Pablo welcomed us within 24 hours of notice and we were luck to sleep in a comfortable place, where he lent us his room and he slept in the living room...!
On our last night, he invited us to a BBQ at a friends' place. Al Bough we had already eaten we couldn't say no. So off we go, picked up in town by Pablo and his friend, thinking we would only stay for a couple of drinks as we had our bus leaving the next morning at 7am. We were warmly greeted by Marcelo welcoming us in his house as if we were at home. Marcelo has a charming house on the top of the hill with a view over the town and bay, a house where anyone would feel good, at ease, at home. We ended up staying until 3am sharing a delicious meal (BBQ of lamb, sausages, pork, beef and salad FINALLY!! :) ) discussing over life, travels, culture differences between Europe and Latin America, and much more; an enjoyable moment of exchange and laughter, fluidly in Spanish, such a perfect way to end our stay in Ushuaia. Some interesting facts we learned exchanging with locals of Ushuaia is that many Argentinian from the north come and live in Ushuaia, for work of course but mainly because despite the unpleasant weather compared to the north, Ushuaia is a an island and a place of no corruption where nothing really happens, where you feel safe and where one earns more money than in the rest of the country, especially due to the tax exemptions over there (a law instated to incentivise companies to come and settle here).
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So of we go to Punta Arenas where another Couchsurfing experience awaits us. Exhausted from the couple of days in Torres del Paine we couldn't wait but be comfy in a warm bed and sleep (which we did for 12 hours that night!! 😍). We didn't know what to expect but had a great surprise with this couchsurfer! We were welcomed by Rodrigo and Cocha (a friend) as is we were part of the family. Barely settled in the house they offer us a Picada de Cerdo (pieces of marinated pork meat) and red wine. We couldn't say no and thankfully we didn't as the meat was delicious and so was the wine! Throughout our stay here we were nicely surprised by the kindness of the people and their chilled say of life. Rodrigo calls his neighbour by knocking on the wall, he answers by knocking on the well, Rodrigo calls 'pasa!'and here he comes! His neighbour nicely drove us to town a few times and even dropped us at the bus station when we left!
We shared a fun moment with the three of them on our arrival night, such a moment of our time for us, relaxing and entertaining: here we are sitting with three physically different people (who look way way younger than they are) living similar but such different lives as well. One is the boss of his own truck company, the other one the national director of the taikwendo team and the last one the regional director of an airline company. It makes you look back on our lifestyles back in Europe where we always want more and aspire to be the best in most things and makes you realise that no matter where you come from you can make it happen in life and life a happy and especially simple life should it be here or back home. If there’s one thing I didn’t know is that one can easily cross a boarder on foot! We already had the experience when crossing from Chile to Bariloche and back but we also hitchhiked which helped us go through. This time, there are no buses possibilities between Chile and Argentina (because of high taxes) and in order to avoid losing time commuting through other boarders further up north or south, we decided to pick up our courage and head to the boarder ready to walk it through. After being lucky to having found someone who could bring us to Chile Chico (closest town to the boarder, 3-4h drive from Rio Tranquilo – see the beautiful road we had on the pictures below) we started walking to the boarder, through it and then to the bus station of the next town. A roughly 10km walk with all our gear, and stiffness from our hike of the day before. Having an inflamed knee, back pains and foot pains from my shoes the walk wasn’t very enjoyable, especially when both countries who have their boarders right in front one of the other decide to force everyone to take a 5km loop between the two boarders instead of a direct pathway! But we finally made it to the bus station of Los Antiguos on time to catch a night bus to el Chalten, what a relief! And a pride to have walked all of these km despite everything that could have prevented me from doing it!
The feeling of walking in the middle of nowhere almost alone to a boarder to cross to another country was something unique though, un unprecedented feeling. I enjoyed it very much (although when we tried to cut the path through the dried river and camp to gain some km I felt like an illegal refugee, that was weird…! |
AuteurHola! I’m Aliénor, a 24 year old life enthusiast and eager to discover the world in any way possible with an emphasis on engaging with local people and cultural exchange! Archives
Mars 2017
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