Chapter Three: Perito Moreno

To begin the journey to Perito Moreno, we endured what was supposed to be a nine hour bus ride.  Thankfully, our driver was a younger guy, maybe twenty years old.  We made it in seven hours. Flooring it through the heart of Patagonia in a top heavy van was an adventure in itself.  We had to stop four times to re-arrange the luggage, which was loosely strapped to the top. At one point, a bag was hanging from the roof, dangling by a thin piece of rope, banging against the window.  I made a motion to mention this issue to the driver, he said "oh, thats normal." The drive, however sketchy it happened to be, was beautiful.  The sky was clouding over, and the ground looked as if it was glowing--the world looked alive, colors bursting out of invisible seams.

I rolled into town around five, and made my way to the cabanas.  An adorable little apartment was awaiting the five of us. It was a fairly relaxing night, just wandering the small streets.  On my way to do laundry, I became distracted with two little black puppies.  They were playing with each other in their yard, so obviously I walked over to try to get their attention.  Instead of getting the puppies' attention, two little boys came out of their house wanting to play.  They invited me in not only to play with the puppies, but also a rabbit!  I spent almost an hour talking with these little kids, it made my day to see how welcoming they were to an apparent foreigner. 

The main reason for stopping in Perito Moreno was to see Las Cuevas de Los Manos.  Over nine thousand years old, the red rock walls are imprinted with thousands of hands. A truly remarkable sight. Only 31 are right handed, and there is one hand with six fingers.  We had to do a bit of a trek to get up to the caves.  I have never spent time hiking through red rocks--amazing. The rock walls were towering over us as we made our way closer to the caves.  

Another piece of the adventure--we took a 35 year old Russian imported van to the caves.  It's name was Mr. Wes. And he provided us with one hell of journey. 

Off to El Chalten tomorrow--the trekking capital of Patagonia!

Ciao,

J.