Today was average morning. I woke up at 8:30am. Surprisingly Mr Earlybird (Jakob) was not gone yet. It was raining all night and his makeshift tent was probably blowing all over the place and leaking rain. Poor guy.. I saw that coming.
I was getting bored of eating porridge again and it was raining so I skipped out on boiling more water for porridge. I would have killed for a coffee, but I had no sugar. Bummers! I cracked open a huge Argentinian avocado and some crackers. It was big enough to feed a few people. So I called the boys over to help me eat this monstrous thing. Homero ate the most of it, but ironically he was also the thinnest amongst the 4 of us. It’s all good as a healthy breakfast is a good way to start the the day!
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| One quick group photo of all us before we depart |
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| Lucas stuffing himself in the back of the van for a quick 300m ride! |
The guys (Homero/Diego) all packed their stuff in the van, and then Jakob, stuffed himself into the back of the van. I got photos of it… HAHA! It looked like a Mexican trying to sneak his way into the USA. I dropped off Jakob 300m later at the entrance to the camp area on the main gravel road. We all gave Jakob a Latino style hug goodbye, I took a photo of the sign for the extinct campground and we headed North towards the Futaleufu.
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| Goodbye hippie camp. See you another time in another "dimension"! 8-) |
The ride to Futaleufu was a very bumpy, wet and annoying ride. Everyone in the van was uncomfortable, mostly me! I popped on Rush via my iPod and put it on random for 20 albums of theirs. “Nice tunes” Diego said. I replied, "they are my favourite band of all time!". We didn’t talk much, as I was busy driving. The guys must have been tired or tired of the constant bumps I was unable to avoid. During the near the end of their time in my van, Diego compliments me and says, "mad driving skills!". After I arrived in Futaleufu, I stopped near one of the many white water rafting guide companies. I said my goodbyes to Diego and Homero. It would appear they were going to traveling together now. (perhaps not?).
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| Saying goodbye to Diego & Homero in Futaleufu, Chile |
As they walked away, I meet 2 North American girls (never got their names). One was a kayaking guide from Colorado and the other was from Seattle. They met in S. America, but decided to travel together and even buy their Subaru together. Very outdoorsy girls. They quickly left for their white water rafting trip 5 mins after I met them. One of them said she was moving to Bellingham, Washington State this October. I said to her that’s a nice town. Right near where I used to live once. She was hired as a ski patroller by Winter (Mt Baker??) and white water rafting guide by Spring/Summer/Fall. Not bad at all; nice life indeed. Good luck to her.
I went to a coffee shop called, “ Restobar Antiqua Casona” right near where I was parked. I went inside and quickly noticed the vibe was just like Alaska. People where the same types of people that AK had, but up there there’s no one speaking Espanol. I did some updating of my blog and wrote a few emails. I quickly got off line because the Internet connection sucked really bad. My phone would not connect at all.. why..who knows?
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| Inside Restobar Antiqua Casona" drinking a tea & working on my blog, etc |
I walked around the small square and found a grocery store. I bought some junk food and some orange juice. They did not sell camping fuel for which I desperately needed. I drove around some more to find a store that supposedly had the can fuel I needed. I found it, but it was fucking closed like most of the town was (it was 1:30pm!). I am a fool as I should know this by now that every town shuts down at 12 noon to 4pm each day here in Patagonia.
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| Restobar Antiqua Casona from the outside; nice mountain "homey" feel place. My kind of place indeed. |
I walked around the small square and found a grocery store. I bought some junk food and some orange juice. They did not sell camping fuel for which I desperately needed. I drove around some more to find a store that supposedly had the can fuel I needed. I found it, but it was fucking closed like most of the town was (it was 1:30pm!).
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| A "river map" of the town Fatuleufu, Chile. Very very nice place for outdoorsy peoples |
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| The town centre square for Fatuleufu, Chile |
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| A quiet, but very nice town of Fatuleufu, Chile |
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| The "X-region" what cool name for a state in a country |
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| Sadly finally leaving Fatuleufu, Chile onward to the Argentine border... |
I passed through a boring, everything is closed town called “Trevelin”. It was between 1-5pm, so what else should I expect? At least there were no gravel roads! I am happy and grateful for that! I drove into a town called “Esquel”. This was about 35km past Trevelin. I was a larger town, and better. Most things / stores were open which was nice. On the way in however I took some photos of nice A-frame homes that were on my list of dream items. After that, I headed into town, parked the car for 5 pesos (an attendant approached me and asked for the money for parking) for an hour of parking. It’s “cheap” as compared to parking at home!
I walked around the main shopping district and luckily found a fishing store that sold camp fuel. I bought 2 of them. I hope that’s enough for a while, but probably not. At least that will get me through my remaining time here in Argentina. After I finished my hour of walking around, I headed back to the van. I saw and said hi to a lovely police officer. She said in choppy English, “you don’t like you’re from near here”. I replied, “no I am not.. I live in New Zealand”. She said, “Oh New Zealandia, very pretty place yes.”. I replied with, “yes indeed, just like you are pretty “Bonita”. Haha. She laughed and said “muchas gracias” and gave me a little hug. She wished me well on my journey. Yes she was very attractive… Its fun practicing my Espanol on people, however I never thought in my farthest imagination that I'd ever pretend to flirt with a female cop while traveling in a Latin American country. ☺
I sat there in my van for 5 mins using the Internet trying to find a campsite in / near town. I found one. So I then left and using my phone for directions. I got lost because it seemed the hostel/camping area was not there, but it was I just missed it. I went around the block again and had to drive up a small hill on gravel to get to it. Nice view of the town it had. I paid my $8.00 USD and then choose a spot.
I setup my solar to charge stuff and there was an outside wall outlet where I charged my other stuff . After that I took a nap because I was dead tired. I then woke up at 8pm and dragged my pathetic butt into the main lodge to do some writing on my blog for March 1st. That took about 2 hours to complete. I then went back to the van and cooked 2 cans of veggies for dinner. One corn and one green beans. It was 10:30pm now and I was wide awake. I needed to get to bed ASAP. I ate all the food and then washed the pot out for which I ate from. One slight problem was that the dog in the house across the street from the campsite seemed to be locked out of the house, but enclosed (trapped) inside the property. the poor bugger dog was barking every 10 seconds. This was going to be a looong night...
Went to sleep (or trying to) at about 10:45pm….. zzzzzz
Daily Summary:
Waking up in hippie camp was beyond awesome. A feeling of pure feeling I feel in my heart! The guys are cool-as ever! However all good things must come to an end. The group picture of all 4 of us under the back door of the van (as it was raining) is priceless to me. Even though 1 of them speaks no English, these 3 guys embody the true spirit of friendly, free-spirited traveling. The drive to Esquel was uneventful except for the shitty rainy Dakar-rally type road I had to drive. As this point I was my heart and soul were fully engulfed in the spirit of Patagonia. There's nothing more to say about today, except magnificent...
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