Day Seventy Four--Monday--March 7--Torre del Paine--El Calafate--El Chalten, Argentina
The day started out very tranquil. I woke up around 7:15 and pulled the curtain open to see the beautiful sunrise. Then went back to sleep for 45 minutes.
My ride was leaving at 9:00 and all I needed to do was have my bags at the reception area and have breakfast. I knew it was going to be a long day of sitting.
I walked around a bit and found these lovely horses and then the gaucho trying to gather the horses up.
It was another glorious day. One last thing I needed to visit at the hotel was their organic garden. Most of the vegetables served in the restaurant are grown here.
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| organic garden |
I was so glad I came here even though it cost me more than I’d planned for it was extremely worth it.
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| the bar area |
This was one of those “once in a lifetime” visits. This is nature at it’s best and I hope it will remain this way.
There was only one other man going back to El Calafate with me today and not nearly as interesting as my friends from Brazil on the way to the hotel.
The drive to the Chilean/Argentina border seemed much quicker today. It only took about 1 1/2 hours. It’s the craziest thing when you get to the border. The Chilean person can take you over the border but can’t take you all the way into Argentina. I’m not sure I really understand the entire situation but it’s very odd.
So when we arrived at the border, the driver told us to go inside the shop and have a coffee because the other driver would be here in 20 minutes.
We went inside the shop and I saw the same Argentinian driver who brought me from El Calafate the other day. I asked him if he was going to drive me today and he said yes.
I saw he was doing some business and then the Chilean driver said o.k. let’s go.
We walked into the Chilean immigration office. The Hotel driver gave the officer some papers, of which I had no clue whether or not they had anything to do with me or him, then the immigration officer stamped my passport. After this we got back into the Hotel van and drove to the Argentina border office.
This crossing took much more time than when I crossed before, probably 1/2 hour longer. Again, the Hotel driver and the Argentine driver gave the border/immigration officer some papers then they asked for my passport.
The hold up here was there were more people trying to cross the border with their own cars so they had lots more paper work.
When we were done in the Argentine border office I thought we would get into the other driver’s car, but no. We got back into the Hotel van and drove for about 5 minutes to where the Argentine driver was waiting for us. The luggage was switched and off we went. Bizarre. The Argentine driver told me it would be about 3 more hours to El Calafate.
We arrived into El Calafate about 1:50 p.m. and he dropped me at the bus terminal because I was to take the 6:30 bus to El Chalten.
The man who rode in the van from the hotel told me he had been to El Chalten before coming to Torres and took the same bus I had already bought a ticket for on Chalten Travel. He also said the bus ride with Chalten Travel was terrible; the bus was old, noisy and stopped an hour from El Calafate to let people use the bathroom because there wasn’t a toilet on the bus. Then he told me there was another bus company, that cost the same, with a much newer bus that had a toilet and arrived into El Chalten 1/2 hour earlier (because it didn't have to stop). Well I’d already purchased my ticket and didn’t want to waste it.
When I arrived at the bus terminal I saw there were other bus companies going to El Chalten and Bariloche. (After all I went through to change my airplane ticket because of the bus not having a bathroom and now there was another bus company that also went to Bariloche. I didn’t want to know if they had a bathroom on their bus.)
I walked over to the Cal-Tur (the other company the man told me about) stand and saw that yes, the price and times were the same. Well, I still decided that I would use the ticket I had. Big mistake.
I went to the Chalten Travel stand and told the man I had a ticket for the 6:30 bus and asked to leave my luggage.
He said "yes, come around to the door and you can leave your things."
I had over four hours to wait as it was only a little after 2:00. On the way to the bus terminal I’d seen what looked like a nice restaurant at the bottom of the hill. I decided I would go there and see if they had wi-fi so I could hang out there for a few hours.
I needed internet to try find a hotel or apartment to stay in Buenos Aires for Saturday night and I wasn’t sure if I would have internet in El Chalten. I knew for sure I wouldn’t have cell phone reception. I was in my quasi-frantic mode as I surfed the internet looking for a place to stay. It’s harder in a big city because it’s just that, a big city. Although I’ve narrowed it down to stay in Palermo, a woman I met in Torres who lives in Palermo told me it’s also a big area. There were many choices but I was also looking to take Spanish classes for a few weeks and hoping the school would be able to help.
Well, of course I was trying to do this at the last minute so I cause myself more grief than is necessary. I am definitely sick of this part of travel. It’s been nice for the last week that I haven’t had to make any arrangements since Ushuaia.
I did some research about Buenos Aires while I was in Ushuaia and again in El Calafate but didn’t come up with anything. Well I did find some apartments but then came up with the idea to take a Spanish class for a few weeks. Most of the schools offer help with accommodations and I figured that the accommodations would be relatively close to the school. I found a few schools in Palermo and contacted them. So I was waiting to hear from them about accommodations for the two weeks I was planning to spend in Buenos Aires.
I ended up spending my entire 4 hours at Viva la Pepa, the restaurant I’d seen on the way to the bus terminal. They were very nice and yes had wi-fi. At first I sat down and ordered a cappuccino, since I wasn’t hungry. The hotel in Torres had given me a bag lunch for the ride back, which I’d eaten at 12:30.
I talked with one of the girls working at the restaurant and told her I was waiting for the bus to go to El Chalten. She told me El Chalten is a favorite hiking place for people who live in El Calafate. She also told me that climbing FitzRoy was very difficult. I told her I just climbed the towers at Torres and she said the hike up to Fitz Roy was just as hard and long. She told me the last part of the Fitz Roy was also straight up. She asked if I had any photos from my hike so I showed her. When I showed her the steep hill at the end of my climb she said it was just like that at the Fitz Roy. Well maybe I won’t be climbing the Fitz Roy. I think there are many other easy hikes in El Chalten, well that’s what I’ve heard anyway.
Around 4:30 I ordered a cheese and tomato crepe because I knew I had a three hour bus ride and wouldn’t get to El Chalten until 9:30 p.m.
So the day was fine until at 6:00 p.m. I left the restaurant, walked back to the bus terminal and saw the OLD Chalten Travel bus sitting next to the NEW Mercedes bus for the Cal-Sur bus company. I had a sinking feeling about this but there were lots of people on the Chalten Travel bus so I was going with it.
Sitting on the Chalten Travel bus I kept looking over at the new Mercedes bus thinking, why am I not on that bus. It has a bathroom and it’s going to get to El Chalten 1/2 hour before this one. Well I didn't want to make myself crazy over it, as I'd made my decision and here I sat.
The bus driver pushed the button to close the door but it wouldn’t close on it’s own and he had to get up and manually close it. This was not a good start. Then as the bus started to move the noise of the changing (maybe grinding) gears was not a good one. Five minutes into the ride I’m thinking, “is this bus going to make it?”.
Not only was the bus noisy, it didn’t sound good.
After about 1 1/2 hours we stopped at some camp ground that had a restaurant and toilets. When everyone got back on the bus we had an extra rider, a young man from the campground hitched a ride on the bus and sat next to the bus driver.
A few minutes after we left the campground the young man said something to the bus driver about the smell coming from the bus, wondering if something was wrong. The road started to get steeper and my worry over getting to El Chalten was increasing rapidly. I started to imagine where we would spend the night because if this bus didn’t make it there is no way anyone could come to get us. There was no communication available out here. No cell service and now we were very far from any place.
The driver pulled over, got out with this young man, and they walked around the bus. They got back in and off we went. The smell did go away but the noise was still not good. I was praying the entire way and happy with each sign I saw that the kilometers were reducing to our arrival.
Well we arrived in El Chalten at 10:00 p.m. at the bus terminal. I was told when I bought the ticket that the bus would go to a hostel that was 200 meters from the hostel I’d made a reservation at.
After a few minutes a woman came on the bus to tell us that if you were going to the Rancho Hostel you could stay on the bus because it would go there in a few minutes. I told her I was going to the Patagonia Hostel and she said I should stay on as well because my hostel was 2 blocks from the other one.
The bus driver came back to the bus but we weren’t moving. Now there was a young man sitting next to me, who spoke English and said he was just glad that the bus made it here. No kidding, I was thinking the same thing. Anyway a few minutes later we were told to get off the bus that the bus was broken. No kidding.
The woman called me a taxi and I finally arrived at my hostel at 10:30 p.m. What a day.
After dragging my luggage up to the door of the hostel I saw a sign that said “Hostel Full”. My heart dropped and prayed they would honor my reservation. I opened the door and went to the desk. No problem, they had my reservation. Fortunately, I’d e-mailed the hostel and told them I would be coming late on the bus. A very good thing I communicated.
The nice young lady at the desk walked me to my room. It was fine, clean and I was happy to be here.
Can’t wait to see what the town and Fitz Roy looks like.
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