Denouement Diaries - Week 3
Essentially the ramblings of two adults that probably require adult supervision.
As usual, follow along at:
And...here. Anyway let's get into it:
23/2/23 - Day 15 : Ushuaia + Isla Martillo
- Woke up and made some bacon on toast and had some sweet medialunas
- Wandered into the Centro
- Eventually found the nice little coffee shop
- Took three laps of the street to find it for some uncaffeinated reason
- Booked some more legs of our trip over coffee
- Wandered around town
- Lunch of empanadas from a little shop
- Ate down at the waterfront
- Then found our departure point
- Classic Argentina - no announcement, some dude just waved a bunch of us into a van, we had to ask for our own lanyard/tour ticket, no idea how long the bus would be, no guide
- Wound up at the Coast
- Chatted with a lovely Canadian couple through the trip
- Found our little boat
- Where a guide presented herself - who proceeded to not really do any guiding
- Boat out to the penguins
- Where it was all forgiven
- So cute
- Had a lot of fun watching them waddle around
- Was absolutely freezing cold
- Saw some seals out the back popping their heads above the surface as well
- Boat back
- Bus back
- More chats with lovely retired teacher Canadian couple
- Dropped off in Centro
- Cab home
- Cooked and ate whatever we had left
- Bed
24/2/23 - Day 16 : Ushuaia - El Chalten
- Woke up, packed, cleaned up whatever we had to clean
- Messaged our host about where to leave keys etc
- About to leave as we head outside
- Cold rain
- Host please could you order us a taxi
- Thanks
- Taxi up the mountain to a nice little cafe for breakfast
- Then basically to the airport for a travel day
- Chilled after checking in
- Boarded
- Awesome view of Ushuaia at takeoff and flying over the city and into the mountains
- Short flight
- In to El Calafate
- Kill time waiting for our bus
- Bus ride fine
- Martian desert landscape
- Arrived at bus stop, hostel very close walk
- Arrived and idiot Luke is surprised by the fact that when we agreed to sleep in a 4 person hostel room it would probably involved 2 other random people - because 2+2 = 4
- On arriving, really wasn’t super keen for that any more
- I think I am just too old and boring for that
- Decompressed over dinner, empanadas and bife de chorizo por supuesto
- At hostel, sorted private room for next 4 nights, showers and off to bed with two girls from Buenos Aires
- We awake at 0100 to the sound of a dying boar taking its final breaths on earth. Apparently one of the BA gals is the WORST SNORER this side of the equator...
- This continues until 230am, Casey wanted to slap her awake
- Casey did her Duolingo for the day, Luke just doom scrolled to the soundtrack of a demon being dragged across brimstone
- El snorer went to the toilet and we had about 10 minutes to pass out before she summoned Beelzebub again
- Awoke at 630 again with her final roars but she left early - and a 9am wake up was achieved
25/2/23 - Day 17 : El Chalten
- First stop was an ATM
- Need to stock up on cash
- And keep experimenting with the blue dollar rate that it seems to spew out at
- So we processed 6 withdrawals between us of 10,000 pesos each
- The official exchange rate says that it should have cost us 457 AUD
- But we have literally only had 267.50 taken out of our account
- An example of the discount for 'bringing' foreign currency into the country?
- Strolled down the Main Street looking for a cafe for some breakkie
- Casey runs to the first one that says huevos
- We get eggs
- And cafes
- Then wander up the Main Street seeing what there is to see
- Book ourselves a little horse riding session for Monday
- Then wander to a little trail head
- About 4km up to view Fitz Roy and a mountain lake
- Start the walk
- Quickly remove layers as it was such a nice day and we started to warm up
- Amazing scenery
- Mountains are incredible
- Saw woodpeckers, some sort of bird of prey and a deer
- Pretended to be a woodpecker to make Casey laugh
- Back down and knackered
- Found a little restaurant on the walk back and ordered a stack of empanadas for lunch
- Then back to the hostel, grabbed our bags and moved into our new private room
- Which is awesome - private bathroom, big bed and windows looking straight out at the mountains with some viewing chairs conveniently arranged
- Chilled
- Washed
- Some snacks from the close grocery store
- Casey has got me into watching ‘You’ (second season only, never saw the first)
- Best part is - don’t have to listen to a backpacker snoring...
26/2/23 - Day 18 : El Chalten
- Woke up and had our now included-with-private-room breakfast
- Some cheeky medialunas and coffee
- Then wandered up the Main Street to find a little tour kiosk
- Booked ourselves a boat and glacier tour for Tuesday
- Then back south out of town, via some more cash out at an atm, for a walk
- Saw a condor straight away
- Pretty easy walk
- But howling wind
- Nice views of the mountains
- Back down and grabbed some lunch
- Casey booked a sauna/spa date as well which caught me by surprise
- Scarfed down some empanadas
- Sauna, spa, clean
- Chilled in our room
- The weather got worse
- Wind picked up, then started raining
- We had thought about finding dinner in the Main Street, but ended up just having dinner downstairs as very easy
- Watched a boxing fight on TV in the bar over dinner
- Then back up to our room to chill, read, watch stuff
27/2/23 - Day 19: El Chalten + El Relincho
- Up and breakfast downstairs while waiting for our horse riding pickup
- Tito arrived, waved us into a minivan
- Just us
- Drove south out of town, was nice
- Then pulled off the road to a little house with a stable
- Absolutely gale force winds across the pampas
- Put on some leather guards
- We’re shown our horse
- Then begun
- Trotted out
- Farm dog in tow
- Saw little rabbit things, llama things, and cows and sheep of the farm we were riding on
- My horse was funny - would just decide to stop and have a drink or graze at random times
- Rode out across the farm
- Brought some sheep back
- Had a gallop to finish
- Eyes are stinging from the wind
- Bread, meat, cheese and coffee in the little house for us
- Then minivan back
- Washed some sandblasted dust off face
- Then went to find some good wifi and coffee
- Did some booking
- Downloaded some shows - trying to find some things with Patagonia theme
- Had a bit of a siesta and veg back in the room
- In the evening wandered down the street to organise a packed lunch for tomorrow
- And grabbed a pile of empanadas for dinner
- Empanadas and ‘You’
- Sleeps
28/2/23 - Day 20: El Chalten + Lago Del Desierto
- Very early start
- Fit in coffee in medialunas before 07:30AM pick up
- In to van
- Cold
- Dark
- Rainy
- Picked up a couple other people around town
- Drive north
- Gravel track
- For about an hour
- Then about a 20 minute boat ride on Lago del Desiertos
- To a little camp in the forest
- Sorted out some paths we might take
- Set off
- We naturally put our ponchos on, took them off, put them on, took them off then gave up
- Stupid ponchos
- Casey broke hers straight away
- Walked to a nice lookout
- Then up to an amazing glacier view
- Back down to the little camp
- Lunch of our weird bathroom cooled chicken sandwiches (Additional note: we didn't have a fridge in our room at this point so obviously the best way to keep food cool was to leave it in the bathroom with the window open, and just shut the door to the bathroom. We fashioned ourselves a cold room. Stupid.)
- And hot chocolate
- Did not die from the chicken sandwiches
- Boat back down the lake
- Another walk to another glacier lookout
- Even better
- Heaps of large very well dressed Europeans struggling on the trail
- Back down
- Van back to El Chalten
- Home
- Rest
- Takeaway empanadas from the restaurant downstairs
- Started watching ‘Mountain of Storms’
- Sleeps
1/3/23 - Day 21: El Chalten - El Calafate
- Travel day
- Bit of a sleep in
- Packed up
- Downstairs for breakfast
- Then walked down towards the bus depot
- Stopped at a cafe on the way
- Got some fruit and coffees
- Then found the bus
- Got on
- For some idiot reason we decided to ignore our ticket numbers and sit in a random spot
- Which we were promptly kicked out of because…we were in the wrong seats…
- Idiots
- Took our seats
- Settled in
- Ride through the desert
- Around the lakes
- Uneventful into El Calafate
- Grabbed a cab
- Found the hostel
- Went for a walk
- Found lunch of oily pizza and gnocchi
- Booked a glacier tour
- Tried to find a spray jacket in case we get rained on with our glacier tour
- The prices literally start at about $400 AUD
- Insane
- Decided we will just risk it
- Coffee shop
- Power went out so they could only make us one coffee
- Walked to lake
- Cold
- Found another coffee shop
- Power went out, back on, out again, back on
- What gives
- Apparently nationwide blackouts because the state run power company is failing
- Very South American
- Nice coffee though
- Walked home via a little market for some tomorrow food
- Hostel
- Wash clothes
- ‘Clarksons Farm’ on Prime
- Sleeps
Stay tuned for more...