Today was no different. We had to get to the busstation before 7 am to buy a ticket, but we still had to pack all the things that were spread out in the room to dry.
This alone would not be enough of a challenge so we tried doing this in the dark. There were still people sleeping ( it was around 6 am) and surprisingly nothing was left behind.
As mentioned before we did all this just to get some nice dinner. Calafate, a lovely tourist town and gateway to some more trekking regions was just 5 hours busride away, but more importantly it was in Argentina. I had never been to Argentina and it was not really part of my plan... but having a proper Steak would certainly be very nice. Since we still had a couple of days before our flight out of Patagonia this was the best way to spend them (also it would give me another couple of stamps in my passport - I like them).
Also it felt good and exciting to do something "stupid" - although I am not sure if this is the right word... something unusual - something "not efficient".
The Australians that had told us about the restaurant Wilma and Haddon were also on the bus. So was our Alaskan friend, John.
At first light the bus rolled out of the depot in Puerto Natales and down the paved road towards the Argentinian border checkpoint, from where the road was only gravel...
Being European and not US, NZ, Canada or Australian citizen certainly paid off to day as we did not have to pay the 160 USD entrance fee to Argentina as our friends had to. It would have been an expensive steak if we did.
Both sides of the border were very vast and empty... I guess nature does not really consider borders as anything of importance.
It was literally a coupe of hundred kilometers of nothing.... a couple of trees here and there, a barn and one lonely gaucho in the middle of nowhere... that was it for 5 hours driving.
Around lunchtime we got to Calafate and right away booked the bus back to Puerto Natales for the next morning.
Our Aussie friends waited for us and showed us a place to stay... the same, they were staying at.
It was called Cabinettinas and was a lovely little B&B with very friendly people for 40 $ for a double room.
After check in it was time to get a bit of a rest and catch up on blog, internet and other things that have happened around us in the last couple of days.
We booked a place to stay in Punta Arenas and even were able to reserve a spot on the Penguin tour for the next day.
There was still some time until dinner as it was only early afternoon now, so we set out to explore the town.
Very nice and very touristy. Plenty of souvenir shops that all sold the same things... and it was not cheap here... not at all.
A sandwich at a touristy restaurant could easily set you back 15 dollars.
This town was certainly much posher than Punta Arenas, it sort of did not have this end of the world charm that we had in Chile. We could have been in the Alps as well.
We did get some lovely ice cream though... and continued our walk around town.
Since Argentina is struggling economically the Argentinian Peso seems to devaluate continously and people prefer to get hard USD or EUR currency so it is cheaper (although not officially labelled) to pay in USD than exchange USD into Peso or get them at the ATM and paying with them but we still needed Peso for smaller things, like stamps and the Ice cream.
We continued our walk around town and found some nicer not too polished up spots on the back roads and soon it was time to meet up with our friends and do what we came here for.
Wilma had done some research already and told us that the Steak Restaurant "La Tablitas" has been mentioned in a couple of steak-lover blogs and ranked quite well.
It was famous for it's Patagonian Lamb, that was roasted openly over a big fire pit and it's Lomo dish (that's the Steak - I think fillet - lomo means "back").
The prices were not as bad as anticipated after seeing the prices for sandwiches in this town. For a feast of chorizo as a starter, filets and lambs with wine and beer we paid 50 USD each in the end. This is a lot of money but it was certainly worth the experience. The steak was great, the starter, the little bread with garlic butter and salsa and the atmosphere in the place... it all was perfect.
It was a great evening all crowned with a little espresso at the end.
This place was another example of the advantages of Cash Hard currency. Paying with card in Peso would have been 2300 Argentinian Peso (about 267 USD) but in cash paying in USD it was 200. Quite a bit of saving there.
After dinner we wanted to go and have a nice brew somewhere and the travelguide suggested a little brewery place up the road.
They brewed all their own beer but seem to still need a bit of practice at this. It was not too bad I though but certainly not a great beer either.
My friends all hated the place so we went on and found another little bar.
It was a great evening but even these great evenings have an end, so we all headed back to our little B&B place for the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment