I’m not that kind of person who goes for vacations in the most popular spots around the world.
No wonder my wife has never accompanied me in any one of the vacations I have had since we married. She likes to visit the beaches in the pacific countries but I have a thing for the laid back destinations. Last time I visited a spot in Africa where archaeologists say is the cradle of mankind.
The more recent visit was to Santa Cruz province and specifically Patagonia. You will laugh at how I came to pick such a destination but this is a better choice than the ones I have picked before.
I happen to be a frequent visitor to the small town library. My wife complains about my regular visits to the library because the last time I took her there she never found anything interesting to read. The books are never dusted and the most recent one was published during the 2nd World War. One thing I like about this place is the fact that there are ancient books which you can never find in any other library in the entire U.S.
During one of my usual visits, I stumbled upon a South American book on “the Patagonia Giant”. I took interest in the book and scanned through the content. By the time I returned it to the shelves, I had already made up my mind about my next vacation. I became obsessed with television shows on searching for giants since I wanted some insights when my turn came.
After literally wrestling myself from my wife’s grip on the day I was supposed to fly to South America to see my grandmother that was sick with some type of breast cancer, I finally caught my flight a few minutes before take-off. She had spoiled my mood and my flight was dull but now that I will be away for a week she will have no one to bring down her theatrics to.
Our flight delayed for almost 30 minutes due to bad weather but I was happy that before sundown I was at my room at La Escondida hotel which I had spent a few hours looking for.
I later learned from an Argentine friend (his name was Lautaro if my memory serves me right. I forget names of people but not places) I met at the bar that night that the name of the hotel made a hidden place. My first night was fantastic and I must say these folks from Argentina are some of the most welcoming people who will make a stranger feel at home.
I woke up earlier than anyone else and was the first one at the diner. Nothing was ready and I had to make do with some donuts that I had carried from home. The night before I had convinced Lautaro to accompany me in the search but I had to give him a few dollars though he said there were no giants out there but he would never resist making free money. We headed into the woods but my Argentine friend was a bit slow so I had to tone down my speed. After a 2-hour nonstop walk, we came to a clearing and the welcoming sight of Nahuel Huapi lake.
Lautaro says this is the home of a great serpent called ‘Nahuelito’ but there was no sign of him even after throwing stones into the water. Before the end of the day, we had passed 7 lakes and we made our camping for the day at Villarino, which according to my judgement was the most impressive lake. The following day we went up the ranges and deep into the woods.
The weather got cold and humid but I was not about to abandon my search. We camped in a cave the third day, we even ate like cavemen (apparently that diet is extremely healthy), and I was hoping that we would be woken up the by massive footsteps of a giant. We went further for one more day but the forest got thicker and scary and we had to turn back for our journey to the hotel.
When I read the book back at my town little library, I really thought that I would be the first to make the legend true. There is every part of me that believed there was a giant out there and I would be the first to prove this. It happened to be another goose chase but it was not a wasted week. I enjoyed every bit of the adventure though I knew my wife would hear none of it.
This site ran since 2002 as a local news portal for the province of Santa Cruz in Argentina, as well as for the publication of national and world news, articles of opinion, also including a commercial and tourist directory, and classified ads.
In 2006, the administrators of this site started to automatically redirect its visitors to the domain www.santacrucenio.com (eliminating the .ar suffix) until become inactive in 2009. Finally in 2012 there was a failed attempt to launch a new website with tourist information, some opinion articles and a commercial directory for this Argentinian patagonic province, until 2014 when expired.
– – Español – –
Este sitio funcionó desde el 2002 como un portal de noticias locales de la provincia de Santa Cruz en Argentina, así como para la difusión de noticias nacionales y mundiales, artículos de opinión, incluyendo a su vez un directorio comercial y turístico, anuncios clasificados.
En el año 2006, los administradores de esta web empezaron a dirigir automáticamente a sus visitantes al dominio www.santacrucenio.com (eliminando el sufijo .ar) hasta quedar inactivo en el 2009. Finalmente en el año 2012 hubo un intento fallido para lanzar un portal con información turística, alguno artículos de opinión y un directorio comercial de esta provincia de la patagonia Argentina, hasta el 2014 cuando este expiró.
Ahora, este dominio ha sido adquirido por alguien mas y será utilizado para compartir información turística actual, algo de historia y artículos de opinión sobre esta bella región Patagónica.
