El Calafate-patagonia

After two nights in Buenos Aires and celebrating our friend Jenn's 21st birthday, on Thursday Meagan and I were on a plane again but this time headed down South to Patagonia-completely different from north-western South America! In Peru we were in shorts and t-shirts and in Calafate we were in jeans and jackets! Definitely weren't going to be building up a sweat like the walk up to Machu Piccchu! The plane ride in was again beautiful. It was open land with snow topped mountains! It reminded me so much of landing in Jackson and looking out the window to see the Tetons only this time... in Southern Argentina! We were supposed to be on a 7 o'clock flight but that flight got cancelled and we were bumped to a 9 o'clock flight and then that was delayed so although we were a lot later getting to Calafate than initially planned we got there and it was great! When we arrived we got in a bus to head to our hostel. We were surrounded on both sides by absolutely beautiful views! Our hostel was situated in a great place looking out on Lago Argentina with the mountains in the background. All along we had been planning on doing the 'big ice' but we missed the final date by just 2 days. Because May is a true start of the off-season (since it is getting cold!!) they have discontinued some activities and changed their schedules and stuff, so instead we signed up for the mini-trek. Including 'mini' in the title of the excursion made it sound not overly exciting since we have the whole go big or go home mentality right now but it ended up being amazing!! And I don't even know if the Big Ice would have been that much cooler! So we signed up to do the mini-trek on Friday. Thursday we just went into the little town and explored some shops, got some lunch, went to the grocery store and rented some clothes for the next day. Since obviously Calafate is a hot-spot for tourists, not all of them come prepared for the temperatures so it is perfect to have shops that rent necesary clothes! I rented a pair of gloves and some windproof/waterproof pants. Meagan rented gloves and sunglasses! Crazy what you could get for just 10 pesos! Some of our other friends from IES who had spent the other part of spring break exploring Patagonia were at our hostel so it was great to hear their stories and spend some time together! So we hung out for a little while then Meagan and I headed to bed! One of my favorite parts about traveling as a college student is staying in hostels. I have met so many interesting people through my journeys who are traveling for multiple years or just a few months. Some have been all over the world and others just in Argentina. They are from Germany, England, Switzerland, Japan, the US, and pretty much any other European country. Americans are definitely a minority. It is much more common for people from Europe to take some time off just to travel which is so amazing. Interestingly enough, English is the common language? Doesn't make too much sense since it is most of their second languages but I guess that's how it works! It would be nearly impossible to travel through South America if you did not speak Englih OR Spanish but of course it helps to speak both :)


Those were just some of my observations about traveling... anyways on Friday we got up pretty early to be ready to leave by 7:30 or something like that. Because Calafate is SO far south the sun rises super late! It's not really sunny until 9am! Lucky for us though we were able to see the sunrise on our bus drive to the glaciers. It was a beautiful drive (again... there are lots of these in South America!). We had packed bunches of different layers just because we really didn't know how cold it was going to be! I had more than enough but it was pretty chilly! I always wore 2 pairs of pants (leggings and either another pair of exercise pants or my windproof pants) and a couple shirts and my fleece! We all got on a boat to head over to the glaciers and I saw one of the most amazing views ever. There was a rainbow right over the edge of the glacier with the mountains surrounding the glacier. Absolutely amazing. It is hard to imagine these HUGE ice glaciers until you actually see them for yourself. They are so so huge. We got across the lake and we all just in awe of the glaciers.
After dropping off our bookbags and hearing a little history of the glaciers we headed over to put on our 'cramp-ons' basically they were just spikes strapped on to our feet. Without the cramp-ons it would be nearly impossible to walk on the ice! So we started out behind our guide hiking all around the glaciers seeing holes in the ice, little streams and just the expansiveness of the ice! One of my favorite things was the cat that lived up there on the glacier! It was so funny! It was a cute little grey cat named Puma who just followed all of the people walking around and someone said he has built in cramp-ons which is true! I decided Sunshine and Shadow might have fallen into a hole before they climbed up all the ice! After walking around for a while, taking a shot of whiskey and eating an alfajor, and eating lunch, we got back on the boat then back on the bus to head to the balconies. The balconies give you even more views of the glaciers and really prove how far they go back. After hiking on the glaciers and standing on the actual ice Meagan and I were a little tired and after walking around for a bit settled for some hot-choclate! After a while we arrived back in Calafate and since it was our friend Chris' birthday we bought stuff to make him a cake! He wanted a pumpkin-pie but we couldn't find all the ingredients so we settled for a chocolate cake with dulce de leche and peanut rocklets to make it look a little fancier (basically peanut m&ms). It was fun to cook in this hostel! Gives you something to do and saves money!
We stayed up for a while celebrating and then headed to bed. The next day we went on a horseback ride all day along the coast of Lago Argentina which was beautiful! Again because it is headed to low-season it was only me Meagan and our gaucho!! Which was quite an adventure, especially since there were about 6 hunting dogs with us who killed a rabbit that our gaucho tied to his saddle! Only in argentina... The day was a lot of fun but couldn't really match up to hiking on the glaciers! Then we basically just relaxed and woke up early enough Sunday to relax and look out the window of our hostel at the beautiful view of the mountains and head home!

Spring Break 2010 was indescribable and absolutely amazing. I am so blessed to have so many opportunities to travel and explore the world. Although I have had my bumps along the way, I cannot really think of any better experience in my life than studying abroad (especially in a new continent and a different language!) It is hard right now with all of my friends heading back to the US for graduation at Wofford and everything but I am still living it up in South America! Can't wait for my family to be here ONE WEEK from now to head to Bariloche (in Patagonia) and Iguazu falls. both of which are supposed to be amazing.Also on May 25th is the Bicentennial of Argentina's independence which is a huge deal and we are going to the Argentina-Canada soccer game on the 24th which is a big deal since the World Cup is coming up and futbol as they call is it a HUGE deal here! I bought 3 Messi (the Argentine super soccer star) jerseys for Dorothy, Sallie and me for the game! So exciting! Love the light blue and white stripes!

Anyways, I am headed to Uruguay tomorrow which means a new country and new stamps in my passport! Life is good. Chau!

Peru and Machu Picchu

Wow. I just got back from one of the most amazing trips of my life and I now am officially in love with Peru. While I was there I was always comparing things to Argentina because it is the only other country that I have been to in Argentina!

We got up super early (3:30 am) on Friday morning in order to get to the International EZE airport, which is about 30 minutes away, to be ready for our flight from Buenos Aires to Lima and then Lima to Cusco. Although it was a cloudy day, the views from the airplane as we were flying into Cusco were absolutely beautiful. It was so lush and everything was green with trees and there were no tall buildings like in Buenos Aires! In some ways it reminded my of flying into Jackson Hole just because the view is so amazing and you are in the mountains. But this time it was the Andes Mountains. After we arrived in the relatively small airport in Cusco we headed to our hostel called "The Point." Typical South America, the driver from the hostel that was supposed to pick us up at the airport was super late and we had to get our own cab which we paid 20 sol for (around 7 dollars). Looking back, the most expensive cab we took the rest of our time there was 7 sol when we had 6 people and a lot of luggage in the car, but we didn't realize how cheap things are in Peru! All along we thought Buenos Aires has been relatively cheap compared to the US and cabs especially that typically cost just a few dollars, but Peru is really cheap. Although we were warned of the altitude change in Cusco, we wanted to explore the town anyways. We jumped from sea level to around 11,000 feet elevation and it really impacted all of us! much more than we expected. It was kind of rainy anyways so we walked around for a bit and then got dinner and headed back and ended up going to bed super early just because we all felt pretty awful.

Saturday was a great day. Instead of doing a city tour and really being exposed to all of the historical parts of the city, we chose to wander around and go to the black market and also the artisans market, both of which exposed us to the Peruvian culture. In general peruvians have darker skin, are much shorter, and often not as beautiful as Argentines, but actually more friendly. We first went to the black market which was so interesting. It was mostly second hand things but also some new stuff (probably stolen) that are able to be bought at a much discounted price. Meagan was able to buy Merrell hiking boots for 40 US$ and Paige bought a nice Columbia jacket for 50. This market was huge filling many streets and one of the best parts for us was seeing the traditional women fixing food. We first ate a type of cornbread in a corn husk and then we ended up eating again with one of the women. it is interesting because instead of having plastic plates 'to-go' you sit down right in front of their stands on stools or chairs and eat on plastic plates with real forks! This would never happen in the US because people wouldn't think it was sanitary enough just to wash dishes in some water but in Peru that's the way it is! But the craziest part of the meal was was that it only cost 2 sol which is only 75 cents and this was a lot of food! Noodles, meat, vegetables, rice and much more that I really didn't know what it was! The corn bread was only .50 soles meaning it was only 15 US cents. It is so crazy how inexpensive the food was! After some more wandering around, getting caught in the rain, and getting lost near a big church on our way to the Artesian Market we finally got a cab to take us there and it only was 3 sol, again so cheap! We spent lots of time and soles in the market. Clearly it was touristy since everything was made in Peru and had llamas on it. All of us bought so much; alpaca sweaters, jewelry, socks, hats and much more but it really didn't cost anything! We would bargain down the prices and since there were so many vendors we could just find another one with the same stuff that would accept a lower price! We finally headed back to our hostel, went to dinner and the supermarket and headed to bed in order to be ready to get up early for our trip to Machu Picchu!!!

A woman from the Adventure company that we had booked our Machu Picchu trip through came at 7 am on the dot for us to get in a cab to head to the train station. Little did I know that the train station was actually a 2 hour van ride away in a tiny town near Urubamba, Peru.I am not completely sure but I think that we had to take this long of a bus ride because part of the train tracks had been taken out by the mud slide so we couldn't get on it until further towards Machu Picchu and Aguas Calientes. Even though it was a long van ride, again it was beautiful views on either side of the van. Then we finally got on a train for another hour ride to finally arrive at Aguas Calientes which is the town closest to Machu Picchu where we spent the night. We got to our hostel which seemed more like a hotel than a hostel other than it was basically in the jungle. It was much hotter in Aguas Calientes and we all even put on shorts which was quite a change from freezing Cusco. We just explored the town which is very hilly with basically no cars, it is really just a jump off point for Machu Picchu, ate some lunch and went to another market! Then we headed to the hot springs which were really cool! They were basically pools but with rocky bottoms and warm volcano water. Paige and i did not bring bathing suits so we had to buy some in the market in Cusco which was just perfect. We spent 4 sol each on crazy one-pieces in bright colors, definitely got some stares at the hot springs! After relaxing for a while we went back to the hostel to wait on our tour guide for the next day. We were scheduled to ride the bus from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu but after talking to some people and thinking about it we decided to walk. They warned us that it was long and hard but we wanted to feel that since of accomplishment when we arrived and it truly was amazing.


We woke up at 3:20 on Monday morning to get ready for the hike. We packed our book-bags with all sorts of layers of clothing, snacks and water bottles because we did not know what the day was going to bring! We left the hostel around 4 and headed out. Of course it was totally dark with the exception of a few lights left on on buildings, but it was a very good thing that we had bought 2 flashlights!! We walked about 20 minutes on relatively flat ground to get to a bridge and guard gate and then after that it was straight vertical. Literally steps for over an hour. Somehow Paige was able to scale the mountain with ease while Meagan and I had to push ourselves to the limit in order to make it. We let a bunch of people pass us but always kept on trucking. We were so sweaty and our legs were so tires but we did it in about an hour and a half which seemed great to us!! Getting to the top of the hike was one of the best feelings of my life because it was one of the hardest hikes I have ever done. We had been hearing about Waynapicchu which is the highest point in Machu Picchu and of course when anyone gives us a challenge we will take advantage of it. Only 400 people are allowed to climb it each day so we had to make sure and get our tickets. We decided to do the 10 o'clock hike instead of the 7 because I honestly do not think I could have done it if I had not had a break. It was the most amazing feeling to finally arrive after our hike. We were so hot from hiking, I had sweated through my shirt and my hair looked like I took a shower! We met up with our English Speaking guide and headed on our tour. We walked all through Machu Picchu and when I asked our guide which mountain was Waynapicchu I didn't believe him. It is still unbelievable to me how I climbed to the top of it. We saw llamas and ancient Incan houses all while standing in awe of the Andes Mountains. It was pretty foggy in the morning but throughout the day it got hotter and hotter and while in the morning we were in leggings and long sleeve shirts, by afternoon we were in shorts and tank tops. No one will ever totally understand how the Incans created this incredible place so long ago. Now I have been to 2 wonders of the world- Machu Picchu and the Great Pyramids. After our tour we took a little break, changed in to shorts in an Incan house and headed towards Waynapicchu. I was so glad to hear everyone who passed us by saying that it was totally worth the hike and it absolutely was. After climbing tons of stairs, winding up narrow paths, crawling through caves, and finally up a ladder at the very top of the mountain, I thought about how truly amazing Machu Picchu is and how awesome it was that I could have that experience. We took a bunch of pictures, even though they will never really do it justice, and then headed down. I have decided that I really hate going down mountains, especially on tiny steps. I went so slow with my hands against the wall but I made it down without falling and that's what matters in the end! It seemed so late but it was actually only around 2 when we finally left Machu Picchu to head back to Aguas Calientes. We took the bus back (thank goodness) and it was a 25 minute ride to town. We saw a restaurant from the bus and immediately went there. We were so tired but it was a good tired because we felt like we had really accomplished something and truly been to one of the wonders of the world. While we were at lunch 3 guys came by and set up their stuff to play music and then from a distance we heard music. We knew that there was a 3 day celebration going on so we went to see what it was. There were a bunch of people dressed up in crazy costumes dancing to music. Just the way to finish off a day of hiking. We just wandered around Aguas Calientes, went back to our hostel to pick up our bags and change clothes, then headed to the train station and began the 4 hour trip back to Cusco. We arrived a little after 12 then headed straight to bed.

We had to get up early once again to head to the airport to head back to Buenos Aires. Peru and Machu Picchu were better than I expected. I was truly sad to leave because everything was so wonderful. It is a beautiful country with nice people and one of the wonders of the world... But now off to another part of South America, El Calafate where we are going to hike on ice glaciers!!