Last days in BsAs

So, Byron is leaving today and I'm following suit on Wednesday. It's sad to leave here, but we had a great time with our friends last night and wanted to wish everyone here a beautiful life. Besos!

Oh, and we will still be posting blogs from back home when we try to catch up on our adventures. Haha.

-H & B

Day 3 in Patagonia – We actually get somewhere!

After a few more hours of early morning driving, which also consisted of naptime on the side of the road) we finally made it to the city of El Calafate. It's a gorgeous place, surrounded by snowcapped mountains and decorated on all sides by tourist dollars. Fancy street lamps, nice cottages and lodges, and restaurants abound. Determined to see what we came for, we headed straight to the tourist center for a map of the Parque Nacional de los Glacieres.

The short 30 minute drive from the city to the entrance of the National Park affords many breathtaking views of the lake, mountains, estancias (ranches) and other beautiful scenery. Camping is possible and would be quite exciting, we were not prepared for with a four wheel drive vehicle. Upon entering the National Park, and paying the hefty entrance fee for non-nationals (60 pesos), there is a nice drive through the park which leads you directly to the walking paths around the glacier. You can't stray from the paths, and they're made of grates. Needless to say, when Hanna missed a step and fell she created a cool new scar for her knee.

Once in the park you wind around the roads leading you towards the glacier. Occasionally you catch a glimpse of the breathtaking mass of ice nestled between two snowcapped mountains. Keeping in mind that the rest of the terrain is devoid of ice and snow, the experience is truly unique. There are two places to stop along the road to get great pictures and to enjoy the great scenery. Also, it is pretty neat to see gigantic chunks of the glacier, that have broken off, floating in the lake.

When we came back into town, we located a nice little campsite next to a babbling brook that had hot showers and a SHEEP tied to a fencepost baaahhing its little heart out. We set up camp and set out for to find dinner. After which we decided to get some traveling snacks from the grocery store. When we were about three blocks out of the store, we realized that a dog was totally trailing us. She wouldn't leave our side. She followed us all the way into the campground and whined when one of us would go to the bathroom or get inside the tent. She ended up sleeping there outside the tent by us the entire night. Driving away in the morning was a very very sad experience.

We headed off for our next journey into the Patagonian wilderness. It was a quaint little 'outdoorsy' town called el Chalten. It was everything and outdoor enthusiast would ever need. A small little village that didn't overtake the wonderful views of nature and green mountains. Oh, and there was this gigantic thing that kept appearing during our drive and getting larger and larger as we approached el Chalten. A little mountain called Fitz Roy. Just check out the picture of it from over 60 kilometers away. Completely dominates the vista, and we got withing a kilometer or two of it. People, of course, have climbed it, but we were scared standing on firm ground just close to it.

We entered the little town which was a total of 120 kilometers from Calafate, after stopping by the ranger station for our free maps and trail 'guides' (Father Pittam, you're going to have a killer time with all these maps that we're bringing home). We headed to the trailhead with our sandwiches packed, shoes tied, water bottles full, zinc on our noses, walking stick, and huge jackets. It was quite cold at the bottom, but we realized within 15 minutes walking straight uphill is a pretty good way to get and stay warm.

The hike was absolutely phenomenal. The 'trail' and the 'map' didn't lead or help us too much, but our superior navigation techniques we learned from our Inca trek helped us survive. We walked a total of 6 hours or so that day, treading through brush, wading through puddles, attempting to stay on or near the path, all while taking in the surrounding scenery that was basically devoid of other people.

There were crystal clear lakes, crisp air, water and streams bubbling everywhere, and beautiful forests that loomed with trees that almost seemed alive. The landscape would change without warnings. The paths would lead you inadvertently to a small lake or other impassable obstacles that would force you to create a new route or some adventurous way of passing. There was one point where we followed a little stream bed for a solid kilometer or so to avoid being up to our knees in marshy bogs. There were instances where we had to jump from rock to stump to river bank to rock, then other times we would have to straddle a washed out area and rock back and forth like a cowboy who had spent the last two weeks riding a horse.

We spent the remainder of our day in El Chalten warming up in the hostel, cooking, playing cards, and looking at the map for a safter rout back to Bariloche. Everyone we asked said that Ruta 40 is just fine. Just drive slowly, they said...