I'm not sure how this whole blog thing is gonna work. I've kept a diary off-and-on for years but would never consider posting it on the web - I can't think of anything worse.So it might take me a while to figure out what I put here and what goes into emails. Part of the attraction of a blog is that it might also minimise the amount of time I spend sitting in front of a computer... Or not?
I also want to post pictures as I go too, but due to inevitable technical issues - most of the computers I've come across are encased (like this one) making it impossible to plug in a USB cable. They are also far too old and shitty to have a USB on the front. So pictures to follow.
El Calafate, Patagonia
I arrived here yesterday yesterday after a sad farewell with Clancy at Buenos Aires airport. She is now back in a freezing cold London (a long story).
The flight from Buenos Aires was just over 3 hours (covering about only half the length of the country, it's a big place). Unfortunately it was cloudy and I didn't get to see the Andes. Flying into Patagonia I was blown away by the sheer size of everything, as if it is all somehow on a much bigger scale to anything else I've seen. The hills and the lakes seem impossibly big; the landscape is dry and barren, covered only by rocks and scrub, and seems to go into the distance forever; while the water in Lago Argentina is such a vivid aqua-marine that it almost looks as though it has been contaminated.
El Calafate is a curious little town, totally reliant on the ermerging tourism industry for its survival. Its kind of how I imagine Queenstown in NZ about 20+ years ago. All the shops are either restaurants, travel agencies or gift shops. New buildings are going up all over town, many of them in a faux Swiss-chalet style, unfortunately. Amongst the visitors there is so much Goretex on display it probably makes the town a fire risk (assuming Goretex is flamable). Tomorrow I'm gonna check out Glaciar Perito Moreno, the area's main attraction, and then head to El Chalten for some trekking - a 2 dayer and a 3 dayer.
This morning, thinking ahead - I need to work out how I am going to get out of Patagonia (all the flights are full and ridiculously expensive) - I went to make a booking for the Navimag ferry from Puerto Natales to Perto Montt in Chile. At the ofice I learnt that it has broken down and no one knows when it will sail again. They are not even taking bookings at the moment. There is a particularly helpful message on the Navimag website. Amongst travellers here there are all sorts of rumours about what's happened to the ferry: it crashed, the engines caught fire etc etc.
One other thing...
I've developed a small fascination with the Falklands since I've been here. I've noticed on all the Argentine maps I've seen, including those in the Aerolineas in-flight magazine, that the Islas Malvinas (Falkland Islands) have the annotation: (Arg.), rather than (U.K.). A pretty big claim considering the events of 1982.
Hasta luego
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