Magical Mystery Tour

Today we're in Buenos Aires even though we were supposed to be in Santiago. This is less terrible than it seems due to the awesomeness of LAN airlines. Yesterday we got to the airport at El Calafate to be told that our flight was cancelado because of "rain." Later we learned that a deluge had struck Buenos Aires. Anyway, bummer, right? We explained to the check in staff that we were supposed to fly internationally and they asked us to wait in the cafe and they'd see what they could do. An hour later, we're being whisked back to El Calafate to a hotel that LAN paid for for us to stay in for an indeterminate period of time, eating lunch that LAN also paid for. Awesome thing #1. (An American airline would never put you for a weather related delay.) So we ate and were resting in the room for an hour or two when the front desk calls. A bus will pick us up "shortly". LAN has gotten another flight for us. The hotel doesn't know where or when. Please don't tell the other passengers as not everyone is going. Very mysterious. The bus (a much smaller one than before) shows up to pick us and a few other passengers up. LAN guy is there, says we'll get to Santiago. Doesn't say how. I theorize exotic routes: Santiago via Punta Arenas or Islas Malvinas.

We get to the airport, wait in more lines and are told that we'll be going to Buenos Aires and probably be put up for the night there if there's no flight available (likely). We spend even more time waiting for the plane (which is late). We're a little grumpy, but mostly happy to be on the move again. We meet a nice couple from the States and bond over our travel woes. On the flight, we make another friend, a Porteña who's also been delayed. The word on the street is that LAN canceled a flight to Ushuaia to free up a plane to Buenos Aires. Awesome thing #2 (for us, the people going to Ushuaia were probably bummed).

At Aeropaeque Jorge Newberry we stagger off the plane, head over to baggage claim and discern from the LAN agent there that we now need to go to check-in and they'll sort things out. Near the head of the line, we eventually get to an agent (none the agents seemed to have been forewarned about our arrival, btw) and after a lot of checking with people over the radio, we get checked into a next day flight to Santiago de Chile. Furthermore, we have a hotel paid for the night and a ride to the hotel and to the airport in the morning. We were worried that it'd be a dump, but it turns out that Hotel Emperador is a swank, five star hotel. Kudos to LAN! This is almost certainly the best airline experience I've ever had. <knocks on wood>. So, here we sit waiting for our flight. On to Chile!

As it turns out in fact, no.

Yeah, it's raining in Buenos Aires, so apparently, all flights have been canceled. The domestic airport appears to be totally flooded and not accepting flights at all. So, at this point, LAN has booked us into a hotel with a plane full of new friends, agreed to feed us 3 squares, and will call us this afternoon with details about what our fate will be. ALL flights out of the country go through ONE airport in Argentina, which is kind of dumb, in situations like this, if you ask me.

On the one hand, it's really awesome of LAN to put us up and feed us for a weather-related delay - no American airline would do that anymore - and on the other hand, this sucks. I will wait for the person from LAN to call us back before I call the Santiago hotel and let them know that we will not be arriving today.

Here's hoping that we can get there tomorrow.

Adios Argentina! Maybe.

We're off to the aeropuerto to go to Buenos Aires and then a flight to Santiago that has unto-forth been blocked from us checking in.

Wish us luck!

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This is the famed Mnt. Fitz Roy

This is the famed Mnt. Fitz Roy, originally uploaded by Lbc42.

We climbed a really big rock today

We climbed a really big rock today, originally uploaded by Lbc42.

My car is down there somewhere in that town...

Some El Calafate pictures are up

by the way, on Flickr, if you are interested.

I'm still a stranger in a strage land

Weird place-ness continues...

Yesterday we got picked up before the sun came up to go out for 10 hours, 7 of which were on a boat to experience the crazy Glaciers of El Calafate. We got to the port, got on a catamaran (boy, do I love a catamaran), and set sail for a long haul over the weirdest water that I have ever seen. It's called "glacial milk" here because it is glacier water, and the sediments are held in permanent suspension. Here's a pretty good representation of what it looks like against a wall of rock, which is what this whole place is made out of:


We started to see some icebergs, which were small after seeing the ones in Antarctica, but still very pretty:




check out the water dripping off of this one:


Eventually we rounded a corner and were shows way off in the distance, Upsala Glacier, which is packed in with bergs, so we could not get very close. They wheeled us around the corner and we saw this, flowing like an avalanche (in slow motion), coming down the mountain (thanks Pepper). This is Seco. Check out how the trees roll right up to just before the glacier line:


And then round another corner to see Spegazzani, which rolls into the lake:


(that wall of glacier, up from the lake surface is about 100 meters tall, just for scale).


I think this piece of ice is proof that there are Decepticons hidden in there somewhere, waiting for Megatron to find the all-spark and return them to service:


ANd then a long haul over to another finger of this impossibly huge lake (like, you sometimes cannot see the other side, big) to see Perito Moreno (also really huge), but it was really sunny out and very difficult to photograph. I bet Chris has better ones:




And then back through the desert (this is right outside of the port)


for a bus ride home through every crazy steep, dirt road in this town in a huge bus to drop everyone back off at their hotels. I'd tell you more about that, except that it would make my mom concerned for my safety and I'd have to get an email about it about not getting on buses like that again.

Today we are off to El Chalten, where we hope to see Mount Fitz Roy. I'm not sure what the big deal is about this mountain, but Chris wants to see it, so 3 hours of us driving through Guanacos is what we will do!

We are having a pretty awesome sunset tonight

We are having a pretty awesome sunset tonight, originally uploaded by Lbc42.

No, really, I'm in the desert

No, really, I'm in the desert, originally uploaded by Lbc42.

We are in the oddest place ever

Ok, so Chris says to me "hey, let's go to El Calafate, where there's a bunch of mountains and glaciers!" I say "yay! Let's go!"* Then, my friend on the boat says "oh, the glaciers there are a trip because it's all green forested right up to the glacier!"

Ok, close your eyes. Picture that.

Now here's where I am. A gigantic desert. Like full on, Arizona-style flat and brown.

WTF?

I can, in fact, see snow-capped mountains in the distance, and there's a gigantic, ice-blue (glacier fed) lake very close to here, where tomorrow, we will get on a boat for 8 hours and they will take us to the faces of a bunch of glaciers that are all facing the water. Still. This place is absolutely NOT what I expected. It *is* nice that it is warmer here. We can wear t-shirts only during the day. The town is kind of cool with shops and restaurants; it reminds me of the towns in Utah and Colorado, especially with their faux log-cabin facings.

I'm just tripping out that somehow, I am in a desert. How odd.

Oh, and they have a whole shop full of those pervy fairy statues that I showed you a picture of from Ushuaia. What's up with that?

*this is Noelle filter paraphrased, of course

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