It is 2 am and I am writing between naps on the bench of the el Califate bus station. I got here from el Chalten late this afternoon. I had a lovely runaround the town while the lovely lady at the ticket office guarded my bag. I had been here a few days ago: it was my first destination in Argentina. A beautifully laid-out super-clean tourist town nestled in an Andean valley and by a big lush lake covered in thousands of flamingoes and black-neck swans. El Califate is the town closest to the most impressive glacier in the world: Perito Moreno.
I somehow have wifi in this bus station. The coverage is best when my fellow travelers nod out. I am taking a different route to get back to Punta Arenas from the one I came on. I arrived here via Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine. I am going back through Argentina, along the Atlantic Coast then hugging the Magellan Strait and entering Chile from the East.
Here is a crazy story that has nothing to do with el Califate. Remember the guy on the back of the truck drinking beers at 11 am then introducing himself as the owner of that large estancia on my last day of the Hank travels? The one who hooked me up with the estancia cantina and some delicious casuela with Señora Enida? Well, his name is Martín Larraín and he is a son of the now former president of Renovacion Nacional – Chile’s leading conservative party – and also former senator from the Chile’s largest region, Los Lagos, Carlos Larraín Peña and María Victoria Hurtado Vicuña of the Hurtado Vicuña consortium which owns millions of acres of land all over Chile, one of the biggest meat exporters, owners of an insurance company and a bank, majority owners of Entel, Pucobre, Inmobiliaria El Almendral… In short: rich and powerful family! Anywho, a couple of years back, this Martín killed a man while driving drunk. He fled the scene, never helped the victim or reported the accident to the carabinieri. He then had his friends lie for him (they were since convicted for obstruction of justice). If convicted, he would have gone to jail for 7 years. However, his family paid 10 million pesos to the widow of the victim to drop the charges (that’s actually less than US$10,000)… The poor illiterate woman took the money and did what they asked… The case continued in lower courts. There are reports of tempering with the autopsy… anywho… he is no agronomist or a man with a great passion for sheep or land… he is an unconvicted felon whom his beyond-rich family hid away in a remote village until Chile forgets about him… wow!
Vagabonding Zwindling 