day 9/10/11: more buses and home

day 9 was pretty much like our trip down to patagonia: filled with buses. we woke up early (shocker) and took the 7:30am bus out of el chaltén back to el calafate. we had an hour "layover" in calafate, then left at 11:30 to head back to río gallegos. we got back to río gallegos around 4, where we had another "layover". however, this one sucked because it was 4 hours long. picture rumford, maine. now take away the ugly paper mill and substitute oil rigs. that is basically what río gallegos is like; the armpit or butthole of argentina. we went back to the carrefour to get a late lunch and some snacks for the bus. because we were taking andes mar back to puerto madryn, we were excited to get bus meals on the 19 hour trip back up the eastern coast (only starving people would be excited for bus meals). after struggling to keep ourselves occupied in the grimy terminal in río gallegos, our bus finally pulls in. little did we know, that we had, in fact, gotten ourselves cama ejecutivo seats on this bus! we had booked semi-cama seats (like a regular bus seat) but somehow were placed in these other nice seats that recline 130 degrees to sleep. it was the best surprise ever, so now we were on top of the world because a. bus meals and b. nice seats.

puerto madryn hostel

our well-deserved last meal in puerto madryn

well that was short lived because the bus didn't feed us. i'm actually not kidding. so we're on this bus for 19 hours with only one piece of bread each, the bread leftover from our time spent in el chaltén. we didn't get bus meals, blankets, water, or wine. the bus attendant handed out little packages of tea, but no cups or hot water. needless to say i was not a happy camper. we hadn't eaten a "real" meal since our stay in el calafate.

when we finally arrived in puerto madryn for the second time, we found the first hostel closest to the bus stop, dropped our stuff and literally ran to find a restaurant. well, of course it's 3pm and it's siesta time, so nothing was open. i was about to kill someone...until we found a cafe/pizza bar. we all ordered food and spent the next 10 minutes scarfing it down. then we decided to splurge and get ice cream. **note: we found out that we spend about 80 pesos on dinner in chaltén. 80 pesos for three nights of dinner=about 25 pesos per night. divide that by 3, which is 8 pesos per person aka 2 dollars a person. for 2 nights of dinner, because we stretched a pot of soup 3 days.** we laid on the beach for awhile, went back to the hostel, cooked, showered, and then strolled around puerto madryn as the sun was setting. we were all wearing our matching vests, and although we were sad to be leaving patagonia, we were also tired. we had exhausted our vacation and milked every single day we could, leaving us happy and satisfied, but also worn-out and cranky. we went to bed early, and left the next morning on a 7am bus for mendoza.


we arrived back in mendoza at 7:15am the next morning, monday. we took buses back to our respective houses, where i immediately dropped my bags, and went to the ifsa-office to print a few things. then, i went to spanish and took a history exam. it's still the week we came back, and i'm still tired! it's nice to be in a house again though and sleep in my own bed here. i took over 600 pictures while in patagonia, so i also have been sifting through those in my spare time.

an update from mendoza: little did we know, while we were freezing in patagonia, it turned to spring here! in just 12 days,  ( i combined a few, night buses aren't really that exciting to blog about), mendoza has blossomed into a green, warm (high of 82 today), flowery city. i'll have to take some more pictures of the park and streets....it's like a completely different place! also, because my host parents are gone for the week, i've been able to cook my own meals! i went to the grocery store and picked up some stuff to supplement what my host mom already left me (woohooo frozen dinners). i bought a bag of baby spinach, dried papaya, peanuts, raisins, and dried coconut (for oatmeal). i also bought more conditioner, which, surprise, cost more than half the groceries that i bought. #oneandahalfworldproblems.

day 8: era mi sueño

this was our last full day in el chaltén, and thankfully, it was beautiful. we awoke early and found that the weather prediction for this day was spot on: sunny, clear, and warm. we quickly got our stuff together and were out of the door before 9:30am to start our trek up to fitz roy. we hiked for a few minutes, then took a break to delayer. halfway through, we all had stripped down from several layers to just our baselayer..it was so nice out that i could have hiked in a t-shirt! we hiked up a mountain behind el chaltén and went around it to get to fitz roy. we were incredibly lucky that the day was so nice because hiking in the winter/spring in patagonia can be dangerous with all of the snow and melting ice that can cause the trails to wash out. it was also nice because it's pretty much impossible to even see fitz roy if there is any cloud cover. about 20 minutes in, cat spotted the tip of fitz roy behind some trees....it's literally right behind the town of chaltén! we hiked to a small lake (puddle, really) and then had lunch at the mirador that the park rangers had recommended when we first arrived in town. we hiked about an hour further because it was so nice out and sat at the intersection of the trail for half an hour, just enjoying the beautiful day. we all wanted to hike more, but were worried that the melting snow and warm temperatures were going to make the descent more difficult, so we turned around at the intersection. it also gets dark fast in el chaltén, and when the sun goes down, it gets chilly. we figured to be safe, instead of sorry.

winding around the moutain...with río fitz roy

the first spotting!

it was beautiful out!

still living like poor people

eating snow

on the way down, we saw this little guy

the way back down, with less snow

we stumbled down the rest of the mountain into a kiosk to buy chocolate because we had only had oatmeal (plain, yuck. also this was not "oatmeal". argentines use oatmeal primarily for the base of soups. gross), bread, cheese, and one avocado each. for 6 hours. needless to say, by the end, we were hungry. so we splurged and got some chocolate. we ate the rest of the soup that we had stretched for the past 2 other nights for dinner and went to bed early because we had an early bus out of el chaltén back to calafate and río the next day. from río, we were going to catch our andes mar bus (apparently the strike only lasted a few days) back to puerto madryn and then switch buses, and head back to mendoza, just in time for spanish class on monday morning.

cat and i stripped to change layers and decided it was warm enough to do a cliche sports bra pic...it really was that warm out!

before we fell asleep, we took a few minutes to reflect on how great our trip turned out. it was slightly hilarious because without knowing it, we had hit three of the biggest things in patagonia: puerto madryn and the peninsula (bri's choice), perito moreno (cat's choice), and fitz roy (my choice). it was awesome how everything worked out, even at some times when we didn't think they would. it was also incredible how the scheduling worked out. we had bought round trip tickets to puerto madryn, but that was it. everything else, we figured out along the way. i was so fortunate to travel with two girls who are as active and gung-ho about outdoorsy things as i am; and only having 3 of us was a blessing in disguise. it was so much easier to make decisions and get bus tickets with only 3 of us, compared the other ifsa kids who traveled in groups of 8 or 9. it was also way cheaper to buy food, lodging, etc. i'm so glad i made the decision to travel to patagonia...it really was vale la pena y los pesos. and for the others: it'll only get more touristy, crowded, and expensive as summer approaches! we're just so good.

day 7: matching vests

day 7 dawned exactly as the weathermen predicted: wet, rainy, and cloudy. we woke up after sleeping in a little and thought that taking it easy for the first part of the day would be a good idea; to recover from our full week of early buses and traveling. we chilled in the hostel, reading and crocheting until lunch. after lunch, we lounged in our room for a little, trying to decide what to do. it was at this point i was kicking myself for not bringing legit hiking boots or enough outerwear because it was so wet outside. we decided to do a short hike up to mirador de los condores ("lookout of the condors"). we hiked up a small hill and got a nice view of chaltén from higher up...it is a really quirky town because it's so young. the houses don't really fit together and the roads are more like sidewalks. the trail for the condor lookout was washed out, so we took another longer trail, mirador de las águilas, or "lookout of the eagles".

el chaltén from higher up

mirador de las águilas

beautiful and snowy

view from our hostel window

on our way back, we stopped in a cafe to buy postcards (if you want mail send me your address!). we also stopped in an outdoor store to browse. we all bought matching vests which the salesman gave us at a nice discount if we all bought one and used cash. we decided that because we were on a strict budget, we wouldn't go out to dinner in chaltén (not that anything was open..) and would buy vests instead.

now, i think i've made some good decisions while i've been here, but buying this vest might top out all of my other decisions. we wore them around the hostel while we cooked and chilled, and they are so warm, which is practical because it'll be the dead of winter when i return to the united states in 2 months. plus, they embody almost everything we saw in patagonia. the brand is "che patagonia" ("che" is an informal way to greet someone, as in che, que tal? aka "hey man, what's up?"), and the vests have small penguin tabs as zipper pulls (to symbolize the penguins on the valdez peninsula. we didn't see penguins but we figured it was funny anyways), and the back has an embroidered outline of fitz roy and a hiker. so yeah. one of the best investments ever.

day 6: first day of spring and el chaltén

day 6 dawned...well, to be honest, horribly. we awoke early to catch another 8am bus and it was snowing out. september 21st marks the first day of spring in argentina (woohoo southern hemisphere), so as the rest of the ifsa program was enjoying the heat and humidity of iguazu falls, we were in patagonia with the fresh layer of snow that had covered el calafate. we took a 3 hour bus to el chaltén, where we arrived around 11. if we thought it was cold in calafate, chaltén was much worse. here, it was colder and wetter; it was sleeting and we still had to find a hostel. after stumbling around with our wet backpacks and guidebooks, we finally found one AND got a discount ("discount" meaning we got to pay 4 pesos, about 1 US dollar, less). we decided to eat an early lunch and unpack our bags a little, because we were going to spend 3 nights here.

happy first day of spring!

we also went to the one supermercado (think real hard on that word) where they sold basically nothing, except for these bags of mayonnaise.

main street of el chaltén

then we decided to stretch our legs a little and go on a mini-hike up to a waterfall

me and bri

the hostel charged us 2 pesos for toilet paper, so we stole our own to save money...

after walking to the waterfall and grocery store, we decided that el chaltén was nice, but had little to offer within the town. however, after we learned some fun facts about chaltén, we began to appreciate it more. fun facts: el chaltén is argentina's youngest "town", founded in 1985. it was argentina's claim to the mountain ranges because they didn't want chile to have the territory. so basically this "town" hasn't really come together yet, it's still just a spattering of multi-colored houses in this tiny valley. there is one small grocery store, and the only ATM is in the bus terminal. many places still don't accept credit cards, so we made sure to bring enough cash from el calfate to last us four days. over half the town is closed until the summer months of november/december/january/february, so we were out of luck (and money) if we wanted to eat out as well. despite it's young roots, el chaltén is the national trekking capital of argentina. it's also pretty well known by trekkers worldwide because of its proximity to the fitz roy range.

after our hike, we went back to the hostel for an early dinner. we decided to sleep in a little the next day because the weather was supposed to be horrible; cloudy, snowy, wet, and possible sleet.

day 5: chilling with p. moreno

day 5 was also verrr early because we had an 8am bus out of el calafate to see the glacier perito moreno. i knew perito moreno existed, but had no idea how unbelievable it was. in the midst of "global warming", or whatever you think it is that's making the earth warmer, perito moreno is still advancing, unlike other glaciers. over 5km wide, and 30km deep (and almost 300 feet tall out of the water, another 300 feet lie beneath the water), it creeps forward everyday, causing huge chunks of ancient, condensed ice to fall into the icy lake that it created. it really is incredible. we got to the welcome center at the top, and ran into an old irish couple who spoke english. they highly recommended the boat tour, so we decided to take the bus 15 minutes back down the mountainside to catch the next boat.

view from the bus ride to perito

perito moreno from the bus

the bus driver was nice enough to pull over so we could snap some fotografías

hahahahha

thaaa boat

perito from the boat

for an additional 500 pesos, you could trek on the glacier for an hour

the boat ride was so worth it, vale la pena, as the argentines say (literally, "it is worth the pain"). we also agreed that it was not only vale la pena, but los pesos as well. because perito is still active, we were only allowed to get within 400 feet or so of it, in case any chunks fell off. the boat tour was about an hour long, and after, we returned to the welcome center, where we tried to eat our poverty lunch inside because it was cold, but got kicked out. so, we ate on the curb of the parking lot with our bread, cheese, and carrots. #homelesspeopleproblems

our bus didn't leave til 4pm to pick us up and return to calafate, so we decided to explore the over 2 km of boardwalks that surround perito moreno. bri's guidebook said to plan on spending 2 hours on this said boardwalk to take pictures from every possible angle. we spent over 2 hours just walking around and listening to the ice fall. the boardwalks are beautiful and new, and the parque nacional de glaciares did a really nice job making sure the aesthetics of the boardwalk didn't take away from the natural beauty of the glacier. it's a tough decision: perito moreno is beautiful and people should have the ability to see it up close, but tourism is at the expense of destroying the nature around it by constructing boardwalks, a boat launch, etc. i bet in the next decade or so, the area will be much more touristy, but for now, it is a good balance between tourism and natural beauty.

ice chunks

you can see how extensive the boardwalk is

just chillin' with p. morenes

we hopped on the bus right at 4pm, arrived back in el calafate by 5:30, had an early dinner, and packed our stuff up for another early (8am) bus to el chaltén: the final destination of the trip!