El Calafate

217km of absolute openess connects El Chaltèn to El Calafate. Both towns exist more or less for the sole purpose of supporting tourism to the area but I happen to like them. Unlike other tourist heavy destinations such as those I visited in Peru, these places are still quiet and muy tranquilo. There is no hard sell. No one chasing me down the street harrasing me to get a massage or shoving some tourist menu in my face. No one hounds me when I enter the shops to admire the handicrafts. They actually approach me and begin speaking in Spanish instead of assuming I speak English and therefore treat me like a gringo dollar sign. I appreciate all of these touches.

Though things are more expensive in this area as they are still relying heavily on the ports to import goods, it seems like they have a better understanding of tourism and things are more or less of better quality. This is especially true of the handicrafts. This town being super touristy, has plently of artesanal shops that I could spend hours exploring, so I did. They actually contained things that I would want to buy if I had the space or money for them. Real handmade products, not just stall after stall of massproduced poor quality crap. The knit and woven work is especially outstanding and makes me want a flock of sheep of my own to keep me in enough wool to replicate some of their beautiful work.

I am working on enjoying my holiday (a term I am adopting) and not worrying so much about money. I found a divey inexpensive hostel to stay so I decided to go out for a glass of wine. I am in Argentina afterall. I had a lovely time sitting in the restaurant sipping my glass of sorta crappy house red. Sure I could`ve bought an entire bottle of higher quality wine for the same price, but I would have had to drink it all by myself, in the dingy hostel filled with really loud Israelis. I reminded myself that how cheaply I am able to do something is not really the point and ended up having a quite enjoyable evening.

The weather in Patagonia is known for its unpredictability but since arriving in El Chaltèn I have had nothing but blue skies. Things were a little cloudier and chillier in El Calafate but still nothing to complain about. I was headed to see the Perito Moreno Glaciar located about 80km outside of town. I left sunny El Calafate and drove straight into a big dark cloud.

The Perito Moreno Glaciar is one of the few glaciers in the world that is moving. It wsa immense at about 60m high and 14 km long. It felt like arriving at Niagra Falls and finding it frozen. Well, maybe not that huge, but very impressive. I hung out with the glacier for the afternoon in the wind and cold cold rain. I stared into the unnaturally vivid blue crevices and listened to the massive glacier creak and groan and crack like thunder as pieces broke of and fell into the water below. It was pretty awesome and so much more than just a big piece of ice.

Back in town the weather was a bit better and I walked around the shops a little bit more before turning in for the night. They say it takes around 6 months for a person to adjust to a new job. I estimate that it takes me about 5 months to adjust to traveling. The same thing happened when I was driving through Mexico and Central America. About 5 months in I start to get very comfortable with the language and the pace and finally start to remember what it is all about, and then I have to go home. At this point I just want to keep going forever and continue going south until I run out of continent and end up in Antarctica. In order to prevent this, I bought a ticket for a 24 hour bus ride to take me out of this land before I get in too deep. I am really sad to be leaving Patagonia, it`s so quiet and still so untouched in many ways. But I am in hot pursuit of penguins who have managed to evade me thus far. Someday I would love to return to this peaceful place at the end of the world fully loaded with a tent, a warm sleeping bag, and a rental car. There is so much more to explore.