Argentina Part 1: El Calafate and Rio Gallegos

Ok this part of the blog is being written under duress. Stress, stress and no idea where the hell I will end up. All problems I need to fix.
Oh well. Shit happens and lets see where I end up. Basically I have a Russian roulette of options and not sure which bullet to shoot myself with (Though I realise technically there is only one bullet in Russian roulette so you don't actually have options or choices). Oh well, analogies are not my strong point at the moment. Woohaa. Back to the blog.

Ok I hit the border and was immediately greeted by a big sign saying that the 'Malvinas son Argentios'. Excellent welcome. Hmm basically the Falklands Islands conflict is massive down here, whereas at home its a small footnote in history. I have tried to explain that the Maradona handball is a bigger deal for us than the war, but it does not help. Basically it makes sense that the islands are part of Argentina as they are just off their coast. Only they weren't when we took them in 1833 as Patagonia was not even a part of Argentina then. Also no Argentines have lived on the islands. Everyone is British. Only they are not. We downgraded their citizenship before the war as we don't really care about the islands. We already have Wales. There is no other need for a country full of sheep. I think if Argentina had asked us for them we would have given them to them. I mean 98% of English people could not find them on a map and they really are irrelevant to us. Apparently Chile helped us with the war. Not sure why we needed the help but hey they have long memories down here. The fact that they have few wars and we have had at least 6 since 1982 changes things. It seems a pointless conflict really, but then apparently they may find oil and then they would become strategically important and maybe people in England will care, but if not I imagine it will remain a contentiously pointless point of contention. That about sums it up for me. Apparently its worse for the Argentines though that we don't consider it important as its insulting.

Anyway I met some Brazilians and we chatted for a while and then I got to El Calafate and found my hostel. 45 pesos, but they have some for 20. Shit. Anyway it had a nice breakfast. I had come to El Calafate because the bsues to Ushaia were full and expensive. Did not make any difference really as I would get stuck in a shithole anyway. El Calafate is like Pucon. Total tourist town but nice. Very expensive, but cheaper than Chile. It was not going to be cheap to visit the glacier so I booked a bus for the next day. I was not sure if 7 hours was going to be enough there. They were playing 'morphine' in one bar. Awesome. The band only famous for the end song in 'Wild Things' playing in the middle of Argentina. Funky. Went to the bird pond place. They wanted 10 pesos. Too much to walk around a lake, so I bought some bread and pomelo (pink grapefruit) juice. Awesome. Not had grapefruit juice for ages and I love it. Then I got chatting with a girl from Colorado. Love those Yanks from the mountains. We chatted in Spanish for quite a while and then I went to sleep.

In the morning I headed for the glacier. Ended up meeting the Brazilians again on the bus and we hung out together for the day. Only one of the Brazilians was not Brazilian. She was Belgian. Oh well. The boat trip was too expensive and does not go much closer, so probably is not worth it. The glacier is very impressive. Massive and such a vast array of blues and whites. Utterly superb to stand next to. The Brazilians reckon its the best thing they have seen. It advances 2m a day and is constantly cracking and collapsing. You hear booming cracks coming from the ice, like a monster ready to devour the viewing platform and huge chunks of ice tumble off. The boat almost got flattened by a huge block falling from the glacier. Superb and well worth visiting. Though 7 hours is perhaps 3-4 hours too long as the walkway is only short if you don't choose to take the boat. One Argentina woman was surprised I was English and was friendly and spoke Spanish. I tried to point out that most British tourists are middle or upper class and those people are more arrogant and unfriendly in every country. You don't get too many working class British tourists, but generally we are a little less 'rod up the arse English'. On the way back I was seated next to an Argentine woman who used to work in Mozambique as a missionary. I don't understand why people say Argentines aren't friendly. They are always chatting. Apparently its just the 'Portenos'. I suppose I will see soon enough. I called my mum eventually after she had not answered the day before and cost me loads of pesos in El Calafate's evil internet cafes. Then I turfed in.

In the morning I was chatting with the girl from Colorado all morning again. Really nice girl. Shame I had to move on. I had my bus to Rio Gallegos where they had told me it would be cheaper to find a bus to Ushaia. It wasn't. I got into Rio Gallegos and there were to be no buses for the next 2 days. Shit. What is there to do here? I don't have a guidebook? I don't think you need one. There is nothing to do. There. I can save your eyes some reading. Its a shithole. Think Tepic but worse. The cheapest place was 50 pesos. Bare in mind in El Calafate its 20. So I moved to pay more to stay in a place with less. Not my best move. I had to stay in a crap, expensive hostel for 2 nights. I went out the first night and nearly died in the streets from boredeom. It looks like a shit mid western US town. Ah yeah I bought a phone with a radio. Class. Except if I go back to Colombia it will be one of the most pointless purchases in my life I just realised. Oh well. Still they have good radio stations here. Makes up for the shit town with awful weather. It blows like a storm. Almost like Torres del Paine except in the streets.

In the morning I met a dude from Oregon. Nice guy. He wanted me to support the Portland Trailblazers at basketball because everytime I adopt a US team they win their title for the first time in ages. Superbowl on the sunday to prove this. No idea what that team are like, but maybe I will adopt them. I don't really like basketball much. There were a couple of Canadians, a Hawaiian and an Aussie who had just cycled across Africa for the last 4 years. Cool. I asked if it was dangerous and he said only a bit. Though he had been shot in Cameroon. Three guys jumped him. One had a homemade shotgun. He kicked him and jumped the guy with the knife. The guy recovered and shot him point blank with buckshot through all his intestines. He carried on fighting and was stabbed and eventually a bus picked him up and he spent 3 weeks in hospital. He needs to write a book. His stories were great. Makes me certain that Africa is the roughest continent to travel across though. Some English woman who apparently looks like the queen told us there were some good marshes to visit. Did not seem to be the case. I caught up with my writing and I still have not bought any shoes. In fact I still have not bought any shoes now. The next day I would leave this shithole and I was off to Ushaia.