sybarites

Finally, FINALLY, we have arrived at our destination of El Calafate in Argentinian Patagonia.  5 days + 7 flights  = a state of mind somewhere between relief at having arrived and a profound feeling of “where the hell are we?”   We snicker each time we comment to each other, “Do you realize that 3 days ago we were in Tokyo?” or, “What time is it – in ‘here’ time?”, followed by “OK, and what time is it in Bangkok?”
This is the kind of smile that belies the loosely-gripped state of mind one gets after having travelled across half the planet:

Apart from the jet lag, it is brilliant to be here.  We couldn’t get further from downtown Tokyo than small town Argentina and the culture shock has been amusing.   In fact, it was during our stop-over in LA that we first noticed the change from Euro-Asian to  American, which I guess counts as a kind of reverse culture-shock for us.  We were mildly surprised to see large vehicles again, after having been surrounded by tiny cars for so long; we kept unintentionally kind of bowing with each thank-you and handing over our cash with both hands; the portion sizes of food were outrageously huge- one portion of burritos in LA was way more than enough for both of us; voices were so, SO loud;  Starbucks actually sold the “venti” sized cup again (no-where else did we see this size being sold); and we noticed that our English had changed – we used to speak in rapidly spoken complete sentences, but after having spent 10 months in non-English-speaking countries, our communication had been simplified to just nouns, verbs and charades (i.e. “You have pen?” or “How much this?”)

But now we are here and the living is easy.  We are rapidly learning/re-learning Spanish and consuming wine, both things that we’ve been anxiously looking forward to.  Three evenings in a row, I’ve had steak for supper and I think that perhaps three might be the limit.  Not so with wine, though.  I can’t get enough of it or of the view we have from our room in the hostel, America Del Sur, a.k.a. the best hostel in the world.   This town is perched on the edge of Lake Argentina which borders a few glaciers in the national park;  I can’t see them from the window but the lake and the Andes make a glorious view at any time of day.  We haven’t seen the southern cross constellation yet but I’m keeping my eyes peeled.  Meanwhile, our jet lag is wearing off, our exercise is increasing, we’re breathing lots of fresh, cool air and are starting to feel invigorated with some the thought of some brilliant hiking in our near future.

Best of all, Argentina is not at all short on fantastic food.  When we arrived in El Calafate, we waited as late as we could manage (Argentines eat LATE) before heading out to a recommended wine bar & parilla.   Steak again, with a glass of sparkling and a glass of red.  Marc had – quote – “the best carpaccio ever”, which was comprised of Patagonian lamb.  It was an ultra-decadent, meat-centric celebration of a meal which was perfectly fitted for our first night in Patagonia.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 17th, 2007 at 8:33 am by Marc and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.