One Apple A Day #202
El Calafate, January 11th, 2017
Our lunch is a real treat. Hidden behind bushes, sitting on the back of Cricchetta with the skull of a horse at our feet, we eat our delicious cold pasta with tuna in 30 seconds. In the meanwhile a kid on the other side of the road — we don’t know where he came from, there must be another house behind the trees — keeps shooting at us with his imaginary rifle.
We quickly put away our lunch kit and hit the road again. Our eyes are angry of new horizons, and we never get tired of watching the scenario along the RutaR40.
Arriving in El Calafate is a bit of a shock. After five days of empty spaces and isolated people, we are back to civilisation. El Calafate is a big town and a famous tourist place. Everything around here is about the famous Perito Moreno glacier.
It is the same reason we are stopping here but, as we soon discover, it is as easy as we thought.
The number of people allowed on top of the glacier every day is limited, and January is the busiest month. We talk with all the agencies without success. The day after is fully booked, and we don’t want to stay more than one night in El Calafate.
But we are adventurers and destiny is always on our side. In the last agency, 5 minutes before the closure, a kind lady tells us that a couple booked for the first group the morning after just cancelled because they are sick. We look at her and for a few long seconds, less than five, we feel sorry for them. Then, with our best Italian smiles, we book our walk over the Perito Moreno for the morning after. We will have to wake up at 5 in the morning, but who cares, we just received our daily dose of magic.