El Calafate – Day 3 & 4: The Thousand-Page Milestone
EL CALAFATE
Day 3 & 4: The Thousand-Page Milestone
March 26 & 27, 2023
After the mega adventure on the Perito Moreno Glacier, I had two days left in El Calafate. With most activities being overpriced and not quite worth the effort, I decided to use my time there to explore the town itself and catch up a bit on my writing.
When the outside started calling to me once again, I found myself back out on the open road, pelted by raindrops the size of Texas. I braved the storm as I made my way to the Laguna Nimez Natural Reserve, hoping to do some birdwatching despite the weather. Soaking wet and drenched to the bone, I got there only for the attendant to tell me they didn’t accept card payments. That meant a fifteen-minute walk to the nearest ATM and then back again.
At that point, I felt like I’d done enough braving for one day. Defeated and dejected, I headed back to the hostel and resumed my literary journey.
A Literary Milestone
Having almost caught up to the present, it was in El Calafate that I reached a milestone I’d been anticipating for quite a while.
While writing about my adventures in El Chaltén, I finally hit a thousand pages. More specifically, I’d managed to condense eight months of travelling into a mere 255,263 words, which is almost 20% of the world’s longest novel – À La Recherche du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust. Of course, it’s not just the word count that’s superior. I’m fully aware that most of what I’ve written is probably pure gibberish to many and will go unread by anyone with even a shred of sense in their head. I knew that. Still, I was infinitely proud of the achievement.
First, I’d managed to create a memoir of one of the best things I’ve ever done in my entire life, something I can go back to whenever I want. Second, I learned a lot throughout the process and had undoubtedly improved my writing. And third, not just anyone can say they’ve written a thousand-page tome – no matter how badly written it might be. So yeah, a big “suck it!” to all naysayers and a big “well done!” to moi.
Stay wild,
Marius
Post-Scriptum
Okay, I have a confession to make. While proofreading and editing this journal once I arrived back home, I supplemented a lot of the historical and scientific stuff I’d written about using various sources, which means my word count went up by quite a considerable amount. In fact, I reached the thousand-page mark back in La Fortuna, Costa Rica. I know, I know. I have a problem.