Rio Gallegos

I came to Rio Gallegos today at 11:00 am. I had an adventurous bus journey. There was a stop of 30 minutes at Trelew and I went to a cafe. I was enjoying my first sip of tea when I saw the bus leave. Hm... I ran to the bus company window and asked what happened. The operator told me not to worry - it went to be cleaned and will be back in 20 minutes. Phew. Then at midnight there was another stop, this time one-hour for the interior cleaning. I went to the waiting hall and watched a movie about a dino in present NYC (it was totally silly but I watched it because Jean Reno was in it and I like him). Five minutes before the scheduled departure of the bus I went outside and encountered only gusty wind and dry weed tumbling by... No passengers standing on the platform, waiting for the bus... I went to inquire at the ticket booth and it turned out it left already! It departed earlier and they just left me there. I had to take a taxi and chase it. What a fun ride! But the bus was comfortable and I woke up just before our arrival at Rio Gallegos. It is a small town on the River called well, Gallegos. I went around the town and along the beach. It is Sunday today and it looks like a ghost town, there's no one around... I looked and looked for a restaurant and found one open -more form than essence but there was no other choice (it was one of the "old lions" places except this time I was the only lion there at this hour). Outside of Buenos Aires the regular eating time is lunch between 1.00 and 2.00 pm and then dinner after 8.00 pm. In small towns there's no food between 2.00 and 8.00 pm which most of the time suits me and is most physiological time to eat for me too, except when I can't make it to eat early because I am doing some sightseeing or bus travelling. Argentinians don't usually eat breakfast, they only drink yerba mate. They drink it from special containers through a special straw (usually made of silver) with a filter at the end to keep the drags inside, and share it with whoever is in the vicinity. When it comes to mate germs don't count. Coming back to Rio. I eate breakfast with a couple who took the same bus I did, Marie from France and Andre from England. We witnessed, from the window of the restaurant, raising the Argentinian flag mid-day every Sunday: girl and boyscouts and police in their gala uniforms were standing in front of the flag pole and what seems like the rest of the town. They sang the national anthem and then all left home and only the wind could be heard again... It was very interesting. I parted with Marie and Andre since they were going further to El Calafate and I found Hotel Paris. Everything is more expensive in Patagonia than in other parts of Argentina. In Rio Gallegos there are no hostals, only hotels. I think the food is more expensive also because it has to be shipped here from far away. Patagonia is mainly a desert. The climate is dry all year rund, in summer and in winter. Rio looks like the end of the world already. Small houses, a few stores, an unwelcoming river beach with marshes and stuff left over from the construction of a long boardwalk. The city was founded, I think, in 1880s but it looks as if it was being built now. In some time, after all the remaining cement and other construction material is removed from the beach, it may become pleasant. It is now what the guidebook says about it - a place to stop on the way to the south end so that one can recover from the long bus trip.