After 11 days of luxury confined aboard our ship, we woke up at 4:15am to catch a 5am bus. For the next 20hrs we’ll be confined to the pedestrian recliner of a long-distance bus, separated by a 4hr lay-over in possibly the least appetizing city along the Atlantic Coast. The only bonus was that the bus terminal has Wi-Fi!
We’re quite familiar with the formalities this time, as it was our 3rd time riding between El Calafate → Ushuaia! We were prepared this time with snacks, entertainment and a massive desire to sleep through it all. The strange part about this trip is that, although Ushuaia is in Argentina, it is located on an island and isn’t connected to the mainland of Argentina. The only road back to Argentinean soil is… through Chile! And Chile border customs are like, the most stringent we’ve seen so far, making quite a fuss about luggage ensuring you’ve got no contraband…. We were smart this time, and ate all our fruits before crossing the border =P
Arriving in El Calafate at 12:30am, it was dark and the streets were quiet, and we were headed straight to our hostel which was 15min out of the town, situated atop a hill on the outskirts. The hill seems like a new development, and despite the map having addresses, there were NO FREAKING SIGNS TELLING YOU WHICH STREET IT IS. In the end, we had to ask another hostel who were nice enough to tell us “Oh, I think that place is closed”. W T F? We just received a confirmation from them last night! So either way, we walked over to the hostel, which was indeed closed. They told us to walk over to their hotel, and they’ll give us a room there. And it’s only another 15-min walk back where we came from, and then up another hill. Walking around after a 20hr bus ride at 2am is not very enjoyable, and we really thought the stupid hostel should have at least let us know when they RESPONDED to our booking. Retarded.
Checking in at 1.5hrs after arriving into town at 2am, which was really a hotel with 4-beds in a single room. We showered, and fell fast asleep once the lights went dark.
Rio Gallegos 3hr pit stop in the ugliest city we’ve seen in Argentina.
Sunset getting earlier by the day
Join us as we set sail around South America 