Back to the narrative... On Friday, February 13, Sujata and I took a 2 1/2 hour bus ride (bright and early!) from El Calafate to the much smaller and more rustic town of El Chalten. El Chalten is referred to as the Trekking Capital of Argentina because it is a major destination for hikers, campers, and serious mountaineers. El Chalten is home to the famous peaks of the Mount Fitz Roy and the Cerro Torre which define the mountain range depicted in the logo used by the Patagonia clothing company.
That afternoon, Sujata and I hiked to a glacial lake (6 hours round trip). We talked, sang, and conjugated Spanish verbs in all tenses! Yes, we are quite aware that we are huge dorks, but our little grammar review actually helped a lot. Despite the on and off rainstorms and the howling winds, it was a lovely afternoon. We hobbled back into town (my knee was a bit angry at me that day) and had a fun dinner before turning in early for the night in preparation for our trek to the Fitz Roy early the next morning.
Unfortunately, we seem to have used up all our luck with the weather in Ushuaia because we woke up on Saturday morning to a monsoon. Undeterred by the rain, we set out on our full day trek with our friendly guide Marcello. Marcello was a huge sweetheart and he let us talk his ear off for the entire 8 hour day. We traded life stories. It was great. He thought we were hilarious (which of course we are!) and he indulged our tendency to take ridiculous pictures. Although we were not able to see the Fitz Roy due to the fact that it was being blasted by snow and had entirely disappeared from ridge-line, we thoroughly enjoyed our very wet trek. The sun finally came out as we were hiking back into town and we were able to get some spectacular views. We even stopped pick some wild cherries which were absolutely delicious!
As that Saturday happened to be February 14, Sujata and I decided to take each other out to a "romantic" Valentine's Day dinner date at a local micro-brewery (Cervezeria). We ordered some home-made Pilsner on tap and toasted to an incredibly successful week of travel and all the adventures yet to come. The Cervezeria was cozy and chill and as we lingered over good food and amazing beer, the place began to fill up with 20-something travelers. So we ordered more beer and ended up striking up a great conversation with some Israeli travelers who had just gotten out of the army. Later on, a guy who goes to Tufts and who happens to know Sujata's cousin Raoul (such a small world!) sat down with us and we all laughed and shared stories until the bar closed down at about 2:30 am. At that point, the bartender told us about this party going on down the street. In a town of 500 people, we were not expecting to find a hopping night life. However, somehow we stumbled upon this rocking pirate-themed, anti-Valentine's day party with a great DJ. The music was a bizarre mix of Jamaican reggae, Argentine rock, and European techno. Sujata and I took the place by storm and we all danced until about 5am!
One would think the story ends there. Not so. We crawled back to our hotel in the pouring rain (yes it was still raining!) only to find it completely dark, locked, and abandoned. Of course, Sujata and I had not anticipated staying out until 5am and certainly did not realize that there would be no way to get our keys from the reception. After banging on the door for a good 15 minutes, we realized no one was coming. Fortunately, we remembered that we had left our window open to let our hiking clothes dry out (why we thought they would dry in the rain, I have no idea), but we were able to crank the window open enough to climb in and tumble soaking wet onto the bed. Absolutely insane. At that point it was almost 6 am and we had to check out at 10 am which did not leave us very much time to sleep. The real problem, however, was that we were locked inside our own room so we thought we were going to have to climb out the window again in the morning to get our keys from reception. Much to our surprise, the owner of the hotel realized that our key had stayed at front desk the whole night (unfortunate that he didn't realize it was still there when he went to sleep and locked the whole place!) and he barged into our room at about 8:30 am! So after our short nap, we had no choice but to get up, pack our stuff and stumble to breakfast/checkout.
The owner was so completely amused by the situation that he insisted on taking our picture. Apparently we inspired him to start a wall of photographs of interesting people. So long story short (kind of), we are now the infamous American girls who left their mark on El Chalten.
We spent the morning looking at all our pictures from the week (it took us some time because there were almost 600) and giggling in exhausted but happy delirium. Suffice it to say, later that day as we made the long journey back to BA, I was not the happiest camper. My body pretty much hated me. But, it was worth it.
So thus ends the epic tale of our first week in Argentina. Now I can start blogging about these past few weeks in BA and all the quirky things I have learned about Argentine culture. Stay tuned!
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