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!
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