Gaucho rodeo, dog saga, travelers and more windy vistas highlight our visit
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'Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.'
-- Albert Einstein
This museum focuses on the world’s glaciers. For a separate price it features a glacier bar where you can sit on ice blocks, “an unforgettable sub-zero experience” and have a drink. 140 pesos plus the cost of whatever you drink for the twenty-minute time limit did not entice Maggie and I after sipping our shot of whiskey on a real glacier. The museum has a 3D film of the glaciers, the Patagonia countryside and the surrounding mountain ranges, focusing on Torres del Paine and Mount Fitz Roy, put to music. For me the highlight was a small time-lapse film of Glaciar Perito Moreno spilling into Lago Rico over a year’s time.
The entrance fee for me was 185 pesos, for Maggie a 35-peso discount with her Argentine student discount. The bus leaves downtown El Calafate, supposedly every half hour, but it was Sunday and the every half-hour schedule doesn’t start until after 1:30 p.m., so we waited about 45 minutes for the free shuttle. We had to wait another hour for the return bus back to downtown El Calafate, and it was about 2 p.m. when we queued for the bus. Still, the trip was worth the ticket. Glaciarium sits on a hillside outside of town and the scenery of the surrounding mountains, the view of Lago Argentino and El Calafate from high is worth the wait.
I love Australians, especially the ones I meet in hostels
A lovely, recently married couple. They remembered Maggie from the flight into El Calafate. We all took the mini-trekking tour together but never said more than “Ohlaah” to one another. They invited us to join them for dinner, but I begged off because I was beat. Then their last night at the hostel they were polishing off another bottle of wine with a man from Buenos Aires they had met during their trip. I decided it was time to be sociable and we joined them with our bottle of wine and some cheese and crackers. We talked languages, travel, etc, etc. As the sun set we all became more jovial and hysterical, then the Argentine went for more wine at the store and John brought out a hunk of cheese.
“Eat this, ohKaay. We ah leaving and we can’t eat ‘oll.”
The block of cheese looked familiar to me. It was the same brand we had bought a few hours earlier. It had a chunk out of it exactly like the one I’d just sliced.
It was our cheese.
I couldn’t say anything of course, but it cracked me up how he kept insisting we eat it so it wouldn’t go bad.
A chilly wind settles in after the sun sets in Patagonia, so we moved into the small lounge area, usurping the peaceful space formerly enjoyed by the quiet German who now lives in France. He seemed disgruntled by our jovial group and begrudgingly acknowledged our attempts to include him in the frivolity.
Our kitchen has a gas stove for the myriad of travelers to use for heating water for pasta or cooking up some goulash for dinner. Since the first day we arrived, I’d noticed a slight gas odor but tried to ignore it. When we moved from outside to inside, the gas odor seemed stronger than usual, and everyone discussed how we should mention the odor to our hosts. Then the German from France wandered off and we had the lounge to ourselves, until another traveler burst in quite distraught, opening all the windows and doors and declaring a state of emergency. That let all the cold air in, as well as Lampi and another strange dog, but somehow we survived.
We drank the rest of the wine. I only spilled half a glass on myself, someone knocked over and broke a glass on the tile floor. Then the Australians and the man from Buenos Aires -- John, Claire and Fabian -- insisted we join them for dinner at a pizzeria down the street.
I can’t drink with Australians. My head already spinning, I bowed out but Maggie couldn’t resist. I was asleep when she came home but she’s a smart girl and I think she just enjoyed listening and laughing with John, Claire and Fabian. She didn’t try to keep up with them.
For some reason the next day I felt a little grouchy and we called a chill-out day. Maybe the gas odor had caused a headache.