The Saga Continued...

To pick up where I left off, on our last morning in Ushuaia, Sujata and I got up early and went on a hike up to and along the ridge-line of a mountain overlooking the bay of Ushuaia. The trail led us through a fairy-tale like forest and walking along the narrow, rocky path which hugs the steep mountain slope, I felt as though I were in the "Lord of the Rings." It was especially pleasant because we were lucky enough to get perfect weather for a hike--cool, sunny, and a crystal clear blue sky!

That afternoon, we took a flight to el Calafate  (about an hour north by of Ushuaia by plane) where we spent the remainder of our evening exploring the little town center, attempting to navigate the supermarket in search of lunch for our glacier trek the following day, and lingering over a fabulous dinner of home-made pasta and wine. Sujata and I were both surprised by the huge contrast between the terrain and colors of Ushuaia and el Calafate. Flying into el Calafate felt a bit like we were landing on the moon. Whereas Ushuaia is predominantly blue and green and sparkles in the sun, el Calafate is mostly brown, with vast expanses of desert and very little vegetation. Because of the lack trees, there is also no protection from the blasting wind! The town is charming but has been built up commercially quite a bit in the past 5-10 years and thus did not have the same quaint feel as Ushuaia. However, as I will describe below, the Glacier National Park, which is just a 45 minute drive from the town may be the most stunning thing I've ever seen.

So, on Wednesday, Sujata and I again woke up at 6 am, and packed our backpack for our all day "Big Ice" trek on the Perito Moreno glacier. We hiked about 1.5 hours along the ridge where the glacier meets the mountain out to a point where we could strap on our crampons and harnesses and head out onto the ice. We spent about 3 hours trekking out on the glacier, navigating steep ridges, ice hills, and narrow fault lines. We explored ice caves and encountered a number of sink holes, glacial rives, and waterfalls. We even ate lunch out on the ice sitting alongside a small laguna with brilliant turquoise water! Our guides were wonderful and very relaxed considering no one in the group had experience with ice-trekking technique. Their confidence in us and their obvious expertise was comforting, especially when we were confronted with some unexpected twists and turns on the ice. Unfortunately, we got unlucky with the weather that day--it pretty much poured the whole day! But we were so bundled up in our waterproof pants and our raincoats that the rain really did not detract significantly from the experience. As Sujata commented, the rain made her feel more "legit." All in all, it was an absolutely mind-blowing experience! That night, Sujata and I indulged in long hot showers and celebrated our trekking triumph with a delicious meal and a bottle of wine at a little family-owned restaurant before collapsing into our beds, completely exhausted and content. 

Although we again had to wake up at the crack of dawn on Thursday, the day proved to be much more relaxing. We spent the day cruising through icebergs that looked as though they had been sculpted by hand and approaching within 300 m of some of the most impressive glaciers in Patagonia (and probably in the world), including the Upsala and the Spegazzini glaciers. Between snapping about 500 pictures of giant hunks of ice and trying to dodge the intermittent rainstorms, we made friends with a number of the other passengers--in particular, an awesome couple from San Francisco, Jane and Lincoln. We became quite smitten with each other and they actually ended up taking us out to a fantastic dinner later that night at a hippy vegetarian restaurant called Pura Vida. Jane is a swing-dance instructor (among a ton of other fun and quirky professions) and we all went dancing after dinner at the summer festival and 132 anniversary celebration of el Calafate.  Los Pericos (a very famous Latin band) were headlining attraction and Jane and Lincoln taught us to Lindy Hop. We also ended up "growing a small family" as we danced and jumped around with group of little girls from the town and their 3-year old brother whose signature move was to close his eyes and seriously rock out on his air guitar (absolutely adorable!). What a phenomenal night!

I am going to end this chapter here and save the tales of El Chalten for another day. I have had a fantastic weekend here in BA full of salsa dancing and exploring the city. Last night I went out to a fabulous steak dinner (at Parilla Pena--Nora's favorite restaurant in BA) and then spent most of the night at the birthday party of an Argentine guy named Juane who is friends with a girl on my program. Unfortunately, Sujata got food poisoning on Saturday and couldn't join us! Pobrecita! Tonight, I am going to a free ballet performance with some friends from my program. I will post the link to my Patagonia photo album as soon as Sujata and I have a chance to weed out our 600 photos into a reasonable selection. 

Les mando mucho amor a todos!

My first two weeks!

Hola!

This is my first attempt at trying to keep a blog and I will do my best to give the full report without writing an entire novel. I'm sure those of you who have experienced my blow-by-blow e-mails are skeptical of this, but I am determined to reign in my verbose tendencies. 

These past two weeks have absolutely flown by! I spent my first week in Argentina on a whirlwind tour of the Argentine side of Patagonia with Sujata. I honestly cannot imagine a better way to have kicked-off this semester!

So, our Patagonian adventure began bright and early on Sunday, Feb 8, when Sujata and took a taxi to the domestic airport, leaving ourselves plenty of time to check in and get through "security" before our flight. We arrived a full hour early, which of course would have given us ample time to relax and maybe even linger over a cafe con leche, but when we strolled into the empty airport, Aerolinias Argentina kindly informed us that our flight was leaving from the international airport conveniently located about 45 minutes outside of the city. After sprinting back and forth through the airport trying to  find a taxi (somewhat weighed down by my 40 lb backpack!), we somehow managed to find a taxi driver crazy enough to get us to the airport in only 20 minutes! The lack of seat-belts did not help my alleviate anxiety, but fortunately he delivered us in one piece and we made it to our plane on time...only to find that it was, of course, delayed! 

After that unexpectedly exciting start to our journey, it was pretty much smooth sailing. Our first stop was Ushuaia, the capital of Tierra del Fuego and the absolute southern-most town in South America--just a short boat ride away from Antarctica! We spent our first afternoon at the bottom of the world on an island that is home to 5,000 penguins from Dec-Feb. We were allowed to approach within feet of them (it was hard to keep a greater distance because there were so many) and we spent almost an hour watching them play, swim, fight, flirt, cuddle, sleep, and even (quite graphically!) mate. Sujata and I froze in our tracks and marveled (and blushed!) as we watched nature take its course. I never thought I would feel scandalized by penguins.

The next day, we again put our lives in the hands of a crazy driver--but this time we asked for it! We spent the day on all day 4x4 off-road excursion through the forest and lake region of Ushuaia. As Sujata wrote in her mass e-mail, our guide drove like he was driving a car in a video game. Literally, his goal is to maneuver the car at impossible angles (as close to 90 degrees as possible), and then zoom through cavernous holes, rivers, and up and down steep rocky hills. There were times I was convinced we were going to flip over. It was completely crazy and so much fun! And it didn't hurt that our guide was pretty cute and a complete goof-ball. We enjoyed a wonderful 3-hour long Argentine asado (BBQ) on a mountain on the coast--I probably ate half a cow!--and made friends with a fabulous couple from Buenos Aires and a very cool 28 year old woman from Germany who we had dinner with later that night. After our bonding lunch we fought through our food comas and  spent the rest of the afternoon canoeing on el Lago Escondido (the "Hidden Lake")--absolutely stunning! Sujata and I made a pretty fierce team on the water, and entertained the rest of the group with resounding renditions of some classic songs :) 

So I realize that I am failing miserably at my attempt to keep this blog succinct, but there is so much more I want to include...this is very difficult! I am going to end this first entry here because I am meeting up with a few friends from my program to go to the crafts fair/artisan market in La Recoleta but hopefully by the end of this weekend I will make it through the Patagonia trip and the update on my first week in BA!

Les mando muchos besos! Ciao por ahora!