El Calafate… a dusty, dumpy town near a big ass glacier

WOW. For the first time on the trip, we officially heard the record player screech to a halt. You know, like when you walk into a Mexican bar and you are the only gringo and everybody’s like, ‘what the f*ck is he doing here?’

We arrived Saturday in El Calafate, a dirty town in the middle of nowhere and a stark contrast to the green lush beauty of Bariloche. After driving down a dirty road and several trailer park style houses, we arrived at our hostel, Hostal del Glaciar Pioneros. First, they screwed up our reservation – put us in a dorm (ok, I am DEFINITELY too old for that). After I argued with them for awhile, we finally got our room. Ah, how I love the smell of mold in the summer. Blargh. And, as we tried to sleep the next morning, we heard cleaning ladies, people walking down the wooden staircase (they say location is everything?), even a few dogs that sounded like they were dying of hunger… not exactly the Ritz Carlton. There are about 4 blocks downtown that are dressed up pretty nice, but otherwise this town is a heap full of old tourists.

We decided to take a painful 4 hour bus ride to El Chalten on Sunday, an even smaller town, but with great views of two mountains, Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. El Chalten was amazing! Lots of charm. It also is a pretty dirty town as there are no paved roads yet, but the hostel we stayed at was great, the brewery next door was amazing (food and beer) and the views on our 8 hour, 20 mile (no exaggeration!) hike on Monday were stupid. So many great trails in the area. Although we had to battle winds of 40+mph, it stayed sunny all day….and all night. We are so far south that it stays light until 11:30pm!!!! So incredible!

Today we went to the Perito Merino glacier. We got to hike on the glacier for a couple hours and the hike ended with some whiskey and alfajores on the ice! Also saw huge chunks of ice fall into the lake (this is pretty much all you do at the glacier, other than making fun of old people).

Brianna and I are so tired of eating the same 5 foods and are eager to get back to the city (BA) where we will spend 4 more days. Small change in plans after that…. we are headed to Brazil for a week! Brasil, Brasil, Brasil, Brasil. Too bad we will miss Carnivale by 3 weeks!

Sorry for the delay in posts… El Calafate did not have anything but dial up internet - Dark Ages!!!