South Trip

As you know, after Puerto Madryn we hopped on the bus for a a good twenty or so hours to travel to our next destination. As fun as spending the night is on the bus, it was great to arrive the next day in the beautiful Calafate. Warning, this blog post will include many, many pictures as it includes the glaciers.

Second stop

This map outlines our second stop. First we were in the city of El Calafate seen in the mid-bottom right region. The following day we visited El Chalten, a small town in the top left corner. Lastly, we visited the glaciers of Perito Moreno on the not-completely bottom left.

El Calafate

We spent two nights in Calafate, leaving at 2:30 in the morning of the third night. It was a lot of fun with all of the exchange students, the warmer weather and the accessible town.

Calafate is a small, expensive tourist city. There were a lot of stores that had cool stuff for sale but were overpriced. 

There were plenty of these little fellers sitting on the benches around the most touristy shopping center. We didn't buy too much here as we were too busy investing our money in groceries.

We stayed in cabins that could have from 5 to 8 people. My cabin had 8 and we took advantage of the full utility kitchen, making breakfasts, desserts and lunches. I had some of the best meals since my arrival here.

Here's my cabin of 8. We made a cake with chocolate cookies and dulce de leche, a creamy caramel spread here that is very popular here.

On the first day, we went for a walk around the city and, as all exchange students do, we stopped plenty of times to take pictures. 

Day Trip to El Chalten

The welcome sign in the plaza of El Chalten. The sign leads you to believe that there is a lot more to this town than there actually is. 

On the second day at Calafate, we went on a full day excursion to a small town on the border of Chile. In fact, the purpose of its entire existence is to keep Chile from pushing over the mountains and claiming the land. The inhabitants were paid to move there in a fashion very similar to people being paid to live in Alaska.

There were several of these kinds of signs, especially as we moved further South. I don't know if you're  able to read it, but New York City is approximately 11,168 km from this exact spot, a small shop/restaurant just outside of El Chalten. I'm quite a ways from home, but that seems so much closer than it feels.

This is a small farm that we passed close to El Chalten. What a beautiful place to live, no?

Here is the small museum about the national parks of Southern Argentina.

We spent about an hour hiking a relatively small mountain of the Andes. A part of it is seen behind the picture of the museum.

Here is the view of the small town of El Chalten from atop the mountain we hiked. I'd also like to add that there is no wifi permitted in this whole area for it is a national park. There is no wifi in any national park. Can you imagine living in a place without wifi?

Just my favorite picture from this adventure. I guess there would be some perks to living in El Chalten...

The Glaciers

Los glaciares de Perito Moreno.

Perito Moreno glaciers.

Visiting the glaciers was without a doubt the greatest experience in my life. They were a breathtaking natural beauty and don't they just look so small from afar? But they're massive, always changing and not nearly as cold as you think a giant mass of frozen snow would be.

You ready for some pictures?

Cabin 2 (my cabin in Calafate).

We arrived to the glaciers by boat and this was our view on the way. I'll admit to feeling a little disappointed at first, thinking that the glaciers weren't that big. 

Ah! They're huge! Look at how COOL and BEAUTIFUL they are!! There are bits of ice in the water because the glacier is always breaking apart. Don't worry though, we were informed several times that this specific glacier is still advancing several centimeters a year instead of receding like most, if not all, others.

Still not too big for me to hold up with one hand (Argentina's made me strong).

It was a lovely day.

In this picture you can see the creamy, light blue color of the water. It appears so creamy because of all the sediment that is gathered in a glacier as it pushes forward than is released when the compacted snow melts. Also, take note of the neon blue between the gapes in the snow. I just thought that was so lovely, I'm glad the picture was able to capture it.

So after we walked along the water and got a good look at the glaciers from a distance, we were suited up to walk on the glaciers. The only special gear we required were these tie on "shoes" made entirely of metal with thick, sharp spikes on the bottom to grip onto the compact snow as we walked.

This is what the shoe looked like, just a small thing tied on. The dirt you see is the sediment I was talking about, dredged up by the glacier.

Holding the first glacier ice that I ever tasted. Very fresh, very cold.

Our two guides, though the man in front, Diego, was our main guide. He was very amusing in explaining our rules to us, saying that any mistake would result in death and only death.

Atop the glaciers was like another world. I imagine that it's what the moon looks like, just without the water.

Speaking of which, the water was SO BLUE, just like the gapes in the glacier that I saw before we were walking. It looked fake. I loved it.

Here I am, drinking my first glacier water. I didn't want to take off my gloves so ... this was clearly the proper solution.

And here I am toasting 4000 year old glacier water with a Canadian and two Danish girls. If I had known we were going to be able to drink glacier water like proper humans, maybe I wouldn't have been so foolish before ... but probably not.

Yay glacier walking!!

After walking on the glaciers, we walked through the forest next to it. We could see the glaciers through the trees, but I was more happy to just be with these awesome people!

This is where I ate lunch afterwards.

I don't have a picture of the ice actually falling, but a massive chunk of the glacier fell off just before we left. Here you can see the ice gathered in the water close to where it fell.

After lunch we walked on these hiking trails on the opposite side of the glaciers. They're endless!

The only thing more beautiful than those glaciers was my company.

We got back on the bus after glacier walking and almost simultaneously everyone passed out but my friend Bregje from the Netherlands and I. This is exchange life.

For the rest of the day, we relaxed in our cabins and had the opportunity to go to a night pub in the city. Only Bregje, a girl from Rochester, New York named Jean and I went. There aren't many pictures of it! But it was fun. When we returned to the cabins at one in the morning, we had an hour to pack our bags then we were back on the bus to drive, drive, drive to the end of the world, the city of Ushuaia!