Day of the Living Dead
Day 188
We left Bariloche yesterday afternoon on a 5pm overnight bus to Comodoro Rivadavia. I have to mention the service on this bus. First off we got wine with dinner, yes they have hot dinner service on buses here. Not only did we get wine but we got a full styrofoam cup of it. Classy no, but we were happy. we didn’t think it could get better but then after dinner they came around asking if anyone wanted a night cap of scotch! “Is this guy serious?” I asked Jordana as I motioned for a glass. For some reason Jordana declined. In my books this was one helluva a bus ride.
We arrived in the bleak oil city of Comodoro at 6:20am and decided to continue south on the next bus. There really isn’t anything to see in Comodoro. This is the thing about Patagonia, its vast. Its a huge region and parts of it are some of the most beautiful on the planet. The rocky peaks of the Andes, clear rushing rivers and glaciers, some the only advancing glaciers on earth. The other side of that is that most of Patagonia is empty, wind blown, treeless, cold and flat. Our next destination was Rio Gallegos, 800km south of Comodoro. We decided to continue on that 8am bus but only if we stopped for a night in the small town of San Julian.
We eventually arrived in San Julian at 2:30pm and walked about 1km to the waterfront. “Where is everyone?” There was not a single person on the main street of this town of 6,000 people, and what made it worse was the cold, stiff wind that blew down the desolate main street. Add to that no trees and it started to feel like a horror movie. There is however something to do here. Just outside of the towns bay is a large colony of penguins and every so often a penguin is seen wandering the towns streets. How cool is that?
We found a nice warm room at a cosy place that nobody worked at. Seriously we had to go next door to get any info. After showering we went looking for Pinocho, he’s the guy who runs trips to see the penguins. We found his place, all boarded up. Great, stuck in this town with nothing to do. Apparently he isn’t open for the season yet. By this tome the wind was really blowing, easily below zero with the wind chill. So we joined the rest of the town indoors and watched tv in our room. We did this until 8pm, that’s when restaurants open for dinner here. People eat dinner in Argentina no earlier than 9pm. Usually around 9:30 is busiest and that includes a weekday. Dinner was good, fresh seafood with finally some good malbec. We rushed back to our room through the biting cold. That brings to a conclusion our day in small town Patagonia. It was fun to get off the beaten track but I won’t complain when we hop on a bus tomorrow and get back on it.
Tags: Argentina, Patagonia, Penguins, San Julian
Michael Coroneos
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