, strawberry jam and apple slices.
Our guide showed up a little late, even though the tour company is across the street! We were accompanied by another young couple that were from both Germany and Luxembourg. We rode in the guides personal Totoya Hilux 4WD pickup truck. Jeff took the front seat and in the back I sat three across with the other couple. At first the guide was really awkward and spoke in Spanish even though 3 out of the 4 people in the truck said they didn't speak Spanish! Eventually he began speaking English once he realized they really didn't speak Spanish! And so began a lovely day!
The sky was blue with wispy clouds and it was warmer than we have felt in quite some time. But the best part was no gusting of wind! For that, we will not miss Patagonia!
Jeff chatted with the guide, while those of us in the back struggled to hear. But we didn't really mind. We were enjoying the desert like scenery of scrubby plants, rolling hills, rock formations and far off snowy mountains. We also had the pleasure of seeing guanacos and choiques (small ostrich-like birds) up close for the first time! The guide stopped a couple times for us to take photos.
We drove back South on a newly paved section of route 40. After about an hour we turned off onto a dirt access road for Estancia Cueva de Las Manos. The cave is located on ranch land and we had to stop and pay an entrance fee. From there we had about another half hour to drive on the dirt road. Just before the end of the road, we stopped at a pretty view point for a river canyon and we could also see Mt San Lorenzo, the tallest of the nearby Andes Peaks at 3,700 meters (over 11,000 feet).
At the end of the road, we got out of the truck and walked down into the river valley and then back up to the opposite canyon rim. From there we were near the entrance of the cave and waited for the next tour to begin. There is one every hour. While we waited we looked at some informational signs and ate our lunch of over night oats with bananas, raisins, chia seeds, chocolate chips and shredded coconut. A cat came to visit Jeff while we sat and crawled up on his shoulders and stayed there like a scarf for awhile.
The tour involved walking down a trail along the edge of the canyon with a guide that is stationed at the caves to several fenced in viewing areas, one of which was at the mouth a a shallow cave. The cliff faces were covered in prehistoric paintings of hands, mostly left hands, which meant mostly everyone was right handed, just like they are today! But there were a few right hands painted and even a 6 fingered hand! There were also painting of guanacos and a few other animals and abstract designs. The painting are believed to be from 4 different periods, with the oldest being over 8,000 years old! All of the "paint" was made of natural pigments from minerals in the soil. We saw some of this multi colored dirt near where we exited the highway, so these native people had to travel quite far on foot with the material to make the paint. The dirt was mixed presumably with guanaco fat to make a liquid and then blown through bones to make a negative imprint of the artists hand. Some of the art, especially those in the shadows were as dark as if they were painted yesterday! It was pretty amazing to think about.
We got about an hour to walk along the length of the cliffs that contained art, then we retraced our steps back down the canyon and over to the other side where the truck was waiting for us.
We got back to town around 5. Since this is a hotel and not a hostel, there is not kitchen for us to use. It was still very lovely outside, so we took our camp stove and went up to the roof of the building to cook dinner. We sat on the ground on our z seats (foam cushions that zig zag fold up) and boiled potatoes and carrots (cut up real small for quick cooking), and mixed that with instant polenta, canned peas, hot sauce and chimmichurri. It was a fine meal!
After dinner we took a stroll around town. There was a nice public park with a path around a small pond. It is common in public areas to find work out equipment for common use, so we had fun trying out some of the machines. Sometime I will take a photo of some, but today I did not. After the loop around the park, we walked a ways down the Main Street and explored the grocery store (which I always enjoy!) then walked back through the neighborhoods. This is a nice little town, and we have enjoyed the stop off here. Most people just ride through on the bus, but it was nice to stop.
It is now 9:30 and we still have no roommates! We are going to bed and look forward to laying flat! We will be up early to catch the bus back to Bariloche at 7:45.
<Looking at the Cueva de Las Manos from the other side of the canyon>
<The area with the heaviest concentration of hands, usually the area that is seen in photos!>
Thursday March 5th 2015
We had a boring day today riding the bus for 12 hours from Perito Moreno to Bariloche. Our drivers took many rest stops prolonging the day. Usually the buses don't stop at all, there are generally two drivers that switch off and there is a bathroom in the bus, so there isn't a need for stops. What was supposed to be a 25 minute lunch stop in the middle of nowhere (Gobernador Costa) turned into an hour. In our boredom we ate a bunch of bakery items during the stop and a whole package of cookies once back on the bus, and proceeded to feel like garbage. They showed two movies, Grown Ups 2, and a really strange one called Let's Be Cops.
We got into town a little after 8. We are staying at Hostel 41 Below. The 41 refers to our latitude, 41 degrees below the equator.
We changed some money this evening the back room of a souvineer shop and were surprised to find it was a worse rate (12.4!) than Chaltén!
We had dinner at Ren, the vegetarian take out place we ate in many times during our last visit. We had more junk food and feel further crappy!
The handprints are really fascinating. Great idea to stop in this area.
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