No Gas in El Calafate, Argentina WTR Days 28-29

Friday, February 5, 2016, Worrall Travel R Day (WTRD) 28

Today, we have nothing special on our agenda.  There is a small golf course associated with a hotel in town that we might check out, a natural history museum, and also we would like to return to the bird preserve.  The skies are clear and the temperature is warming up to upper 70's.  We need to turn our rental car in tomorrow, so we plan to gas it up early, as we will not be driving after this afternoon.

Since the town is small, we thought we should get our gas first.  The stations are government owned, and there are two of them, one on each end of town.  These are mega stations that serve tourists and commercial vehicles (tour busses) that travel the length of Patagonia.  The first station only had diesel and it looked liked their regular gas pumps were being repaired, so we could not get gas there. Next we traveled across the little town to the station on the other side.  We could not believe our eyes; the queue into the station was not moving and several miles long!  Well, we would try again later.

We checked in with the Spa that operates the golf course.  Yes, the course was open to the public not just the hotel guests; we could rent golf clubs.  This course is an 18 hole, par 3 course on perhaps two acres of land.  How is that possible? There are only 6 holes, but 9 tee boxes.  The golf manager drew lines on our course map to show how we would zigzag around.  We could play 18 holes if we wanted, but we weren't eager to play more than 9 as we knew we would be spending most of our time figuring out where to go.

Originally, Russ wanted to play on Saturday.  But today, we would be the only ones on this little course.  Tomorrow there were six filled tee times starting at noon.  If you look at the map and the way the balls fly from every direction through the middle section (the death circle) and my history of being hit in the head by an errant tee off, you can imagine my reluctance to want to be on a course like this with other players.  So we opted to play on Friday, right there and then, skipping lunch and settling for an apple and a couple of granola bars.

We spent a couple of hours on "our private" and challenging little course, having a great time.  

After our game, we went to the Natural History Museum and spent a couple of hours learning more about the geology, dinosaurs, ice age, and indigenous people of Argentina.  It was very interesting.

My head is as big as his eyeball.  This dinos were gigantic.

By now, we were parched and hungry, so we headed back to a little cafe across from the bird preserve, where we drank a bottle of wine and ate empanadas (little meat and cheese pies).   We asked our waiter what was going on with the gas stations in town. Apparently, there is a blockade "workers strike??" on the roads coming into town preventing the gas trucks.  Yipes!  What a nightmare.  Glad we aren't traveling north on Route 40 anytime soon.

After our dinner, we took another 3 kilometer walk through the bird preserve. The weather was so warm and the air so still, most of the birds must have been hiding.  We saw few compared to the first day, but never the less enjoyed the walk.  

Before we returned to the hotel, we tried again to get gas.  No luck, no gas.  The queue was longer, and I think people were starting to camp in line.  We returned back to our BNB and got ourselves packed up, as we change accommodations in preparation for our Patagonia Adventure Tour.  Lights out at midnight!.

Saturday, February 6, 2009, WRTD 29

We bid farewell to our wonderful hosts, brother and sister team Javiar and Andrea, at South BnB.  By 10:00 am we are on the road, we deposit our bags at the new hotel, and check out the gas station situation before returning the car. One station is still not working, the other the queue goes on for as far as the eye can see.  Cars are in line, locked, and vacated.  People must have gone home for the night, or are taking turns sitting in the family car waiting.  We give up, bite the bullet, and return the car with a half full tank, and pay $50.00.

We enjoy one last day walking around town, shopping, eating at a cafe, returning to our new hotel to relax, read, and nap.

Tonight we met our group on the Patagonia Adventure tour.  Their are 8 of us walkers, and our tour leader.  We leave tomorrow morning for the Pietro Moreno Glacier.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel Rs in Patagonia

The Bad Lands - Bosque Petrificado La Leona, Argentina

Thursday, February 4, 2016, "Bad Lands" near the Rio Leona, WTRD 26

Yesterday, was partly cloudy and windy as rain clouds passed over the desert.  Today, we awoke to beautiful clear skies.  Unlike the summer desert in Las Vegas, today was cool and windy, in the high 60's.  It is a perfect day for hiking in the Bad Lands.   And that is where we are headed.

Russ and I were picked up at our BnB around 9:30 and driven about 130 kilometers out of El Calafate, to an interesting geological valley where we hiked for three hours in the Bosque Petrificado La Leona.  Before we turned off the main road, we stopped at the La Leona Hotel where Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, and Edith Place hid out for a month before leaving for Bolivia where they were ultimately killed in a shootout with the police.

Our guide explained that this was not a Shakespeare moment of 

To Pee or not to Pee, it was a must pee because the area we are in which we will be hiking has no facilities.  Cute!  So our little group of about 15 people all did our thing, and had some snacks as well before heading into the Bad Lands in our four wheel drive.  

We climbed up a mountain and came to a stop high atop a plateau.  The sight that met us as we peered over the plateau was vastly different than the area we were standing on and had driven through to get here.  In many ways it has the erosive qualities of South Dakota's Bad Lands or Bryce Canyon, but without the immensity and color.

Approximately 75 MILLION years ago, The west coast of South America, Chile and Argentina were flat river valleys, receiving 300 centimeters of rain a year and was lush, wet, and jungly and the home to dinosaurs.  When the Pacific tectonic plate collided with the South American Plate, the the Pacific plate pushed under, the South American plate pushed over on top and curled forward creating the Andes mountain range.  With the collision and pushing, magma oozed up from the depths pushed down by the Pacific plate and covered the region in iron rich basalt approximately 15-20 feet thick.  

This dense metallic like covering provided a protective covering over the rich valley plains before the ice age began. The Andes as they rose, began to capture the rain fall as snow at the higher elevations.  This snow built up to make the beautiful glaciers that can be seen today.  The eastern slope of the Andes is dryer, and the flat areas east became dry windswept deserts, subject to freezing cold temperatures. 

As the snow and glaciers were laid down and eventually started to crush their way downward, those areas not protected by the basalt eroded away more quickly, creating deep canyons and new valleys.  The original river valley that was  protected by the basalt did not erode as quickly and eventually became mountains and flat high plateaus as the unprotected areas washed away around them.

The area was eroded first by glaciers, eventually crushing  through the basalt towards the end of the ice age.  Subsequent erosion, began too expose the underlying treasures of trees and dinosaur bones captured under the protective basalt layer.  Today, what is visible is this fragile mud and sand stone sculpted mountains, valleys, and caves with fossil finds making their way to the surface.  We were reminded of Cappadocia and the Fairy Chimneys in Turkey.  However these mountains are more fragile and mud like rather than sandstone. The caves were never inhabited by indigenous people.  Pumas are usually the only inhabitants when birthing cubs.  This puma had a lama for supper near the caves.

On our hike today, we saw broken, rounded, jagged basalt moraine,

unusual eroded formations, 

Looking down on Mountains, not Mole Hills

biodiverse plant life that has grown in this inhospitable environment, 

Looks like moss covered rocks, but it is all plant that is hard like brain coral

petrified dinosaur bones and trees. 

Cow femur on left, petrified dinosaur femur on right

Petrified Wood

 We learned today as we examined fossils, rocks,

and petrified wood that you can quickly differentiate between dinosaur bones and rocks, because the dinosaur bones are hydrophilic (attracted to water).  If it is a dinosaur bone, it will stick to the inside of your inner lip.  I think I found one!

Another first...kissing a dinosaur fossil.

Too bad, all finds had to be left behind, no souvenirs.  It's been a very interesting day..  We loved it.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel R's in the Boscque Petrificado La Leona

Birds, Lamas, Cattle, Horses, El Calafate, Argentina

Tuesday, February 2, 2016, Laguna Nimez, WRTD 25

Our first full day in El Calafate was laid back.  We slept late, ate breakfast in the South BNB resto downstairs from our room, tied up our hiking boots and set out for the downtown area to explore and then towards Lake Argentino and the Laguna Nimez a bird preserve where numerous species of birds nest and summer here, including flocks of pink flamingos.

Ibis

We have been to numerous bird preserves, and this was by far the most beautiful and active. El Calafate is the recipient of federal funds from oil drilling and love by one of Argentinas presidents to build a beautiful infrastructure for tourists, broad streets, underground utilities, parks, malacon (waterfront walk way), and investment in environmental protection and an encouragement for international investors. Tourism here has increased from 35,000 to over 400,000 people per year.  Glacier viewing and exploration is of course the primary reason people come here.

Night Falls on El Calafate

Wednesday, February 3, 2016, Gauchos We are Not, WRTD 26

We decided to exercise the rental car today and headed  toward the Pietro Moreno Glacier, not to go all the way today, but to visit a cattle/sheep ranch and to go horseback riding on the Pampas.  Gauchos we are not, but we had  a spectacular morning riding along the Moreno Glacier melt lake.

Along the way to the Rio Mitre Ranch, we found a geocache at Elephant Rocks, a large formation that looked like a stand of facing elephants. 

The turn off from the main road was washboard gravel for a couple of miles until we reached the ranch. 

We were greeted by the owner Estephan and the many pet animals. Estephan's family have lived here for 150 years and hold 2000 hectares of land.  Lamas, a blind calf, and lots of long horned shaggy goats introduced themselves to us by rubbing noses, nibbling on our clothing, and untying and chewing on our boot laces.

Today, Estephan's brother operates the cattle ranch.  Estephan operates the restaurant and horseback riding. Martin and Tally were our guides. They are students working at the ranch for the summer.  

We were introduced to our horses, both old and slow by our request.  

Tally helps me mount

The saddles were not western with saddle horns and were covered with thick lambs wool.  It seemed to me they had very short stirups that were chest height for me. Even when lowered, the stirups were above my belly button and while my foot may have reached that high, without the saddle horn to hang on and pull my self up and over, I needed some assistance!  Fortunately, a large flat boulder was a great platform.

Once we were mounted, we were on our way for an hour ride.  The cattle  stood up, and moved out the way often running ahead of us as we followed in their dust and their mooing.

It was challenging to take photos while riding, but we did our best to capture the ride. The air was cool and fresh. We enjoyed the birds, 

ranch horses, 

and meandering around the edges of the glacier melt. 

Wonderful.

When we returned from our ride, the Patagonia lamb was on the grill,

and we feasted our stomachs and our eyes on the lunch and view.  

After lunch, we tried the Argentine drink of matea, like tea, but quite bitter.  It looks like pond scum floating in the water (tastes like it too), and one must drink it through a filtered straw. We are not fans of this drink.

While we visited with Estephan, he shared with us his family history, and the artifacts his family had collected from their land over the years, including a fossilized dinosaur egg, 

and a dinosaur bone fashioned as a bola by early indigenous people.  We couldn't have had a better morning!

On our return to El Calafate, we spent a couple of interesting hours at the Glaciarium, a museum dedicated to glaciology, and once again walked along the lake ponds fronting the lake enjoying the bird life.  

Tomorrow, we are taking a desert tour to the "Bad Lands" by the Rio Leona.

All is Well With the Worrall Travel Rs in El Calafate, Argentina

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