Cascada del Salto
The night was pretty wild and we woke to drumming rain and the sudden drumming of a hand on the flysheet! ‘Hola…Hola…Hola?’.We unzipped the door and saw the close up face of the campsite owner at a 90 degree angle, black hair swirling around her face and into her mouth. ‘Biciclettas no aqui!’, she shouted over the wind, pointing to our bikes leaning against 2 dead Poplar bushes along the perimeter fence. We did as we were asked and tethered them to a wind pruned tree which had managed to reach 3m in height before being swept at a dramatic angle. We met a German cyclist and chatted about the weather, road conditions, drivers and dogs. He had been here 6 years previously when there were 40% less buildings. Apparently, the town only really started to develop in 1985 when it was ‘aquired’ from Chile and then catered for climbers preparing to tackle Fitz Roy and the Cerro Torre. Now it plays host to walkers, cyclists and local day trippers as the road has finally been paved all the way from El Calafate. There is still a huge amount of building work, new foundations and there is even a new bus station and information centre nearing completion at the entrance to the town. After coffee and empanandas we walked to the local waterfall (Cascada del Salto) against the prevailing wind. With our arms tucked behind our backs adopting a streamlined profile we past people walking in the opposite direction with their jackets held open to catch the wind and blow them along. They staggered along, leaning back slightly and using their heels to dig into the stone and gravel road surface.....something to look forward to on the way back! The waterfall was quite impressive after all the recent rain and was a popular picnic spot. Back in town we met two American cyclists (Seth and Kirsten) from Colorado who had cycled from Peru via Bolivia and Chile. We chatted about the usual topics and had a surprise when it came to the chasing dog stories. In Bolivia, Seth had been dragged down by a pack of dogs before he could reach for his Mace spray! He then drew an 18” machete from his bike and said ‘Now I got this baby the dogs don’t bother me any longer!! We decided not to bother them any longer and ran back to tent where the storm alarm was going off again and and big spots of rain were starting to fall. Dinner out! We had one of the best meals in Argentina again (‘El Muro’ on St. Martin) in a town we initially thought we would struggle to buy provisions!
slightly theatrical pose!
