Flying to El Calafate

I woke up at 7.30 and dragged all my belongings into the hallway so not to wake the others. There was only the girl who cooks breakfast around. She was lovely and helped me check-out, pay and told me where to get the bus. I raced down to the stop just in time for 8.30am. Although Marissa had thought the bus didn’t stop at this particular one, there were lots of other people with bags waiting. I didn’t have time to top up my Sube card but luckily it didn’t decline! I got a seat and by 9am we were at the airport.

Check-in took no time at all and the airport was tiny, so I had to wait around a lot.
At 10.30am I went through security at the wrong gate and then the flight was delayed by almost an
hour. I had no idea what was going on if they spoke English on the overhead speaker it was
unintelligible. I bought some Rapa Nui chocolates which were delicious. A set of 5 truffles became my lunch, supplemented by an alfajores and bag of nuts we got on the plane. I still felt exhausted and
almost slept the entire plane ride. I touched down in Buenos Aires and had an hour of waiting at the
gate.

It felt really exciting being on the next flight. Most of it was so high I could barely see land below, just one stretch of road going forever. Then we went over the sea. As we were coming into land I could see Mt Fitzroy sticking up like jagged teeth above the clouds. A beautiful orange and pink sunset illuminated the clouds and reflected in the lakes below. The ground was on a scale you couldn’t understand. From high up, it looked like water drainage lines in the sand at the beach. But as you got closer you saw each line was an enormous glacial valley, horizontal valleys feeding into like fern leaves. And then you got closer again and could see icing-sugar snow dusting the south side of each valley wall, but then you realised that snow was actually a huge mountaintop. It kept going, the scale redefining itself and the size of the land below until we landed.

I bought a return fare to the airport and the man behind me was also going to the same hostel. He was lovely and from Barcelona. I was staring at his food in the van so he offered me some, embarrassed I looked out the window to some of the best stars I’ve seen. The town of El Calafate is the biggest town for hundreds of kilometres, and it’s tiny. The planets were so bright, at first glance I mistook Venus for the moon! I could see Mars and Jupiter with the naked eye.

I arrived at the hostel, tired and hungry. There was an in-house restaurant where I ordered a lamb
cannelloni with a glass of red wine. I sat with Mr Barcelona by the fireplace but discovered that neither of our knowledge of the other’s language was good enough to have a meaningful conversation. Around 11.30pm I went to bed because you have to book tours at 7am in the morning. He looked disappointed when I left.