El Calafate, Argentina

I had another great trip yesterday. Armed and ready for the usual steady, slow, and generally uncomfortable bus ride in South America, I left Puerto Natales, Chile- aiming for El Calafate, Argentina. El Calafate is just a 5 hour bus ride away. Both towns are in Patagonia, and are not that geographically far from each other, but you add traveling over dirt roads, then throw in a boarder crossing, and pow- you have a 5 hour journey.

Usually I am dreading these rides, but this one turned out to be a great one. Not just because I had two seats to myself, but also...and principally because, we were traveling through the great Patagonian landscape at sunset. In the mountains, I never had a great view of the sun set. But now we were out in the wide open...and man is it wide open!-picture Kansas corn fields....but much colder, and with out people, or farms. And I can´t help dreaming about living out here, or imagine what type of life you could actually live off this land if you needed to. I saw the occasional rabbit off the road, but other than that...I´m not sure much lives out here, and if they do, I don´t know where. It is definitely pure wilderness out here. Which again means a pretty desolate landscape, just some yellow gold grasses, and the occasional grey-blue-green shrubs...and you've got the picture. But today, this night- the sky was lit up into amazing colors reflecting off of perfectly placed sweeping clouds as the sun set behind some distant mountains. In the other side of the sky, was the moon! Not just that shadow of the moon you sometimes see when the sun is still up, this moon was fully lit and shinning bright! It created really interesting light outside, and I really wanted to ask the driver to stop so I could take pictures! But I held back. The reflection of this light onto the gold yellow grasses was really cool. But soon it was totally night, and not long after came a town in the distance.

Arriving into El Calafate, was like pulling into a new kind of world. Apart from the ski resort at the boarder crossing, and a small mining town near the boarder, I had not seen anything in Argentina, except the landscape. Well, El Calafate is sure a different place than Puerto Natales. El Calafate is exploding!! They call it a ´new´town. Which means, they somehow are just realizing that this amazing glacier here, Perito Moreno, is a major tourist attraction, and Argentine´s are moving here in droves. New hotels are up and running, and I swear to god this place feels like summit county in Colorado. The main street that is emerging has potential to be as charming as the one in Breckenridge. There are many shops catering to the rich, and even a grand new casino right on the main street!! The street lights are wired up and running, in spots beyond the city, where there are not even streets yet. This place is expecting growth. Very interesting how two towns, so close, only across a boarder from each other, can be so dramatically different. So much so, that I thought it worth a blog.

This afternoon, I fly to Buenos Aries- a city I fantasized much about during the rough Chicago winters of past. I am soooo excited!! :)