Denouement Diaries - Week 4

Denouement Diaries - Week 4
StableDifusion Prompt: "Denouement Diaries. Essentially the ramblings of two adults that probably require adult supervision. Ethereal. Dreamscape."

Essentially the ramblings of two adults that probably require adult supervision.

As usual, follow along at:

And...here. Anyway let's get into it:

2/3/23 - Day 22: El Calafate + Perito Moreno Glacier

  • Snack breakfast in our room
  • Outside for minivan pickup at 0900
  • Picked up some other people around town
  • Then about an hour drive towards the glacier
  • Annoying stop for another mandatory national park permit that was not included in the ticket price
  • Continued on
  • Down to where the boats are docked
  • Wet and freezing
  • Onto the boat
  • Only about 800m along the lake until we come across a megalithic glacier flowing out into the lake
  • About 40m high at the shore, 60-70m high at the snout, a couple of km across
  • Unbelievable
  • Boat back to shore
  • We see some radnom couple obviously tasting some 'glacial water at the dock - straight from the lake - but we are at a dock, with multiple boats, that are clearly diesel powered
  • They aren't just drinking glacial water
  • They be drinking diesel...
  • Then bus up to the boardwalks were you can get a different perspective
  • Looking down on the glacier
  • Seems like its right there
  • But its so massive that the perspective is warped
  • Wandered around watching chunks of ice calve off into the lake
  • Listening to sounds like explosions and gunshots as the ice moves
  • Amazing
  • We are now glacier people
  • Had a couple of coffees
  • Bus back to town
  • Dinner next door to our hostel - empanadas are never a bad choice
  • Documentary on animals in Patagonia
  • Sleeps

3/3/23 - Day 23: El Calafate

  • Sleep in
  • Breakfast at a waffle place across the road
  • Bacon and eggs for me, literally ice cream and Oreos for Casey
  • Wandered along the main street
  • Found a taxi
  • Out to the Glaciarium, a glacier museum/educational exhibit that is in the middle of nowhere like a Bond villain hideout
  • Was really good
  • Glaciers are awesome
  • We are glacier people
  • More coffee
  • Taxi back to town
  • Lunch down the street - steak and veggies
  • Back to the hostel to chill and digest
  • Very relaxed afternoon
  • Decided to just have dessert for dinner at the restaurant near us
  • Poached fruits, ice cream, cinammon pastries
  • V good

4/3/22 - Day 24: Laguna Nimez

  • Woke up around 945am
  • Had a very funny laugh in our stupidly small children’s beds
  • Went all the way (30m) across the road for breakfast waffles - much delish
  • Booked the next 3 weeks in good wifi - up to Brazil!
  • Then walked to Laguna Nimez - protected part of Lago Del Argentino
  • Beautiful 5km loop of birdwatching - saw flamingos which was the highlight!
  • Then went to small park - excellent overland truck driven by French family “XTG” parked there
  • Walked back to Don Luis pastry shop and got some churros and got drinks - delish
  • Walked home and Casey watched animal documentaries and I did some busywork
  • Then went and had fantastic dinner at the place from last night
  • Casey called her fam and then watched a documentary and packed for 2 x flights

5/3/22 - Day 25: El Clafate - Buenos Aires - Bariloche

  • Annoying start when checking out of the hostel and paying
  • Paying at the end so that the business loses less in inflation in the interim compared to if you had paid at the start of your stay or when booking
  • Booking.com gave us a USD number to pay - which I had
  • We are shown some enormous number of pesos to pay
  • As if we had Liberia’s deficit worth of pesos in our pocket by chance
  • Nope. We pay in USD please
  • Eventually we pay
  • But we are very sure we underpaid
  • A direct result of hostel staff having to do multiple currency conversions between USD, ARS and ARS blue currency street value
  • The currency here is rubbish
  • But, the taxi driver who we had booked days ago simply by a verbal agreement was there exactly on time on a Sunday morning to take us to the airport
  • Argentina, the land of contradictions
  • Ok first flight down - another fart tube with people coughing up lungs but fine
  • Then transfer in Buenos Aires
  • Which took an age to get a boarding pass
  • Because the online booking thing sent me two boarding passes for Casey and none for me
  • Amazing
  • So began another chapter of 'lining up in Argentina'
  • It’s just dysfunctional
  • Perhaps less adult naps and less constant talking on WhatsApp would result in less lines…
  • Hard rock cafe to chill out with good music after the line
  • Another line to get on to the plane
  • Good grief another round of applause has broken out with a successful landing at Bariloche
  • Eventually found a cab at the front of Bariloche airport
  • Had what seemed to be Sebastian Vettel drive us to the hostel
  • Which was lovely
  • Super functional and professional with 24hr front desk staff
  • Dumped bags and walked a block down to 'Papagoonia' to grab some chori
  • Awesome food while watching a Phil Collins concert playing over the sound system
  • Excellent

6/3/22 - Day 26: Bariloche

  • Breakfast in the hostel - excellent - included
  • Wandered around the Centro area
  • Saw the little German town square
  • Museum of Patagonian history
  • Cafe for chocolates (which this place is a bit famous for) and planning
  • Booked a transfer out to some national park for Wednesday
  • Planning on some mountain lookouts tomorrow
  • Back to the hostel
  • Casey got organised for some Pole time
  • Walked her about 200m down the road to the pole gym
  • Picked up Casey
  • Empanadas for dinner
  • Watched 'The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent' which was fantastic
  • Chilled
  • Then Casey had another pole session
  • Crazy lady
  • Home
  • Then helplessly overhearing some couple in the room next door argue about something well towards midnight - put one down in the bingo for 'not gonna make it'
  • Sleeps

7/3/22 - Day 27: Bariloche

  • Rolled out of bed
  • Big breakky
  • Strolled into town
  • Found a place we could buy a ticket to get us up a chairlift
  • Grabbed a maccas coffee - weird and not great
  • Casey found a jacket
  • Back to ticket booth and on to a bus
  • Short ride
  • Cable car station
  • Argentinian lines
  • Into cable car
  • Up the hill
  • The top was weird - sort of just rundown with all the machinery and maintenance requirements of a mountaintop cable car station/restaurant being in the way of the view
  • Casey found a bit of a better view
  • We had a look at a weird Italian art gallery thing which was basically just remakes of statues and photos of artworks and Italian streets apes
  • Really weird
  • Bugger this
  • Back down the cable car
  • Probably just missed the return bus
  • Waited 35 minutes for the next bus
  • Some crazy old man busking with an accordion while we waited
  • Bus back to town
  • Lunch at a place called ‘Friends’ which was great
  • Then to a massive ice cream and pastry place with a ice skating rink inside
  • Shockingly slick and professional and functional and excellent ice cream and coffees
  • Walked back to our hostel
  • Chilled because sugar coma
  • Into the afternoon read and played some card games
  • Then walked Casey to her next (of many) pole dance class
  • After which we had dinner again at 'Papagoonia'
  • Good food
  • Choripan

8/3/22 - Day 28: Bariloche + Nahuel Huapi Nationa Park

  • Up a bit earlier to make sure we had breakfast before we were picked up for a transfer to the national park
  • It arrived on time
  • Into the van
  • Usual thing where the van roams around picking people up from other hotels
  • The driver is the guide
  • And he speaks no english
  • And he has not stopped talking
  • We measured 11 seconds as the longest silence
  • We get to some sort of national park entrance
  • Fees that are not included in the transfer booking price - suprise suprise
  • We are expected to pay 50% more for national park entry fees because we are foreign
  • Nope
  • I pay the local rate with my best Argentinian accent
  • Bullshit rule
  • The transfer turns into something we were not expecting
  • We are basically just on a massive drive along a gravel track that stops every half hour or so for a 10 minute photo-op
  • And we are not the only van
  • There are convoys full of Argentinians
  • And Argentinians absolutelty love taking photos of themselves
  • They are running to get photos in front of - pebble beach, bridge, lookout, jetty, glacier lookout on side of road
  • Eventually stopped at a place to get some lunch
  • We are pretty un-thrilled by this boring drive at this point
  • Have some lunch
  • The drive continues
  • Eventually we get to a really cool hanging glacier with a black glacier below it
  • It is legitimately spectacular
  • We wander around the draining streams and look up at the waterfalls from the melting glaciers falling out of the sky
  • Massive mountains
  • Unfortunatley, the good stuff was at the end of the road
  • So its a long drive back out of the national park
  • The thing took all day
  • Dropped back a our hostel
  • Empanadas for dinner
  • Chilled for a bit watching the new Chris Rock comedy
  • Then dropped Casey to another pole class
  • Picker her up after
  • Sleeps

Stay tuned...