I kept sneezing when I was cooking yesterday. Maybe my room mate had spread her cold to me. So I planned to take a good rest and stayed in the sun for the day.
I checked online to see the price of the plane ticket to Ushuaia. The low rate only applied to local Argentinians so I decided to go directly to the airline to buy it. After I left the hostel and was on my way to town, I realised it was their siesta (or lunch) time so the office was closed. Well, work life balance did exist there.
To fill this time gap, I headed to Largo Argentino. I thought the view would be good but it was only so so. So I went to Laguna Nimez. I heard there were flamingoes there. To enter into the park, I needed to pay 35 peso. I didn’t. I had seen flamingoes before and I wasn’t a bird fanatic so I decided to stroll around outside the park. I saw some flamingos far away. The weather was extremely good. The sun was shining. It was windy so it wasn’t that hot. The view was nice. It was very quiet. I could only hear the birds. I liked that tranquility.
I stayed there until the airline (Aerolineas Argentina) office opened, i.e. 3:30pm. The plane ticket cost 815 peso, much more expensive than the ones offered to local residents. But if I took the bus, it’d be more or less the same but it’d take 20+ hours to get there. So, flying was the way, like what the Argentinian backpacker suggested.
I went back to the Laguna. I really like the tranquility there. I’m not a fan of birds but hearing them in the silence was good.
I then went back to the hostel and cooked. Nothing exciting happened. It was a quiet day. It was a day full of blessing.
It had been more than 3 months after I left home. So fast! (As I read my journal now, I can see that I was getting used to this kind of backpacking lifestyle.) I had been in Argentina for more than one month! I decided to leave this expensive place after visiting a few more places and maybe Antarctica?
I took the plane from El Calafate to Ushuaia. It was quick and the view was amazing. I liked both El Calafate and El Chaltén.
Ushuaia was a bit disappointing to me. I liked El Calafate and El Chaltén more.
I asked the hostel manager to check the last minute deal to Antarctica for me. They hadn’t got anything yet so I waited. I’d stay in their hostel for 3 nights because that gave me a free airport transfer which I had used and a good last minute deal.
I walked around town. There were many huts around. They all offered cruises around Ushuaia. But I guessed the ones offered by the hostel were good enough. I caught a cold from my room mate in El Calafate. That’s the bad thing about staying in a hostel with so many travellers crammed in one room – cold, snores, etc.)
Things were expensive in Ushuaia. Meat and vegetables were expensive. Fish, even Ushuaia is along the coast, was expensive. And I saw all these prices in supermarkets, not in restaurants.
One prominent improvement about myself was my Spanish. I had a room mate from Cordoba. We conversed in Spanish. Another person here in the hostel spoke to me in Spanish and I could understand him. Not 100% but good enough to get his meaning. I was so proud of myself.
Anyway, let’s see what awaited me next.
25 – 26 January 2013
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