Day 42

Monday 13^th December 2010

Today we fly to El Calafate for 4 days. We plan to see the Perito Moreno Glacier, go to Torres Del Paine ( Pine ) in Chile for a day trip and maybe do something else. We checked out about 11:00 and caught a cab straight to the Airport. Our flight was until 14:30 but there was no point hanging around in BA trying to squeeze breakfast in a decision I almost immediately regretted.

We got to the airport in good time and reluctantly bought some overpriced food, there is a McDonalds every 200yrds in Buenos Aires so we were sure that the Airport would have one, no such luck. I already had a bit of a stinker of a hangover from the night before and had only managed a few hours sleep, so to make me feel better, Suz trapped my finger in a fridge door and gave me a blood blister, brilliant!

The majority of the flight went without incident, 3 hours and your still in the same country and we whinge about flying at home, another hour and you can be almost anywhere in Europe! The landing was quite sketchy though, we landed in a gale force cross wind which brought us down with a bit of a thump. We wiped the cold sweat from our brow and boarded the transfer.

El Calafate is really pretty, definitetly the prettiest place we’ve been so far, it seems to be placed in a valley, surrounded by mountains and turquoise lakes. The hostel is really cute too, its like an alpine lodge, you feel like you should be going skiing. The Christmas lights are up here and because it’s really cold it’s got us into the Christmas spirit I even played “The Fairytale of New York” on you tube so now its officially Christmas time.

We had a bit of a mess about in the room and a nap (obviously) and headed out for dinner. There is a recommendation in one of the guide books for a restaurant chain in El Calafate which is supposed to be really good but a bit pricey, we reasoned that we hadn’t spent much of today’s budget due to travelling and treated ourselves to a nice meal.

Suzi had the Patagonia Lamb which is roasted over an open flame in the window of the restaurant which just fell apart on the fork, delicious!

I had the Rib Eye Steak (proper bloke) and we shared chips, salad and a lovely bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.

The restaurant had it’s decorations up too and was warm and comfortable, we spent the next couple of hours eating and chatting the night away, we even managed dessert, Tiramisu for the lady

and crepes and dulce de leche (caramel sauce) for me.

We settled the bill (ouch) and then wondered back to the hostel, we climbed into bed and listened to the Chinese couple downstairs row for an hour before we fell asleep, how romantic.