We arrived in Rio Gallegos after around 6 hours having had to cross the border once again out of Chile and back into Argentina, I now had a silly amount of stamps for both countries with each taking up a page each of four stamps and Steve would be getting 2 more when he returned into Santiago to fly home. It did feel great leaving Punta Arenas at last so anywhere would do, even the small little known naval city of Rio Gallegos. Since we had not booked a hostel, our first priority was booking a hostel which we did as soon as we got to the bus terminal. This turned out to be quite an arduous walk with strong winds pushing us with our big heavy bags on our backs this way and that. At one point we took a footbridge over a motorway and had it not been for the railings I swear I would’ve been blown off! Once we finally found the place we got settled and used the wifi (hoorah for wifi having had to queue for one computer between 30 people at Punta Arenas), we headed out to find dinner with nothing on our minds but good steak! Wandering through the streets in search of the city centre we passed through a rather degenerative looking neighborhood with ancient rusty old vehicles and rabid dogs in every street we wondered how anyone could live there and that it was pretty clear why so many Argentineans wanted to live in BA. After about 15 minutes we finally saw some signs of life, shops, restaurants, people and so we promptly found a nice looking steakhouse. After a pretty decent bife de chorizo (our favourite steak closely followed by Lomo), we decided to head back and face the dogs and crazy speeding boy racers which seemed to want to compete not only with the speed at which they could go but also who had the loudest car! Having been petrified by a couple of mad dogs barking their heads off through bars we made it back without being mauled or run over! Mission successful. Now to get some sleep and on return to the hostel I find some French guy has taken my bottom bunk! Oh well, it was only for one night so I wasn’t too bothered.
Waking up the next day, it dawned on me that we had the whole day and night to kill in this dull little city. One positive was that it was a glorious day and the sun was warm on the walk into town. We had taken a map from the nice woman at the hostel (Hospedaje Elcira) and decided to head to the sea front. Once there we took a pic or two and decided to head back into the centro to see what was there. I thought I’d be constructive and got a haircut and later met Lee in the park who was soaking up the rays. We got some food at an all you can eat Chinese place although I was disappointed there was no rice or chicken balls but it was buffet at set price so we gorged ourselves nevertheless! We decided since the lonely planet mentioned it that we’d go see the Fawklands war museum which turned out to be closed and the Cultural museum which was quite possibly the strangest and most random museum I’ve ever been in with such a strange array of items on display that I actually laughed. Some of the items you couldn’t tell whether they were exhibits or simply arbitrary items belonging to the museum for example a chair and table in a corner or something dangling from the roof that could be part of the building but there again could be an exhibit! It did have a fairly good dinosaur display however although this did not really make it worth going into the museum at all but when you have a day to kill and it’s the highlight in the lonely planet then it had to be done. After about 10 minutes I had seen everything and Lee who had just got there too decided he’d seen enough and we left to go and lie out on the grass and soak up some of the nicest weather we’d seen in a while! We both agreed we couldn’t wait to get back up north just for the fact that it would be hopefully a bit warmer! After a while we headed back to the hostel to see if we could manage to get the England v Egypt friendly on the tv. Luckily no one was watching it and we found the channel and sat round to watch it. It wasn’t good to see us going one down but we ended up winning 3-1 against the African cup champions which wasn’t a bad result although the performance was rather poor! Anyway so now we’re off to Mendoza. Having got to the airport at 10 and having a 5 hour wait there we are now finally in the air having stopped off to change at BA in the direction of Mendoza for a short 1.40 hour journey. Steve’s last day with us sob sob before he heads off to Santiago to catch his flight home. Wondering how the poor guys there in the city have dealt with and coped with all the shocks. Anyway so Mendoza here we come, the wine making capital of Argenitna so looking forward to some good wine! Apparently they have their wine festival in early March so I’m hoping we’ll catch that!
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