Matts travel blog: Argentinian patagonia

i went to rio gallegos in an effort to get off the gringo trail and avoid the tourist prices, but it turned out that rio gallegos , though utterly boring , is just as expensive. so when i met up with paola and josefa we decide to make an excursion back up along the mountain range to make the most of the scenery. first we took a bus to calafate and then onto a small town called "el chalten" beside the Fitz roy mountain range. the landscape is truely beautiful in this part of the world. however form a cultural point of view there really isnt much to see. el chalten is like a purpose built hiking town which is still under construction for the most part and calafate is quite a tourist trap, the businesses are charging european prices and higher which is inconsistent with the argentinian economy. though it seems as though most of the shoppers who are tourists from the united states or europe seem not to notice or care.
also we discovered that lots of the hostels are giving out extra rip-off prices for "non-latino customers". so paola was permanently appointed with the job of calling hostels for prices. it was amusing however, arriving with paola to the hostels that had lied to me, causing an embarrasing moment for the receptionist.
on the last night before crossing the border back to puerto natales i decided i would splash out on an argentinian steak...and frankly .. it wasnt that great....... and not a patch on the whopper steak i had in la paz bolivia that im still regretting not taking a photograph of.

we had planned to follow "route 4o" up as fa as bariloche (also being referred to by argentine tourst industry as the che guevara route) but the bus companies and hotels were just charging way to much, so we dicided to ditch the che guevara route , assuming that che himself would do the same thing in our position.

unfortunatly it seems the reputaion of "fantastic prices, luxurious buses and epic steaks" is no longer applicable in the south of argentina (if it ever was)..as one old chap from beunos aires told me, the province of santa cruz is actually 3 times more expensive than buenos aires. it actually makes chile seem cheap!

argentina.... your letting me down... so im off back to chile, dont cry for me.

we did however have a really good time on our little adventure. little josefa took well to the travelling life. see fotos. all fotos below are of "el chalten"

che guevara sticker for sale in el chalten.
i suppose its worth pointing out that che, whos full name is "ernesto guevara lynch" is actually part irish. must have been the revolutionary part!
(dont believe me? .. see link below)
the name "che" by the way, is the argentine way of saying "man" or "guy". everybody is "che".