March 10, 2009 - March 12, 2009

March 10, 2009

I wake again at dawn as usual. To allow Alyssa and Rob some extra time to sleep I wander around the campsite. Luckly, I met up with some Germans we saw two days ago at the bus stop. They have an awesome tent that looks like it is a relic from WWII!

Alyssa and I at what we believe is Laguna Verde

Today we decided to hike to Laguna Verde, the search began along a dusty road and unfortunately for my fellow hikers we did not find the lake as hoped for, but I did discover a love of Oliver tunes, which I sang over and over until I could remember most of the words. Alyssa and Rob whinged of course, although I must say that Rob was an enabler and if I would quiet down he would begin to whistle the tunes to bring them back into my mind and start me up again.

Huge bridge that must be crossed. Rob is crossing it.

Eventually we found this huge bridge and of course crossed it and much to our surprize found a
beach sans flies! It was a miracle. We ate lunch at this heavenly spot and relaxed here before heading back to our campsite to pack up and catch the bus back to Esquel.

Rob and Alyssa hiking along the road.

We checked into the first hostel we saw by the train station and did what ever camper does after days in the woods. SHOWERED. I think I smelled baaaaad. By this time we were starving and Alyssa and Rob lead me on a run (no joke I do not think we could have moved faster) to the restaurant. I think this is their payback for all the Oliver tunes earlier in the day.

Dinner was not amazing, but ice cream was.... yummmy.

March 11, 2009

Today was a relaxing day. We didn't have much to do before our bus later in the evening. We wandered around town and did a bit of shopping, ate amazing huge Lomito Completo sandwhiches (beef, lettuce, tomato, ham, cheese, egg, mayonaise - I will soon learn that nothing in Argentina is complete until you add ham, egg and cheese).

Our bus was a 24 hour - yes you read that correctly - ride from Esquel to Calafate. We luckily got the front seats which have windows to all sides. The bus ride consisted of sleeping, eating, sleeping, watching terrible movies, sleeping, looking at amazing scenery that consisted of rheas (South America mini-ostraches), huge bunnies, sheep and guanacos (southern South American lama-like creatures). We arrived in Calafate at 4:30 the next day - ouch.

View from the bus.

March 12, 2009

Obviously most of today was spend on the bus. When we got to Calafate we found our hostel - which had an 8-year old boy in charge, dropped off our laundry, scheduled flights from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires - after that 24 hour bus ride we had no desire to tackle the 50 hour bus ride that would have been.

Alyssa and I were out running errands when we spotted Rob. We quitely snuck up and tackeled, but he was not surprized... and we thought we were being soooo stealthy.

For dinner we ate at a Tenedor Libre - which is a buffet with lots of meat fresh of the grill. Yummy.