John Steinbeck writes somewhere that "many journeys continue long after the movement of time and space has ceased."
It is exactly the case of the journey that I am called to write about and describe in a few lines. A journey with the "heavy" load of intense youthful desire to be at the edge of the earth. A desire and a fantastic journey that began through the pages of Borges and Sepúlveda with a musical carpet the notes of Carlos Gardel and Astor Piazzola...
So after a long journey I found myself in a latitude and longitude that defined a completely different space-time.
Buenos Aires, from above seemed to open its luminous embrace, as I arrived at night, to welcome only me.
My stay in the Windy City will not concern us along these lines. I thus arrive with a time jump in the morning when I leave, for the time being, the capital with a destination literally at the end of the world.
The flight after three and a half hours seemed to be coming to an end. The Andes, part of the vast American Cordillera, reached the southernmost tip of the American continent in a constant love game with the snow and clouds that hug the mountain tops. Once again, art follows nature breathlessly...
The Argentinian Airlines plane was taxiing at Ushuaia airport.
The explosion of joy and satisfaction reached the edges of amorous paroxysm. Forgive my exaggeration, but through it I try to express my emotional lightheartedness.
The long-standing capital of Tierra del Fuego (Tierre del Fuego) of 65,000 inhabitants stretches along the shores of a bay in the Beagle Channel. Surrounded by the Andes mountains, which look like huge snow-capped coals, reaching to where the oceans meet.
During the day the temperature was relatively "high" and this helped the activities. We are in the middle of Spring. The month is October. At night the temperature dropped sharply.
In the few days of my stay I took a day trip to the National Park where the Pan American Highway ends. The longest road in the world that starts from Alaska and ends at the southernmost tip of Latin America.
The next day found me early in the morning at the port anxiously waiting to board the ship for a very long trip up the Beagle Channel. The ship took us to a series of islets, literally a seal and penguin paradise. On the way back, in the evening, it started to snow. The last day in the city was dedicated to very long walks but also to the preparation for the continuation of the journey to the Argentine side of Patagonia.
Here I have to give some useful information for everyone who wants to make the corresponding trip...
The original, wrong, plan was to rent a car so I could take a road trip to the city of El Calafate. The bureaucratic procedures for renting a vehicle are particularly time-consuming and the reason is that from Tierra del Fuego to the rest of Argentina you pass through Chilean territory. Be that as it may, it is good that all these procedures are done in BA or initiated from the first moment of arrival in Osuaia. I decided due to time pressure to continue by bus. It didn't bother me, but it wasn't the original plan.
Early in the morning around 6 and very cold I took the bus. The landscape was a composition of steppe, mountain ranges, lala lakes and many kilometers of road next to oil pipelines.
Control procedures at the border with Chile were brief. Around noon I was in the Straits of Magellan. In my mind the straits had mythical dimensions. Stories of explorers, travelers, adventurers but also white colonialists who danced to a frenzied rhythm... The icy air had the feeling that it was coming from both the Atlantic and the Pacific at the same time. The crossing of the narrows with the "slipper" had lasted about 30'. The Patagonian landscapes alternated outside the bus window. I didn't realize when I fell asleep... I now woke up when I reached the city of El Calafate late at night. The city, one could say, was built exclusively to welcome tourists, "sophisticated" travelers, lovers of winter sports and extreme sports... The city is located next to the Glacier National Park with the world-famous Perito Moreno, the largest glacier in the water. The city I wouldn't say has anything attractive. The surrounding landscape is clearly enchanting, but the city is rather indifferent. Full of Argentino Lake Glacier tour operators, restaurants, cafes and shops for renting and buying winter sports equipment.
The day trip on special boats on Lake Argentino culminating in a visit to the Perito Moreno Glacier was what made me imagine that my oral cavity was only capable of exclamations. The glacier "alive" and in full motion. A continuous roar came from its bowels while also huge chunks of ice broke off and fell into the lap of the lake causing a huge wave of something like an explosion.
I had arranged for the next few days to visit an estancia-rancho and get a small taste of the life of the famous gauchos. I later discovered that these visits are part of the famous tourist industry. The estancia is located inside the Glacier National Park in a very beautiful location about 60km from El Calafate.
All the activities of the gauchos you would say are standardized and follow a protocol for the satisfaction of the guests. My feeling was full of contrasts. Satisfaction but also discomfort for the canned product.
Finally, I would like to mention the people. Polite, presentable and helpful with a friendly attitude towards my lenses. I was impressed by their knowledge of Greece, and I don't just mean history. I would like to say here that the maximum majority are white. Very few of the natives survived. In this corner of the earth, one of the greatest crimes of the colonialists took place...