South America (Second Time lucky!)

We woke up early 6:30 am... freezing cold in our makeshift hostel, packed our bags and headed outside to where the mini-bus was to pick us up..... feckin Chalten travel!

We´d payed an extra $65 pesos for the side trip to the Cuave de las manyos and in Bariloche the girl had told us that this included entry and then we´d meet up with the original bus ready for the final part of our journey down to El Chalten.

The mini bus arrived and we all boarded minus our backpacks... these (we were assured) would be placed on the larger bus when we reboarded it later in the day...fine!

The mini bus then shot off along the dirt covered roads, winding up through the hills towards the caves.... obviously time was of the essence based on both the speed we were hurtling along the tracks and that we didn´t stop for anything, including three condors, sat in a field by the side of the road.... or the illusive Ruta Nacional 40 sign either ! We did ask.... however..... feckin Chalten travel!

We pulled up at the Caves some three bumpy hours later and were pointed in the direction of a little hut by the edge of the cliff. Here we were politely informed that there was an entry charge !!!!

OK.... the girl in Bariloche was now definately on my "hit" list! However, it turned out to be $15 pesos each (which isn´t too bad after all) and for this we got a guide (who´s broken English was enough to get by on) so I wasn´t that miffed..... feckin Chalten travel!

We walked down the cliff and the wind hit us.... damn this Patagonian Wind is Cold and Strong !!!

The Caves are impressive in that the Hand prints are easily visible and they´re on the exterior of the walls, so we were surpised that they´d managed to survive this long at all.... being that they ranged from 12 thousand to 2 thousand years old!

90% of the hands were Left hands and there were even prints of Nandu feet, South American Emu´s, (they must have asked the Nandu´s very nicely to stand on the wall!) and some hunting scenes and geometrical shapes also!

Pictures were taken and, now thoroughly frozen, we headed back to the minibus. The apparent Cafe, where we could get a coffee and something to eat (none of which any of us had had that day) was in the process of being "rebuilt"... i.e. CLOSED..... feckin Chalten travel!

The minibus rattled along for another hour or two and then pulled up in a small estancia, literally, in the middle of nowhere! Here we got some food.... at the usual extortionate "Exoticos" prices.

An El Chalten bus pulled up and people started to get off.... however... we didn´t recognise many of them..... maybe it was the bus going North we thought.

Nope.... some 20 Israeli´s had (apparently) suddenly arrived in Perito Moreno.... and now would be travelling on our bus? Which begged the questions... where did all these Israeli´s come from and more importantly... how were we getting to El Chalten?

By Minibus.... but of course..... feckin Chalten travel!

We hopped back on the minibus and started down the remainder of the RN40. We stopped off At an estancia (again in the middle of nowhere... which... coincidentally.... we were informed was owned by the family of the bus driver.... and since the minibus arrived last by the time we got to the food counter... nothing was really left ! Steph had an Apple and I, a small sandwich..... feckin Chalten travel!

The final leg of the journey was relatively uneventful... apart from the mini bus driver missing the petrol station and the clutch almost burning out... however... we finally pulled in (ahead of the main bus) in El Chalten.... at the "Luxurious" Rancho Grande..... hmmmmmm

Our driver was in a rush.... so dropped us off.... pointed us in the direction of the desk in the rancho grande and drove off !!! Half an hour later... the main bus (with our backpacks on) pulled up at the hostel!

An Australian couple travelling with us were put in a dorm (when they´d payed extra for a double), four or five others were given tickets for "alternative" hostels where they would be staying.... However, they weren´t given a map of how to find them... etc. etc...

The Usual Chalten "feckin" travel debacle!

I hope you´re getting the jist of how we feel about Chalten Travel by now....

Steph and I, however, had prebooked our accomadation and walked the ten minutes down the road to the Albergue Patagonia Hostel, where we were greeted with a welcome, a big smile and a lovely hostel!

Ahhh....How good we felt to be in a nice warm bed in a gorgeous hostel that night !

Ahhh.... How good we felt to have planned at least this part of the trip in advance !

Ahhh.... How good we felt to no longer be under the control of .....

Feckin Chalten travel !!!!!

So.... where do I start ????

We checked out of our hostel early in the morning, having decided not to bother with the boat trip around the islands in Bariloche the previous day (it was $160 pesos for a three hour trip seeing most of the things we'd already seen), and headed down to the "Chalten Travel" office, which was where the bus was to pick us up.

It arrived on time at 6:30 am (which was surprising!)

We'd read up about the "Ruta Nacional 40" as it is one of the last remaining "off the beaten track" roads still in Argentina and runs down virtually the entire West Side of Argentina from the very North to the Very South and lots of it is still unsealed.... dust tracks!

We went to the Tourist Information people and did some research for a couple of days and basically came to the conclusions that unless we were doing a 4 days+ safari down or had loads of cash to spend there was basically only one way to get to El Chalten from Bariloche. Chalten Travel.

We arrived in the office and the girl was nice and spoke good English. She showed us the route, told us they have a bus leaving to go south every other day and that it would also stop in the "Cuaves De Los Manjos"... The Cave of the Hands (which is a 12,000 year old cave with a multitude of cave paintings on it's walls and specifically one of the only places we both wanted to go on the way down) It sounded great so we asked the price....

No since there was only one company that did this route, I thought it might be expensive, and consequently, I was prepared for a big number......

$495 pesos........ "how much" I asked......

$495 pesos........ "how much" I asked......

$495 pesos........ But you get a room for two nights and this includes the Cuaves de los manyos side trip......

"how much" I asked......

Luckily Steph was there to ask some more searching questions whilst I dwelled on the price for a little bit longer..........

The Cave side trip was $65 pesos.... not that bad.

We'd heard that the hostel they stopped at in El Chalten was a bit crap, so we'd booked our own hostel which meant that they'd drop $30 pesos from the price... which meant that we'd pay

$465 pesos........ "how much" I asked......

$465 pesos........ Including a Dorm bed in Perito Moreno.......

Now, relatively, $465 pesos doesn´t sound a lot, however, when you compare this to normal bus tickets in Argentina..... which is on a Cama Class bus.... with food and drink etc.....It was expensive.

It works out about 80 pounds... which isn´t that much I know... so after some discussions with Steph we decided to book the trip (since they were the only guys that did it after all!)

The bus was a normal bus... (No Cama class here.... but of course!) so we headed off to El Bolson and Esquel, where some other people got on (so you can get the bus from here if you want) and then we headed good a proper through the mountains aloung RN40.

We knew things were starting to get bad... when the bus driver drove straight past the Ruta 40 Sign post (which is the photo stop everyone on the bus wanted)

After about another 4 hours, we stopped in a tiny little town in the middle of the patagonian steppes. We were offered a Pasta meal at the hotel (affiliated with Chalten travel) for $16 pesos each (which we declined and which were were told was crap anyway) and walked the five minutes to the petrol station for 2 jamon Y queso sandwiches (cheese and ham) for $10 and a bottle of water... we're not giving Chalten Travel any more money I ranted!

Some of the other travellers had sandwiches also and after the dusty stop in the hotel in the middle of nowhere we continued down the route.

We all fell asleep and after a while we pulled into a small Estancia... to rip off the gringo's (once again)... a bottle of water was $6 pesos (normally $3) and again it was just the Chalten travel buses at the place.... there's a common link here I thought!

We were then almost killed by (not the bus driver surprisingly... or even the prices in the stop off point) but, one of the guys doing "The Dump from Hell" in the toilet at the back of the bus.... so bad in fact that half of the people in the back of the bus suddenly decided to come a visit us all in the front of the bus for a while... if it'd been a boat... we'd have capsized

We pulled into Perito Moreno at about 8:30 pm.... 14 hours on a non-cama bus.... ouch!

Now to say Perito Moreno (the town... not the Glacier) was quiet is pretty much...... one of the biggest understatements going!

The place was positively "Morte".... DEAD!

We were dropped into our hostel (not the one we thought we were going to be in... the Hotel Belgrano) but another one... where the mortar in the brickwork was still wet and the guy who owned it had to light the gas heater (for the first time ever me thinks!) .. and it was about 12 blocks from the Hotel Belgrano.

We didn't complain as the dorm was nice(ish)... no locks on the doors or anything... but nice (ish)

We were pointed in the direction of a local cafe (which was closed) and local supermarket (which was closed) and the local bread shop (which was closed) and then finally, the local internet place (which was open.....Whayhaeee) but where it took ten minutes to open a single web page..... yep.... kicking and screaming into the 21st century I tell ya!

We all eventually turned up in the same little restaurant some five blocks fom the hostel. It was good as we all chatted over a Quilmes and began to bond as a group.... most of all ..... it was cheap (obviously not affiliated with Chalten feckin travel !

We waddled back to our hostel and hit the sack, the end of an already eventful Day 1 of the Ruta Nacional 40.... hope tomorrow was better!

we´ve arrived in Iguazu with nothing missing and apart from a accident involving a motorcycle and a lorry on the way up causing a delay, the bus was fantastic!

Unfortunately for the motorcycle driver though he ended up being killed in the accident and when we passed him, he was lying in the middle of the road with a white sheet over him... but I digress......

so... we got the taxi from the hostel direct to the bus station (Retiro), went to departures and had about five buses to pick from... Steph went on reconnaissance and managed to find which bus we were on. Bags were loaded into the hold for which we received a ticket (and tip was payed to bag man... so as to look after the bags!) and then we boarded the bus.

We were travelling Cama class (Bed Class) so the seats were wide and the blankets and food we received en'route also expecially welcoming!

We slept....... well Steph did almost instantly.... I on the other hand was still eyeing up all the other passengers trying to ascertain which was most likely to nab our day packs if I slept...

We woke up the next day still on the bus and still with our day packs!

Watched a crap Yank film... listened to some Israerli´s making out in the seat in front of us and then about four hours later (the total travel time was about 17 hours!) we pulled up in Iguazu Bus station.

We unloaded, got our bags... which were still there... and walked up to the hostel (having to change direction a few times as our sense of direction was a bit muddled!)

We checked into the hostel and dropped our bags on the bed.....

Operation OmniBus was a Success.. we´d made it intact, with baggage and alive!