Rio Gallegos

As you all probably know, Sam isn´t very well. She picked up hives/angioderma in Peru. It´s not threatening to her health, but causes large burn like marks all over her body, from the soles of her feet to her face. The angioderma makes large painful grape sized lumps on her neck, wrists and ankles which hurt so much she cannot walk. Last week it got worse. We saw a dermatologist who took a blood test, and was visibly shocked by the extensiveness of the blotches. She got a high fever, was sick, and consequently has been lay in bed for 4 days. On day 4 we decided that she should make the 4 hour journey from El Calefate to the provincial captial Rio Gallegos so that we are better positioned to fly to Buenos Aires if her blood test results found anything dangerous. At the moment Sam is in bed quite happily getting over the fever watching dreadful South American soaps. I spend as much time as possible with her but occasionally leave to get food, and make sure the internet is still working. Therefore I get to see.....Rio Gallegos......THE CRAPPIEST place on earth! Imagine all the worst parts of Slough, Brieley Hill, Dudley etc...., and double it.

Think mud where grass areas used to be, several layers of old adverts pasted onto derelict shop walls, cracked and missing pavements, deserted rust ridden cars lining the street, every third shop occupied with cheap beige drab clothes, metal bars covering windows. I´m in hell. Its like going on holiday to Port Talbot.
Most backpackers dream is to go somewhere unknown, untouched, somewhere new and magical where a story of adventure can be told over dinner to friends for years to come. Admittedly, this never happens anymore, everything is too dicovered. I did meet one guy who trekked alone through the jungle of thailand on the rumour that a long house tribe lived deep in its mists, he eventually found it, convinced the tribes guards to invite him to eat dinner with the chief. Only to find himself sat next to two old ladies from the Hilton down the road on a day trip.
I however think I have completed the backpacker quest, I have done what no other has done before me. I have now spent TWO nights in Rio Gallegos. I ask the heavens to open up, the ground to swallow me, for the love of god GET ME OUT OF HERE!