Thursday, February 12, 2009

Perito Moreno (the village)



1- The guide dogs
2- Perito Moreno, the N40 shining on the horizont

In Patagion are about 123 things called Perito Moreno. It´s the name of a pioneer, who lived in Buenos Aires and made several tours into Patagonia, which was a white field on the map. He was a person who liked to be by himself a lot, and is responsible for the todays border between Chile and Arentinia. Therefore the massive Galcier is called after him, as well as another national parc. the village is called after him, as he changed the natural border. The agreement with Chile was, that if a stream follows into the Pacific the area is chilienen, if it runs into the Atlantic, is argentinien. Mister Smart channelazised a stream in that aera to turn from the Pacific to the Atlantic, a national hero in Argentinia... In his writting he was expremely possitive about the nativePatagonian people. Very friendly and helpful.

I arrived in the middle of the night in Petito Moreno and met in the bus station a nice women from Spain, who just come up from south to tell me a bit about the area and camping options. She works for Greenpeace Spain and we had a great chat about transport and housing costs... in the enviromental sense... of course.

As the clock turned 3am when she left to Comodoro I was afraid to check hostels and wake people. But I made new friends - with the streetdogs. When I started walking around two dogs followed me each step. They did not beg for food, they just did not want to be alone. After walking the main street up and down to get some orientation, they were still with me. I got my sleeping bag and we rested in a former fruit field. My night below Patagonian stars. I felt very well protected - a phantastic experience!