We’ve been reading about the icy cold gripping North America while basking in sunny seventy degree days and not much wind.
Our plan today is to take a boat ride on Lake Argentina and didn’t nine hours puttering around the three glaciers that apparently tumble into the lake. We have been advised to bring rain gear and sunscreen to give you an idea how variable the weather is in Patagonia.
And then there is the forecast which doesn’t seem promising to me but Layne checked in last night and they didn’t tell her the tour was postponed so we press on as planned.
Thirty mile per hour winds seem an ample sufficiency to me, but 58mph gusts seem an over abundance for a relaxed tour by boat. This is Argentina so perhaps they are of tougher stuff than I though I would be happy to postpone a day or two.
Cabanas and Camping Calafate is a funny place to stay. The facilities are fine with electrical plug ins and hot showers, a sink to wash dishes and even a dump station for our porta potty but the other campers are a bit standoff-ish.
The other campers, and there have been lots of them over the weekend, have been keeping to themselves. It reminds me a bit of campgrounds we have stayed at in the US usually in state and national parks where casual encounters are viewed with mistrust and suspicion.
I made a joke to the Belgian couple above after I introduced myself in French about how Land Rover has been turning drivers into mechanics for the past eighty years. He did eventually fix a leak in his hydraulic clutch and they are gone to be replaced by a Spanish family touring South America with three small children in a motorhome built on a diesel Ford Transit van.
The others are local Argentines camping for the weekend or Brazilians, lots of them, on summer vacations. We did get a visit from an American couple passing through. We’ve been in touch online as they too drive a Promaster and have dogs but they are in a hurry to get home and plan to ship back to Mexico next month.
That leaves us, hoping to leave Monday to continue a slow meander north with a full water tank (30 gallons of 110 liters) and an empty toilet.
So we are watching the weather and maybe touring glaciers and maybe not. I hope you have a more enjoyable Sunday in the event our tour is postponed.
A rough sketch of our hoped for route over the next two or three weeks. Man proposes and God disposes, as they say.
