Feb 5-  I discovered that it is true what they say- it is a long way to the ends of the earth.  I left Boston at 7 am and arrived 10pm the next day at my hotel in El Chalten, which looked something like an US Army Quonset hut on the outside, but was actually quite nice inside.

Anyway, left 5 ft of snow in Boston and then arrived in Miami where it was 75 degrees.  I gave a passing thought to just going to the beach and then posting pictures of Patagonia grabbed off the internet to the blog, a few with me photoshopped in to fool the masses... but then I thought I would miss the Refugio experience andd so boarded the plance for Argentina.

Breezed through Argentina customs in 10 minutes.  In fact, did not even have to show the form where I declared I was bringing in all sorts of infected fruit.  Made all my connections, had a pleasant coffee with my friendly cambio guy and got to Patagonia fine.  The bus then left on time and I started thinking- wow!- this place is like Switzlerand- everything runs on time.  And then while we were on this very comfy bus to El Chalten (the hiking capital of Argentina- all of a sudden the bus driver, stops in the middle of the road and another bus coming the other way stops and the bus drivers get out and started to talking to each other for about 15 minutes and while I dont speak Spanish, I would not swear it was all business.  So they reminded me that I am indeed in South America.

Looking at the scenery from the bus was interesting.  It was kind of like Nevada meets Lake Louise- this barren tumbleweed looking plain riven by tthese tourquoise rivers and interrupted by these enormouus glacial lakes, all against a background of jagged snow capped peaks to the west.

The bus stopped at a place where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance hid out for a month.  If they were looking for obscurity, I am guessing they found it (maybe that is why they only stayed a month- a little too much obscurity maybe).  If they had set up a wind farm, they probably could have skipped the bank robbing as the place was pretty windy.

El Calafate seemed to attract a young crowd... If my hiking buddy Craze had been along, he would have been the oldest person in town by a few months.  As it was, I seemed to hold that dubios honor .... by about 30 years.  Not sure I saw anyone over 25 there.

More with a few pics later.