Excursion to go riding today. This was an activity that took several attempts to get booked and in the end was lined up by one of my friends who didn’t make it so I literally had no idea what to expect other than some random guy would come collect me at my hotel and we’d go. He turned out to be a really interesting guy, used to be the president of a big Argentinian insurance company and then retired and bought a bunch of land in Patagonia. Now he splits his time between there and Buenos Aires and raises “sheeps.” His property runs all along the water of Lake Argentina outside El Calafete.

Out at his place I met up with my guide. My friends and I were the only people booked and so without them it was just me and her. This actually worked out really well as we basically just struck out and did whatever we wanted all day. Not sure if it was part of the original program but I think it was also good that it was just me as it was a fairly challenging ride at times, jumping, galloping, crossing rivers etc. One of my crazy cinematic memories for the year will definitely be galloping dead on toward Lake Argentina through a flock of flamingos as they took flight around us. Despite being a better rider than me the girl I was with was clearly amused at the fact that I was learning to play Polo and that my family had a ranch in Wyoming. So I demonstrated some of my mediocre polo skills for her and then we rounded up some cows to herd around as well. A couple of dogs from the ranch came out with us and they were great. Well, they periodically would try and play with the horses which the horses obviously didn’t care for and made things challenging. But they were really well trained. When I was giving my pretend demonstration on cattle herding they immediately spread out and started herding the cows along with us.

I was pretty sore by the end of things. We had lunch back at the ranch/hotel and then I went back to town. I rested for a bit and then had dinner at a neat place, Isabel.

Sadly, I was focused on riding most of the day so I didn’t really get many good pictures.

It’s been nice weather since I’ve been down in Patagonia but this morning was very chilly. I’m glad I bundled up. Today it’s off to kayak up the Upsala channel of Lake Argentina. This involves a pretty lengthy boat ride up the lake to get to where we would by kayaking. While standing on the shore I was treated to one of the best sunrises I’ve ever seen. And… naturally, despite being all alone at the end of the earth without my friends… I ran into a fellow nomad and her husband. I literally cannot go anywhere without running into someone I know these days! The ride out was gorgeous. It’s hard to describe the color of the water but it was this really neat mind of mineral turquoise color. Despite having done quite a bit of kayaking I’d never had to go all in and wear a dry suit etc. before so that was an interesting addition to this outing. Much to my disappointment all the icebergs had blown up the channel so we didn’t get to kayak around any of them. The wind was coming up and the water was a lot more rough than I expected. After several hours of paddling through that I was exhausted. After our little loop around the channel it was the ride back and then I went and crashed. All around gorgeous day.

Basically a traveling disaster. An early morning flight out of Cordoba meant I had to be up at the crack of dawn to gather my things and get to the airport. It’s a small airport so that wasn’t too bad. Actually, I’ve been impressed at how nice the Argentine airports are. Breeze through there on the one hour flight to Buenos Ares. In addition to having my phone break recently I also broke my sunglasses so naturally I had to stop and buy some new aviators. Not sure if it was because I was in the airport or because I’m in Argentina but those were 100USD more than at home. But you know… they’re essential to my 1940’s explorer aesthetic so I had to buy them.

One of the troubles with reconciling this life with my job is that a lot of my work has to be done extremely rapidly around the release of economic data in the U.S. This means I can’t fly at certain times and I can’t ever get away from work. Well today I had some of this work to do during my layover and I was cutting it close. A release came out ten minutes before my flight took off so I’m tethering my laptop and working as I walk down the the jetway. Pretty frantic boarding.

Four hour-ish flight down to El Calafete in Patagonia. Another nice small airport and an easy and beautiful drive into town to my gorgeous hotel. Where upon I realize I no longer have my passport. It’s one of those terrible moments too because I know exactly where it is. It had to have fallen out of my pocket on the plane and is probably sitting on my seat. Well I’m also out of cash so I cant get a cab back. So into town to find an ATM, not too hard. But it’s a small town and I wander around forever before I find a cab to take me back to the airport. This girl was great and waited for me too. But alas no passport. The saddest thing about that is the loss of all my stamps!

But I have a conference call in twenty minutes so I have to race back to my hotel and jump on that. Field that for several hours and by then I’m exhausted. It’s also come to light that my friends I’m meeting aren’t going to make it out at all because of the airline strike. With a ton of work still to do it seems that the only thing for it is wine and sunsets.

Despite the ordeal I still felt great. Over the course of all my travels this little town is the first place that has really felt like home. It reminds me of any of a dozen other little places in the Rockies so being trapped here for a week… or forever won’t be bad at all.