We
arrived at El Calafate at noon, plenty of time for
me to catch my scheduled bus at 2:30pm to Rio Gallegos
where I'd catch a 7:45pm flight to Ushuaia, or so
I thought. Shea was supposed to be on this trip with
me but 4 days earlier she had the foresight to spend
a small window of time we had in Calafate at the airline
office to change her ticket so she would fly directly
from Calafate to Ushuaia. Of course I did something
far more useful with that time, I spent it at an Internet
cafe checking my emails and stocks. I thought the
bus ride wouldn't be so bad, I would get to see the
Patagonian landscape...
I
said my goodbyes to our guide Daniel, who had
been with us since day 1 of the trip. What great guy
he is, always smiling and a terrific sense of humour
and always bending over backwards for us. We all were
going to miss him greatly. Daniel was truly el
mejor
Well
my bus was 2hrs late so when it left Calafate at 4:30pm,
I had less than 3.5hrs to make the trip (which unknown
to me at the time takes at least 4hrs) across to the
Atlantic coast. Daniel would call the airline to try
to get them to "hold the flight" for me
as I could be arriving late. Well I wasn't even close.
Many things conspired against me from arriving in
time. A police check leaving Calafate slowed us down.
The bus driver took a wrong detour early on. We had
a 20 min break 1/2 way at Esperenza (ironically
translates to Hope) and we also changed buses
unexpectedly too. The biggest factor was the condition
of the highway ....stretches of road were under construction
so we drove off road at a speed of around 20km/h....I
estimate about 45 mins of driving were under these
conditions. Then another police check entering Rio
Gallegos...just in time for me to see my plane take
off at 8:20pm, about 1/2 late....maybe they had waited
after all. I didn't enjoy the Patagonian landscape
at all during that drive as I looked at my watch every
time a road sign showed the distance remaining to
Rio Gallegos and I did some mental math on distance
remaining, time remaining and figured I'd need a helicopter
to get to the airport on time.
So
I was stuck in this small airport after the last flight
and it emptied quickly, no passengers, no taxis no
buses, just the Aerolineas Argentinas counter where
a particularly unfriendly man changed my ticket to
the next day and then proceeded to ignore me when
I asked him if he could help me call a taxi. I did
not want to sleep in the airport so I found a hotel
in my Lonely Planet guide. So I paid one of the janitors
to call a taxi for me as there was no phone book (not
that I could read one) and the courtesy phone was
not working of course. I did manage to use the ATM,
which I would regret later.
I
should have know this day was going into the toilet
when my fancy shiny Oakley iridium lens sunglasses
fell off my head and into the just-used toilet (just
pee thankfully) at the hostel. I just about used 1/2
my Purell bottle disinfecting my sunglasses
Well
my luck finally turned around as the taxi driver turned
out to be a young man who is studying at the local
university to be an English teacher. Christian was
his name and we became fast friends. I invited him
out for dinner and afterwards he took me on a tour
of Rio Gallegos including a visit to its Red Light
district, the only one of its kind in Argentina. Every
cloud has its silver lining eh?
