Patagonia

This past week I had no class on Thursday or Friday for Semana Santa (Easter Break). Brittney and I went to Patagonia to celebrate the holiday. We missed Tuesday and Wednesday class because we wanted more time for our epic adventure. Plus school is completely overrated.

Tuesday

I had to wake up at 4:30am to catch our 6:30am flight to El Calafate. We arrived at noon to our hostel and got down straight to business. We took a boat to the Perito Moreno ice glacier.

La Semana Santa is considered the last weekend for the on-season tourism. The weather was definitely rough - especially when we attempted to take pictures on the deck of the boat.

After the boat ride we took a walk to another side of the glacier for some more pictures. 

Brittney and I also met this Australian couple spending five months traveling through almost every country in South America. This was the start of many encounters with our favorite couple. We some how ended up staying at the same hostel with them, eating at the same restaurant, or just bumping in to them on the street. I guess it was just meant to be.

Wednesday

On Wednesday we took a bus from El Calafate to El Chalten. Patagonia is absolutely gorgeous that even the bus ride I could not stop taking pictures.

We took another boat to the glacier Viedma.

After our boat trip we all went ice trekking. First we took a 20 minute hike up to reach the glaciers.

They gave us spikes for our shoes to dig into the snow.

The water was clean enough at the top of the trek to drink straight from the river. Considering I am still alive, I guess the guides were not lying. The guides surprised us with Baileys, which we drank on the rocks (from the ice glaciers).

We also met this great family from Venezuela. It was another great opportunity to practice Spanish. I honestly learn more from conversations with locals than any classroom experience. We eventually changed to English when we realized the whole family was bilingual and we just sounded silly…

Thursday

I am proud to say this was the only day I showered on my whole excursion. Showering is a bit overrated if you ask me. Honestly it becomes a nuisance when you are traveling and hiking.

After my one moment of cleanliness, Brittney and I headed on a trail to find a waterfall. One of the perks of traveling in autumn is all of the trees are changing colors.

After dinner, Brittney and I returned to our hostel to meet Ushuaians (the Southern most city in Argentina). Nosotros practicamos español mucho (We practiced Spanish a lot). They invited us to “rage” at the local La Tangoria. I had my first official Tango lesson. Needless to say, I was absolutely horrific.

Friday

During our travels, Brittney and I also met two Israelis. Somehow they convinced us that we should go camping with them. We were pretty much set on NOT going for a few reasons…and by a few reasons I mainly mean the weather. It was going to be freezing, windy, hailing, etc. But after we talked to Poppy, an English girl from our hostel who had camped the night before, we agreed. We headed to the store and rented/bought gloves, pants, jackets, hats, neck warmers, tents, and sleeping bags. If we were going to do this, we were coming prepared.

The walk up the mountain was absolutely gorgeous. It took us about 4 hours to complete a 3 hour hike because we took so many pictures.

We finally made it to Poincenot our campsite. We saw other crazy people camping at our campsite so we knew we were not the only insane people out there. We literally had to clear away the snow to set up our tents.

For dinner the Israelis brought two gas tanks to cook tea, soup, and spaghetti.

Normally when I camp we always have a campfire, but this was a nice change. It was surprisingly warm in our tent with the body heat, the gas stove, and the -10 degrees sleeping back.

We went to bed at midnight and the only problem with sleeping was the noise of the howling wind. I was a little cold, but for the most part I was surprisingly comfortable.

We woke up at five am to start preparing for our hike up to Fitz Roy. Fitz Roy is the quintessential image of Argentina. If you were to look at any guidebook, you would probably see a picture of the Fitz Roy mountain peak. 
After eating matzah-brei (we were traveling with Israelis on Passover), we started heading up the mountain.

It was one of the hardest hikes I have ever done. We only had two lights for four people. The weather was insane: it was windy, hailing, snowing, and raining. My ankle has also regressed from the past week from not properly resting and icing it. To top all of that, Brittney and I also had a bus to catch at 12:30pm. 

We finally made it to the top to see our sunrise. It was extremely cloudy, but it was still a gorgeous view of the lagoon at the top.

After a couple of minutes for pictures, it was time to start our race down the mountain. Going down the mountain was almost as equally hard as going up it. It was extremely slippery from the ice and I definitely ate it a few times. At points I was literally sliding down on my butt like a sled. We reached our campsite at 9:30 and had 3 hours to get down the hill, return our rentals, pick up our belongings from the hostel, and go to the bus station. Brittney and I literally ran down the mountain. We somehow made it in less than two hours. My ankle was dying by the end, but the whole trip was totally worth it. We even had time to buy peanuts and fruit before our bus. I still cannot believe we made out bus. It was so stressful at the time, but now that everything worked out I can look back with such fond memories.

All in all it was an amazing trip. It was also great to travel with only one person. It is amazing the number of people you meet and the crazy, random experiences you have. I still cannot believe we went camping in that weather…