PATAGONIA

Patagonia was easily one of the coolest places I have been in my life, up there with Nova Scotia and Yellowstone (which is saying a lot).

We (Ben and Steve from BC, Memo from UC Irvine, my roommate Catherine from Richmond, and I) left on Thursday reeeally early for El Calafate via an encouragingly affordable flight from Buenos Aires and got there at ten or eleven in the morning. We found some hostels but most were full or more expensive than we felt like paying (that meaning more than about ten dollars a night) and so we found a nice hidden one right by the lake that turned out to be catered to Israeli Jews. This was cool because the signs were in English, Spanish, and Hebrew and we got to hear the Israeli version of Spanglish, which we called "Hebrañol;" I wish I could say I learned some but two languages is enough for me at the moment. We spent the first day preparing buying food-typical-and preparing for the rest of the trip.

Friday was glacier day: we took a guided tour of the Perito Moreno glacier in the Parque Nacional los Glaciares and it was SO awesome. There was a boardwalk that took us to the ideal places to see the glacier, take pictures, and watch as huge pieces of ice fell into the lake below. The glaciers in the park are the largest extension of ice outside of Antarctica, and the Perito Moreno glacier itself is 60m in height above the lake and goes all the way to the bottom 100m below the surface. Since it is advancing and therefore constantly melting and refreezing, large chunks detaching and falling into the water is commonplace. After the boardwalk we got back on a bus to the boat docks, where were taken to the opposite side of the lake to trek on the glacier. We strapped krampons over our shoes and stomped around on the ice for an hour or two, and at the end we enjoyed a whiskey with ice chipped from the glacier itself. After the tour ended we went back to El Calafate to cook in the hostel and get ready for El Chaltén the following day. I must say that Catherine, Memo, and I made an excellent stir-fry with chicken, asparagus, and peppers over rice and watching Memo finish every last piece of the whole chicken from the bones was really entertaining.

The next day we got up at sunrise (again) to catch our bus, and we arrived in El Chaltén in time to eat lunch and find a hostel before heading off on two short hikes for the day. The first took us to the waterfall Salto del Chorillo, which had fun rocks at the bottom to jump across and use in attempting to traverse the river without accidently swimming, etc. Then we went back toward town to rest a little before going to Mirador de los Condores and Mirador de las Águilas, both of which were the windiest places I think I have ever been in my life. During the gusts we couldn't stand up because we would definitely have fallen, and probably rolled off the side of the mountain. Tears couldn't stay in my eyes, snot couldn't stay in my nose (sorry, graphic), and I was definitely freezing. That said, it was gorgeous and really fun. We went back down, said hi to some cows that were randomly on the side of the mountain on the way, and rented our camping equipment for Sunday and Monday.

We got up, ate, and packed our backpacks with sleeping bags/mats and the tent for just about forever before heading out, but we finally made it out of the hostel and went uphill for the first climb of the hike. We went for about three hours toward Cerro Torre, one of the large peaks, stopping at one of the views on the way and then Lago del Torre for lunch. The lake was beautiful but also more or less a wind tunnel in front of Cerro Torre so we were pretty freezing. After resting a while we backtracked about an hour to take the path the rest of the way up to our camp site. After one hellish half hour of stright uphill (almost died) and about two and half more, we made it to the campsite and set up the tent for the night. When Ben and Steve caught up from returning for a lost item, we spent a few hours (literally) trying to keep the stove lit in the 50km/winds and ended up eating cold hotdogs with ketchup and half-cooked pasta with cold sauce... good thing I'm not picky.

Sleeping didn't go so well, either, since five people in a four-person tent means we're all close to the sides and therefore the wind/pouring rain had us all cold and wet. The next morning was also pouring and cold, but after an hour of literally straight uphill-picture wet stairs of rock and/or gravel on a steep incline-we reached the gorgeous view of Fitz Roy and la Vista de los Tres Lagos, complete with rainbows and a rainy mist that was incredible despite my near-hypothermia. We returned to the campsite to eat a lunch of tuna or jelly sandwiches and fruit before the three-hour descent of the mountain. We made it back to El Chaltén by 3pm with plenty of time to eat something, shed still-wet clothes (ew) and rest a while before the bus back to El Calafate. There, we ate a large and delicious dinner before buying food for the morning and taking showers for the first time in a while back at the Jewish hostel. Tuesday was devoted to flying back to Buenos Aires and restocking our apartment since we had close to no food and the rest of the week of classes ahead of us.

Despite moments of extreme discomfort (ie, cold) I had an AMAZING time and loved Patagonia SO much. I have some reeeally cool pictures but I'm going to Uruguay tomorrow so I will post them here for those of you without facebook afterward, PROMISE.

Fun fact: krampons feel weird; you have to put all your weight into each step to dig the teeth into the ice and you can't walk with your feet too close together or you'll catch one on the other and faceplant on the glaciar. When walking downhill you have to be especially conscious of using your whole weight such that you look like some sort of ape, and therefore our guides said we should go down the descents as "monos sonrientes" (smiling monkeys.) They also told Ben to take his hands out of his pockets as they said something along the lines of "we don't recommend falling on your face, it hurts." For those of you interested in learning Spanish, krampons= "grampones."

I'll post again after Uruguay, hopefully with pictures!