The Ultimate Spring Break - Chapter Three: El Chaltén

El Chaltén, Santa Cruz - Argentina. Breathtaking. Mankind with all of our city skylines can't recreate the chiseled majesty of these glacier-carved peaks. We traveled from Calafate to Chaltén by tourbus with hopes of hiking and camping in a truly beautiful place. After our arrival we found a bakery and grocery store where we stocked up on bread, crackers, soup, pasta, and dulce de leche which is the peanut-butter of Argentina for my State-side readers. We strapped on our packs and began our trekking.


After about two and a half to three hours of hiking, we arrived at Laguna Torre, a glacial lake named for Cerro Torre, the highest peak behind us in this photo. We set up our little campsite along the river stemming from the lake from which we could drink as much unfiltered water as we wanted. It was amaaazing! The water was perfect. Cold and clean.


The national park service had a "letrina" for our use available less than 100 meters from our site. It was basically really gross. But, all part of the experience. That night at our campsite, we discovered that we had failed to purchase and bring a vital part of our camp stove, the fuel hose. Ummm...very smooth. Well, since no fires were allowed in the park we made the most of our bread and crackers and dulce de leche. The adventure continued...


We took our time getting started the second day. We explored Laguna Torre more in the morning, hiking around the lake before packing up and moving onto the next checkpoint. During our afternoon trek we moved higher in elevation and passed two more lakes, Lagunas Madre e Hija (Mother and Daughter) shown in this picture. As we walked along the shore of Lagune Madre, Cerro Fitzroy came into view once again. Without a doubt it is the most impressive of the peaks.


Before arriving at our next designated camping area, we walked through a large wetland and marsh that eventually transformed into an ominous wood. It was late in the afternoon and overcast. The waning light gave the trees a haunted look. I have to admit my imagination worked up about a thousand scary stories that turned into a few dreams during the night in our little tent. The wind blew through the treetops all night long screaming above us. Shivers down my spine.


The next morning we were visited by a new friend, this kitten. Aaawww - He hung out with us in our tent all morning while we napped and read. He fell asleep inside our sleeping bags. Brian decided to hike up to another lookout point while we chilled and packed up the campsite.


We began our hike back to El Chaltén in the early afternoon with Cerro Fitzroy always at our backs. The river valley was gorgeous. We arrived back in the village in time to clean up and find something to eat before catching our bus back to El Calafate.


I'll never forget the peace and tranquility of this place. The silent grandeur of the cliff faces, the clear running streams and rivers, the taste of the ice-cold water, the soreness between my shoulders, the smell of the "letrinas." It was all so unforgettable. Nothing compares to being still, just still, in the middle such unadulterated beauty. A taste of heaven, I think.

The Ultimate Spring Break - Chapter Two: Perito Moreno

After the battle with my digestive system, we departed Ushuaia for Calafate, another small town an hour north by plane. The great attractions of Calafate have little to do with the town itself. In general, people travel there as a stopover to places such as Torres del Paine across the border in Chile or Chalten both of which are national parks for hiking and camping. I'll write more about that later. Another attraction is the glacier Perito Moreno.


You guessed it! We spent part of a day admiring this cold-blue mass of ice with the help of our friendly taxista (taxi driver) Pablo.


We joined a group of about 50 senior citizens from around the world by boarding this boat which took us within 200 meters of the glacier. Several times large pieces of ice broke off and crashed into the water. Whenever this happened we enjoyed the roll of the boat riding the waves created by the ice.



Of course we had to take a group photo. One of the crew photographers was nice enough to use my camera instead of hers for this shot.






The colors were incredibly vivid. After the hour long boat ride we took a quick bus ride up to the top of the overlooking hill. We had some instant soup and galletitas (cookies) at a small snack bar and walked the board walks from mirador to mirador (look-out point). Impresionante!
Later that evening we met up with some other ACAers in Calafate where we celebrated a friend's birthday with a big restaurant meal and, of course, helado (ice cream). It was a fabulous day.

The Ultimate Spring Break - Chapter One: Ushuaia, Argentina

Neither rain, flood, mechanical difficulties with our plane, layovers, food poisoning, forgetting my towel, a common cold, nor an airline strike could hold us back from having an amazing spring break. I traveled with my fellow ACA-ers, Rachel and Brian, through Patagonia starting at the "End of the World," Ushuaia. Before even arriving in Buenos Aires for our flight we had the rain and flood to deal with. Then fifteen minutes after take-off our plane had to land and be boarded by a fully suited crew of firefighters. Six-hours later we boarded the same plane.



Ushuaia is beautiful. It won my heart immediately with all the sailboats anchored in the harbor and ships docked at the piers. Water, islands, and mountains in the backgrounds complete with a glacier above the town. Yes, that's a glacier! And you haven't seen anything yet.



The first day we spent walking through the National Park which was beautiful. We met a really nice woman from the Netherlands named Ellen who we hiked. Spanish was one of her five languages so we spoke together in castellano even though she spoke English perfectly. That was great!



We saw more streams, rivers, woods, and mountains. And a lot of rabbits actually. Where there are a few, there are many.



We even saw a huge beaver dam - castorera. It made me think of the beavers in C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia since I just read "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" in Spanish. You may or may not find that interesting. I'm just really psyched that I read a book in Spanish. After our hike, we left the park to find lunch before embarking on our boat tour of the strait and nearby islands. I grabbed a sandwich at a small bakery. BIG MISTAKE!



We had two guides and the boat to ourselves. We drove by a small island covered by different birdlife and sealions.


This lighthouse made such a striking silhouette against the bright sky that I had to take a photo. It was about this time in the day that I began feeling the effects of what I now believe to have been food-poisoning. The next 24 hours were probably the worst of the entire trip for me, but the two young and attractive Argentine men at the hostel helped distract me from my misery by chatting and making me tea. Fortunately, the trip could only get more fabulous after that point and so much more was still to come.

Lima, Peru: La capital federal

After yet another flight, we arrived in Lima again. This time for more than an hour to change planes. We made a direct course via tourbus for a ritzy tenedor libre (all-you-can-eat buffet) called Mangos. And the mangos really were scrumptilescent. I tell you no lie, I ate all-I-could-eat of those. The restaurant was in the upper class district of Miraflores right on the Pacific coast. The dinner deck was another great photo-op for Renee, Michelle, and me.


During this second time in the capital city, we did the whole tourism thing and saw the sights. Kerstine, Renee, and I made a point to get a picture with the congressional building in the background. La capital federal, after all.


Yes, it's true. The statue is MAKING-OUT. This unique piece of art is in the center of La Plaza de Amor (Park of Love) on the city coast. I guess, "they" say that when a man and woman kiss in this park it prophesies their marriage. Haroldo, our program director, teased some of us about following the statue's example, but as far as I could tell there was no active participation. Too many cameras.


Some of the city sights included la Catedral de San Francisco and a historic convent, both of which had tombs and catacombs. Under the convent were the remains of approximately 30,000 people. The creepy thing about it was that the skulls and larger bones had been dug up and arranged in formations like the one in the picture above....shivers, right?! Still, it was interesting to see.


I don't know why, but the city was full of VW beetles of every color. Por lo tanto, we had an ongoing game of slug-bug in our tour bus. A few of guys ended up with some ugly bruises. There really were a lot of bugs.