Argentina
1/15/2009
Our campground in Las Grutas turned out to be a quite nice place. There were many people who came top us and talked to us, because we were the only foreigners there. Everyone was friendly, and by the time we left, we had made some new friends. In the morning, we cleaned up and showered for our very long bus ride this afternoon. At 12:30 we got on our bus headed to Rio Gallegos, the southernmost town in Argentina that is not on Tierra del Fuego. On the bus we met an Israeli girl that was vegetarian, and could not understand what the bus attendant was telling her, and the employee got laina to translate. Soon afterwards, we started talking and found out she was on a 10 month trip around SA and she was working with Ocelots (a jungle cat) in Bolivia! We want to work with ocelots! She just finished the army, which is mandatory for guys and girls in Israel, and now she is on her travel time between army and college. Our bus ride took 23 hours to get to Rio Gallegos, and when we got off, we immediately switched to another bus to take us to Rio Grande, because all the busses to Ushuaia had left.
We crossed the border into chile, and then got onto a ferry to Tierra del Fuego. When we were on the ferry, I climbed up to the wheelhouse deck, and I saw many birds, they might have been petrels, we saw some bobbing penguins, and a few black and white Dolphins. The ferry ride was short, and we got back on the bus. Tierra del Fuego! Finally! Also let me comment on how boring the Patagonia looked from the bus. It was the same all the way from las grutas and now even on Tierra del Fuego it is still boring. However, now there is coast and I can see many sheep on the side of the road! I even saw some Guanacos! (a llama relative)
Once we got to Rio Grande, we were beat and headed to the grocery store, and then to a hostel to camp in their backyard, This town is set on the mouth of the a river, and the coast, While it is flat, the people have spent a lot of time making the town look nice. There are lots of planters with flowers, and many arty decorations on either side of the main drag. It is also windy here, and all the trees have windblocks, and they haven’t been able to grow away from behind the windblock, They look rather funny.
In our hostel, which at first seemed empty, 3 more Israelis showed up and we immediately became friends. They are on a 1 ½ month trip around argentina and just got back from El Calafate. We got to talking, and then the barbeque got lit up, and we pulled out some blood sausages we bought at the grocery store and we all shared the meat they bought, with our sausages and bread. The Israelis are in their early 30s, and one of them has been traveling for 10 years. We shared many travel stories, and stayed up later then we should have.
This morning, we are washing our clothes and we are getting ready to head into Ushuaia. Once there we will settle in for a few days to walk off the 30 hours on busses!
Answering some comments: Yes, the distance between Las Grutas and Ushuaia is very large. It took us 31 hours to get to Tierra del Fuego, where we are now, in Rio Grande. Las Grutas is called “the caves” because it has many sea caves along the beach, we took a lot of pictures, and some came out pretty good! Tierra del Fuego differs from ¨Patagonia because of the straight of Magellan, which we crossed on a ferry, Tierra Del Fuego is an Island archipelago at the bottom of South America. We are super excited to hear everyone and what you all are doing!
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