Well… i think i can say that my another dream from the time when i was a boy is comming true… It´s still hard to believe to me that I´m in Patagonia ! Great feeling when you´re realizing that you´re there where you wanted to be in your dreams – Peru, Patagonia, Africa, China, or any other different heard only in stories land…
PATAGONIA ! :)
I´m writing this post really in the south of the South America – exactly from the El Calafate (Argentina) – Check it out – it´s here: El Calafate – Google Maps
Nice don´t you think? The disadvantage of going SO SOUTH is that is going to be colder… even that we have a spring here – nice to see small leaves on the trees however the temperatures are around 10 or 15 degrees. Have i mentioned the winds ? No ? Patagonia is famous of the winds… in a few hours the wind can be as strong as 150km per hour… during our stay it was not so strong but even though it was difficult to get to the bus…
BTW if somone is reading it (sorry for the mistakes.. it´s 1:37am here… veeeerrrry slow comp and very slow inet connection) i´m sorry for the long pause in the posting of new informations, however in this new world of technology not having a new toys like palmtop, cellphone, or netbook with wifi or cellular connection it´s difficult sometimes to connect to the global network. For example yesterday for a great mountain village El Chalten when we were on the trek to see the great mountain Fitz Roy (about 3400m asl) and Torre Glacier – at the village there was only the satellite connection at the inet cafe. Of course at the hostel has the WIFI with the satetllite connection to internet but we havent any appliance to connect.
During that time many things happened… really A LOT ! I´ll try to mention it at first: last post i managed to write from the Montevideo…with the plans of going to the Iguazu Falls. And we managed to get there. But it wasn´t so easy like on the map. First we bought a ticket to the Salta in Uruguay. Then we have to cross the river which divides Uruguay and Argentina and come to Concordia City (Arg). Heh CONCORDIA :) LOL. It was a really nice city in a american’-mexican style. Builidng has max. 1 floor, map of the city as the chessboard – regular parallel lines… warm springs – we´ve been there – expensive for the foreigners about 50pln per person but nice when enetering for the whole day. However locales come in for less then 8pln :( I recommend to prepare such politics in Poland – foreigners should pay twice us much as local people from the area. Not mentioning that all the US visitors to the countries of the Sth Am have to pay US$ enetering the country – we should do the same, – we still have visas.
From Concordia (ARG) it was easy we bought direct ticket to the Iguazu Falls – heh… direct here it mean completly different – we bought coche-cama so sleeping seats on the 1st floor of the doubledecker in the bus to the Iguazu.
When we came to the Puerto Iguazu in the early morning (before 9 am), and after eating some empanadas con carne and leaving our backpacks in deposit we´ve decided that we want to see the famous waterfalls today. So we did it. Waterfalls of Iguazu was great ! You´ll see it on the photos.
Then we took the local bus to the Paraguay. The closest city of Paraguay was Ciudad del Este. Unfortunately we didn´t know that everybody from Argentina is going to do the shopping there. Cosmetics, electronics and others all of that cheaper more than 30% than in Argentina.
After a short long in the rays of the hot sun (there is tropical climat at the iguazu area) -31 degrees- we came to the omnibus station and bought the tickets to the Asuncion – capital of Paraguay.
We came there very late and after a long by the local bus and with a little help with gps we found the only one hostel in Anuncion. It was great except the mosquitos and the smell of the candles against the mosquitos. At the city there ware a lot of Police so was safe, and the city was really nice, a lot of places worth to see – even though the buildings seems abandoned. We´ve hunted some Filigree Jewerly and went to our bus… to go south… really south… to the final destination – Usuaia the city the most southermost city in the world… but it wasn´t so simple.
I have to check it but from the Asuncion to the our previous location El Chalten was more then 3000 km !! We´ve spend more then 3 nights in the buses (and days) to go south.
First stop from Asuncion after about 24h journey – Cordoba. After sightseeing Cordoba during the day – the next stop San Carlos de Bariloche (more then 400 pesos for the 1200km in the coche cama) After 3 hours of sightseeing the city – bus to the El Chalten via famous Ruta 40 (I have photos ! :) ) Then small trekking – to see Fitz Roy and Torre Glacier and after two days we are here in El Calafate.
Our next stops: Puerto Natales (Chile), and Ushuaia – the most southermost city… after that only we can go north :)
