El Calafate and Bariloche, Argentine Patagonia, January 27 - February 13, 2024
El Calafate, January 27-February 3 Land border crossings are always interesting – We hopped on the bus from Punta Arenas for what appeared to be a ~7 hour drive across the border north and a bit east to Argentina’s side of Patagonia. Oddly, the bus took a detour pretty far into Argentina (maybe that is where the border outpost is? Not sure) and the drive was more like 10 hours – which, is not too too bad for me on a bus, I can read and look out the window and self-entertain, usually. But I was seated next to a young woman whose bus- habits – 6 hours in – began to wear on me. Knuckle cracking, really? No ear phones for your cell phone, really? Listening to what’s app voice messages and then leaving voice messages back, with lots of kissing noises, and then listening to your what’s app message before you send it, to make sure it sounds sultry enough, really? But! Back to the paragraph topic sentence: The land border between Chile and Argentina is great; they s...