It’s been nice weather since I’ve been down in Patagonia but this morning was very chilly. I’m glad I bundled up. Today it’s off to kayak up the Upsala channel of Lake Argentina. This involves a pretty lengthy boat ride up the lake to get to where we would by kayaking. While standing on the shore I was treated to one of the best sunrises I’ve ever seen. And… naturally, despite being all alone at the end of the earth without my friends… I ran into a fellow nomad and her husband. I literally cannot go anywhere without running into someone I know these days! The ride out was gorgeous. It’s hard to describe the color of the water but it was this really neat mind of mineral turquoise color. Despite having done quite a bit of kayaking I’d never had to go all in and wear a dry suit etc. before so that was an interesting addition to this outing. Much to my disappointment all the icebergs had blown up the channel so we didn’t get to kayak around any of them. The wind was coming up and the water was a lot more rough than I expected. After several hours of paddling through that I was exhausted. After our little loop around the channel it was the ride back and then I went and crashed. All around gorgeous day.
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I was caught up working this morning so I didn’t venture out from the hotel until a little later. I had to swing by the office of the outfit that puts together this kayak excursion to pay the fee for the national park the next day. Upon learning who I was I got a collective sigh of recognition from everyone in the office. Apparently my struggles to get down here and the loss of all of my friends was well known. I had lunch at this sandwich place, 9405, and had a killer good lamb burger. Then posted up at my usual little wine and coffee shop to work the rest of the day. It’s an early start tomorrow so I had dinner back at the hotel and went to sleep early.
Despite being down here in El Calafete I have a lot of work to do so the fact that I’m the only one who made it hasn’t actually been that major of a set back. After breakfast and some work at the hotel I went over to my new haunt La Tienda De Vinos to work for most of the day. For a change of scenery I tried out Borges & Alvarez Librobar later in the day which is also a neat place but much more gimmicky than my little wine/coffee shop. In the evening I had dinner at La Zaina which was excellent. The space is cool on top of that. Then it was back to the hotel to rest. Despite not having had time to do anything yet I have to say that I am loving it down here. It’s so nice to be out of the racket of a major city and to have a few days where I’m not constantly racing around. Not to mention the weather is jut like Colorado. Fall leaves, cool but not cold and perfect sunny days.
While on the surface my expedition to Patagonia has been an unmitigated disaster, I have to say I’m really loving it down here. Being forced to arrive early as well as still needing to work I didn’t have any real plans for the day. So I did what I do most days and tracked down a place to work from. I came across a great wine and coffee shop and posted up there for the entire day. It was a gorgeous day too, felt just like fall in Colorado. Sadly, I wasn’t very productive. In the evening I walked down the main drag and stopped in for a pizza at this place, La Tolderia before heading home.
Basically a traveling disaster. An early morning flight out of Cordoba meant I had to be up at the crack of dawn to gather my things and get to the airport. It’s a small airport so that wasn’t too bad. Actually, I’ve been impressed at how nice the Argentine airports are. Breeze through there on the one hour flight to Buenos Ares. In addition to having my phone break recently I also broke my sunglasses so naturally I had to stop and buy some new aviators. Not sure if it was because I was in the airport or because I’m in Argentina but those were 100USD more than at home. But you know… they’re essential to my 1940’s explorer aesthetic so I had to buy them.
One of the troubles with reconciling this life with my job is that a lot of my work has to be done extremely rapidly around the release of economic data in the U.S. This means I can’t fly at certain times and I can’t ever get away from work. Well today I had some of this work to do during my layover and I was cutting it close. A release came out ten minutes before my flight took off so I’m tethering my laptop and working as I walk down the the jetway. Pretty frantic boarding.
Four hour-ish flight down to El Calafete in Patagonia. Another nice small airport and an easy and beautiful drive into town to my gorgeous hotel. Where upon I realize I no longer have my passport. It’s one of those terrible moments too because I know exactly where it is. It had to have fallen out of my pocket on the plane and is probably sitting on my seat. Well I’m also out of cash so I cant get a cab back. So into town to find an ATM, not too hard. But it’s a small town and I wander around forever before I find a cab to take me back to the airport. This girl was great and waited for me too. But alas no passport. The saddest thing about that is the loss of all my stamps!
But I have a conference call in twenty minutes so I have to race back to my hotel and jump on that. Field that for several hours and by then I’m exhausted. It’s also come to light that my friends I’m meeting aren’t going to make it out at all because of the airline strike. With a ton of work still to do it seems that the only thing for it is wine and sunsets.
Despite the ordeal I still felt great. Over the course of all my travels this little town is the first place that has really felt like home. It reminds me of any of a dozen other little places in the Rockies so being trapped here for a week… or forever won’t be bad at all.
Just a day of work. Worked out, heading to the co-working space. Our place in Cordoba is really nice and has great views of the cathedral. I couldn’t figure the coffee out, though. Powered through all day. Ate at a place called IT! Italy for dinner which I didn’t really care for. …possibly because I couldn’t figure that place out either. Then headed home and worked some more.
My normal first day routine of aimlessly wandering the streets was interrupted by an all day rainstorm. That suited me fine, however, because I am closing in on finishing a project that’s been on the back of my mind of years so I just went to ground and worked on that all day.
Relatively smooth travel day. Departure at the crack of dawn to head to the airport. We had a connection through Santiago and, surprisingly, the plane for that leg was a 787 which I’d never been on so it was interesting to see one of those. Brief layover at a nice lounge in Santiago and then on to Córdoba and the logistical nightmare of getting everyone to their places. Finally settled in around 9p local and went right to sleep.
