In stark contrast to Coyhaique in Chile the sky was blue and the sun was shining at 7:30am in Los Antiguos.
We took full advantage of the buffet breakfast at Hotel Mora, transforming it into a packed lunch and snacks for our journey. We left Los Antigous at 9am and 15 minutes later we were still driving alongside Lago Buenos Aires, the water was a mix of turquoise and deep blue and it was sparkling in the sunlight, quite different to yesterday when there was a strong wind blowing and there were frothy white horses everywhere.
The landscape has changed completely, much flatter and less dramatic. The trees and bushes look exactly the same as the ones my brother used to use to create the country side for his Hornby train set.
We're getting quite used to these long bus journeys but the downside for me is that I can't read as it makes me feel travel sick and my earphones have packed up so I can't listen to music so it's time spent day dreaming and looking at the scenery, which on this journey was stunning. We were on Ruta 40, a single highway that will take us all the way to El Chalten, after about three hours we left the comfort of Tarmac and travelled on a gravel road, it was bumpy but the sun was shining, the sky was bright blue with lots of cirrus clouds which looked really striking over the landscape where the hills were a similar shape.
Two hours later and we were parked at the side of Ruta 40 - the bus had broken down..... There are a lot of things in life that are worth your stress and angst, this was not one of them so I went to sleep. There were three false starts but after a couple of hours we were on our way again.
Ruta 40 is 5000km long and we travelled just 650km but what an amazing road, between Los Antiguos and El Chalten I didn't see a single house, farm or electricity pylon.
The landscape is extraordinary with the colours in your line of vision ranging from white through to black with so many colours and shades in between. Occasionally going round one of the bends I thought that I was looking at a harbour or a bay but it was just the contrast of the colours and landscape playing tricks on my eyes.
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| View from the bus |
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| View from the bus - incredible colours |
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| View from the bus - The night sky on Ruta 40 |
view from the bus - The night sky on Ruta 40
We arrived in El Chalten a little before 11pm and it was only just dark (it gets dark just after 10:30pm here......) but it was incredibly windy, despite our very heavy backpacks Abs and I were blown all over the place before we reached our B&B.
Having seen the silhouette of the mountains in the night sky I have high hopes of El Chalten - subject to the weather improving.....
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| Our first glimpse |
Looking forward to telling you about Fitzroy.
Raine x
