The Road Trip Part 2: Handovers and Hangovers

We arrived in a Hostel called America del Sud, in Calafate because we had half arranged to meet two cool Dutch girls there. Upon arrival it was clear that this was our kind of hostel. It had spectacular views of the lake that Calafate straddles, heated floors, all you can eat BBQ every night and a really cool bunch of young and banterous staff. We grabbed our books, commandeered the most impressive looking chill spot and demanded the opportunity to challenge the concept of 'all you can eat'. The girls turned up a while later and many games of cards were played.

One thing about travelling, which becomes massively apparent very quickly, is the amount of surplus time that you find yourself with. However, the usual distractions of home aren't. Your Wednesday fix of Eastenders, Playstation, Gym and new DVD that you bought last week aren't around. These are substituted with Cards, Books and Alcohol, which is, at least to begin with, a refreshing change. In the last calendar month I have played countless games of Blackjack, Poker, Hearts, Shithead and Gin-Rummy, read around 5 books and been drunk more times than I care to calculate. A stark change from the day-to-day activities of home.

So, the next day came, and been highly anticipated for at least three reasons: 1. Despite having a brilliant time on the road trip, we hadn't really done much tourist stuff thus far. 2. We were about to see arguably the most magnificent glacier in the world. 3. Today was the day I handed the Pink Vest to a worthy suitor. Andy one of my fellow roadtrippers was genuinely interested in the plight of MyPinkVest and, in addition to being banterous and not without confidence, seemed like the kind of guy that would take the responsibility and flaunt it about. By Puerto Madryn it had been decided that Calafate and Andy were respectively the correct point of handover and recipient. The decision had been made.

The three roadtrippers and two dutch girls packed ourselves into Seniorita and headed for the Perito Moreno glacier. Sadly it was the time of year in which we were unable to actually go on the glacier itself but there were many viewpoints with which to see it's entire spread of 14km. Upon finding a perfect spot to do the handover we took off our tops leaving nothing but the pink vest on me, sang the french national anthem, Andy climbed inside the vest, posed for some press shots and then I slid out leaving Andy with one Pink Vest and a new quest for him to embrace. It's been great fun and a pain in the arse at times and I'm sure that it'll be in good hands from here on.

Redressed, we continued down to other viewpoints to take pictures, however being rather quiet and secluded we decided to hop over the railings to follow a path that I had spotted earlier. Although not strictly allowed, we were hardly going to start hanging off the glacier so we thought it would be fine. We followed the path down to a large rock around 35 feet from the glacial cliff. What we saw was probably the most spectaculor view of it that one could hope for, and perfect for some great photographs. We returned over the 'do not cross' railing, back to the car and to Calafate, stopping to let Paul chase a skunk, get 'fumed' and stink the car out. The night back in Calafate was a night of beers, whiskey, wine and lots of drunken banter. Oh and I made a pretty successful Gaucho Shepherds Pie for the guys.

If the day before had been the day of the Pink Vest Handover then the next was definitely the day of the Pink Vest Hangover. It was also another day of driving, this time around 300km to El Chalten, the home of Patagonia's largest and most beautiful mountain. After some of the long range slogs that we have endured on this road trip, 300km was nothing and we were there within no time.