October 19, Day 16: Perito Moreno to Los Antiguos
Bit of a short day today. You know what's better than a short day? An even shorter day! Originally I was planning to go to Chile Chico, to take the ferry north over the lake, but I'd heard recommendations about the Catedral de Marmol and wanted to visit, and the best plan was to go to Los Antiguos instead.
So the Catedral de Marmol (=Marble Chapel) is a limestone formation sculpted by the waves of the lake. There’s a kayak tour of them that is especially recommended and I’d really like to go on. Unfortunately they're a few hundred kilometers to the west of my route, it'd add a few days to detour there and I'd rather not do that.
There's a few bus tours going there; one passes through Chile Chico so I got in contact asking if I could be picked up from there. No, they only pickup in Los Antiguos (in Argentina), which is a few kilometers away on the other side of the border... so that's why I'm staying in Los Antiguos.
From left to right: my bathroom for the last three nights is a fraction small. Perito Moreno on Saturday morning. I don’t know if this is/was a house but here’s a photo. Starting to get into cyclist territory! Andes in the distance. Buenos Aires lake.
The fun part was getting all this sorted out over WhatsApp while on the bike - in Spanish. Cellphone coverage is spotty: I only had signal about half the time, but that's much better than it's been in the past when there was coverage in the towns the start and end and that's all. I guess it means I'm moving into a more populated areas.
So tomorrow I'm getting on the bus early, and returning late. On Monday 21st I'm going to ride over to Chile Chico and get back on the planned route. Unfortunately the only ferry departure that day is at 0800 and while I'd like to be on it, I'd need to be there an hour before and adding a border crossing in means I'd have to start riding unpleasantly early. I also need a ticket, but the website consistently refuses to take every one of my credit cards. So the 0800 ferry isn't going to happen: I'll have to take the one on Tuesday morning, so I'm going to spend a day in Chile Chico.
There's not much to do there. It may be quite a long day.
