Snapshots of El Calafate and a few of the people we met at the wonderful America del Sur hostel.
The Arrival
In my foray into backpacking, I’ve stayed at hostels in France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Guatemala, and India, and none of them matched the atmosphere of the America del Sur hostel in El Calafate. I made reservations after browsing reviews on Hostelworld, where the only unanimous complaint was that “the rooms were too hot.” I couldn’t imagine that would be a deterrent during our winter visit, so we took our chances. A week later, the cab was turning onto the unpaved street on top of a hill where the hostel stood.
We entered through a wood-framed glass door and saw a scruffy, long-haired, Che Guevara-looking guy standing next to a short, exceptionally cute girl behind the counter. The girl was typing. The guy looked at me and pointed.
“TÄM-BUR, right?” His voiced boomed.
I nodded, not correcting his bastardization of my name because after living in Madrid for six months, I realized that’s how all Spanish-speaking people say my name.
“YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!”
He leaped out of the counter and performed a series of elbow pumps that brought back visions of Kirk Gibson after his famous home run in the 1988 World Series. A piece of paper, which I took to be my Hostelworld reservation, was waving from his left hand and his right hand landed in front of my chest like a karate chop.
“Tam-bur, I am Rodrigo,” he said, thrashing my gripped hand.
The greeting was one you would expect from an old buddy with whom you had gone through a life-altering experience together. Like war. Or study abroad. Kelly stood at the door, her heavy backpack on her shoulder, grinning. Rodrigo pointed to the girl still behind the counter. “See Annabella, I told you as soon as I see the taxi that it was Mr. Täm-bur.”
She rolled her eyes.
I should’ve known from my reservation e-mail. The letter, with the subject line “wellcome Tanver!!!“, contained at least 25 exclamation marks and seven animated smiley faces, including four jumping emoticons in an assortment of color with the flashing text “GO TEAM” at the signature portion where all the employees had signed their names.
Eventually, Annabella came around the counter to meet us. “Come on! Let’s put your bags in your room and then we’ll give you the tour,” she said.
I wondered if all arriving guests were given this much attention or if it was just the off-season.
- Next: The Argentines.
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