Rio Gallegos
The bus was supposed to arrive at 10.00 but eventually rocked and rolled in at 13.00! At 8.00 we opened our eyes (after just dropping off) to a group of 5 toddlers staring at John! They had gathered at the back of the bus where an impromptu crèche had formed…..and at times they looked like a little group of dark haired Midwhich cuckoos. They didn’t smile, just swayed and staggered with the rolling bus, staring. Eventually, one of us must have looked away and they left silently…leaving behind just one young girl who sat in the seat opposite and stared so much we eventually felt obliged to entertain her. We opened a packet of crackers and ate them slowly….2 mins later she left and returned with her own bag of crackers. Without catching her gaze we then bit around our crackers to make the shapes of whales, guanacos and almost managed a Rhea until it’s neck broke. From the corner of our eyes we could see tiny crumbs dropping down and listened to a sound like a hamster eating a cuttle fish….we eventually could not resist the urge to look, and expecting to see the coastline of Norway or an Armadillo we saw instead…… a triangle! Well, we won that competition! The boredom was finally broken when we stepped off the bus and jostled with passengers to retrieve our bags. We staggered across the road to the ‘Express’ office to collect our bikes and discovered it had just closed and would not open until 3.30! We found the time of the next bus to Calafate but decided to hold off from booking until we had the bikes. It was at 6.00. At 3.30 I returned to the Express Office and chatted with a local who was there to collect some car parts for his Garage. The office opened at 3.45 and he kindly waited next to me whilst the staff looked at a computer screen shaking their heads. He said that the bikes were not here (even though they were sent the day before) and we would have to return the next day at 9.00!! We said our goodbyes and I went to tell John the bad news. As we were sat tired and despairing Garage man suddenly appeared and gave us his telephone number in case we needed any help. It’s amazing how often we go from exasperation to amazement at the kindness and hospitality of the Argentineans. We got a taxi into ‘the most boring town in Argentina (according to Garage man) and stopped outside a hotel recommended in the Rough Guide. We made a mental note to e-mail them and tell them it was a building that was in the process of falling apart and went onto to the next hotel which thankfully had 4 straight walls and looked v. nice. It even had wi-fi so we added a photo for each day since the Lake District. Slept well!
A day that required a drink!
