Perito Moreno - Janaury 16th

The first thing I remember about today was being woken up on the night bus at 03:15 as all the other passengers board at El Chalten, the trekking town we couldn’t find any decent cheap accommodation in.  The next thing is waking up at 05:00 as the drivers changed shifts and seeing how frosty it was outside.  Then it is waking up at 10:00 and seeing how sunny and hot it was outside.  With cold nights and hot days this part of Patagonia is almost a desert.  Despite the interruptions, it actually wasn’t that bad a night’s sleep.

We are going up Route 40, which is supposed to be an Argentinian version of Route 66, but as said it is across a fairly barren landscape so there is not much to see.  The road itself is a bit of an enigma as well, at some points it is gravelly and we can only make 20kmph on it, at other points it is a nice tarred road and we are hitting 100kmph.

The main talking point of the journey was the bus breaking down.  We were on a gravel road in the middle of this almost desert-like plain at the time and there was nothing around, and not much passing traffic, so it was slightly worrying.  The two bus drivers were trying to fix it, but were not having much success.  Now in the past I have been slightly critical of Israeli tourists in this part of the world, but in fairness this time they did help out.  Two of them, no doubt with some military training in driving trucks or tanks across the desert, got up to help the drivers, and actually managed to fix it.  So we only had an hour’s delay in the end.

Thus we were at our next destination, the little town of Perito Moreno at 15:30.  Having travelled 620km north it is now a lot hotter at midday, and although the town is small, just a main street and 2 roads each side wide, the main street is about 12 blocks long, and our hotel is the other end from the bus station.  So it is a long hot walk with the backpacks on.  After checking in we give the town a once over, seeing the few restaurants and bars before we choose empanadas from the local bakery for dinner at the lakeside.