We left on Sunday and flew from Jorge Newbery, the local Buenos Aires airport, direct to El Calafate the capital of la provincia de Santa Cruz in Patagonia. Airport security is non existant: no liquid restrictions, shoes and jackets remain on, if the metal detector beeps, so what? We stayed at an adorable little hostel (my first hostel experience!) that had two bunkbeds for the four of us and a private bath. We spent three days in El Calafate going on tours and walking around. Highlights include a two hour horseback excursion through the Andes and then a ranch house dinner of hearty argentine steak, potatoes, squash, red wine and homemade rice pudding--delicious. We also went on a guided nature hike in Glacier National Park and went to see Perito Moreno glacier. Part of our tour included an up close boat excursion that brought us to the north face of the glacier, it is absolutely enormous, 50 square kilometers larger than the city of Buenos Aires and still growing.
On Wednesday we took a bus from El Calafate to El Chaltén, a little mountain village in Glacier National Park. There are no paved roads leading to El Chaltén, I'm talking a 4 hour bus ride through a desert valley on dirt roads, lets just say it was very bumpy. El Chaltén is a town with about five streets and a population of 1,000 during the summer at 500 during the winter. There is absolutely zero cell phone service in the area, frequent power outages, and slow to no internet depending on how hard the wind is blowing. El Chaltén it is the national trekking capital of the world, people come for the mountains and the scenery. I was definitely out of my comfort zone and in a backpacker's paradise.
We passed our time in El Chaltén hiking and eating scrumptious food. All the water systems in Glacier National Park contain 100% drinkable water, it the most wonderful tasting water I've had in my life. We hiked to see a gorgeous waterfall on Wednesday but Thursday was our big hiking day. We packed up our backpacks with fruit, salami and bread for lunch and embarked on an 8 hour 20+ mile hike to see Piedras Blanca (meaning white rocks). We had some great views of Fitz Roy mountain range (found on the Patagonia label brand) and had lunch on the piedras blancas overlooking a rushing river. The mountains were just beautiful, the day was so clear and the sky was so blue. "What are men compared to rocks and mountains?" as Elizabeth Bennet would say. A storm blew in as we were coming down the mountain so things got very windy but everyone survived.
Friday was rainy and cold so I stayed in with a couple of the girls and recuperated from the hike. There was so much wind it really sounded like the mountain was roaring. Saturday we took our bumpy bus ride back to El Calafate and a plane back to Buenos Aires. I was so happy to be back in the city and reunited with technology but there is something to be said for the quiet majestic beauty of mother nature.
Semester classes started on Monday so I'm just getting settled in.
Hope everyone is happy and healthy.
Love,
Rocky
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